A friend recently shared a research paper from Oxford Academic about Large Language Models (LLMs) and their human-like biases. I found it fascinating.

The article explains how some groups use LLMs to simulate human participants. Since these models are trained on human-generated data, they can emulate human responses across diverse psychological and behavioral experiments.

It further notes that LLMs favor socially desirable responses that align with the Big Five personality traits – including agreeableness. Notably, during their experiments, LLMs would modify the responses if the researcher appeared to be evaluating it.

Confidently Wrong AI (Posturing)

I had planned to write about the phrase “confidently wrong,” which we hear often when talking about Artificial Intelligence (AI) models. Combined with the concept of AI hallucinations, this can mislead people who are expecting reliable answers from these tools.

More and more users are favoring AI over traditional online search. No doubt you’ve noticed that Google now shows an AI response above the SERP. This experience is often faster and feels more natural than manual trial-and-error clicks through links.

However, it becomes risky when the LLM is wrong. Once the AI selects an answer, it may be reluctant to admit it was wrong. Even if you challenge a correct statement, the LLM might apologize and change its answer to be agreeable. Users need to be cautious and validate the information received.

Confidently Incorrect Humans (Learning)

I have an 11-year-old son who is hell-bent on being contradictory. If I say the sky is blue, he’ll point out that it can be gray, yellow, orange, red, purple, or black. He’s not wrong, but he is frustratingly contrarian. When I tell him he’s being contradictory, he says, “No I’m not!” Even when he is flat wrong, he won’t let it go!

You’ve probably also heard the phrase “fake it ‘till you make it.” It’s meant to help those who are learning and to ease imposter syndrome. I used to hate the phrase because I prefer transparency. I’d rather hear “I don’t know” than to incorrectly think you have it under control. However, I now appreciate that it helps escape a negative mindset.

AI Confidently Mimicking Humans (Refining)

The Oxford Academic article points out that AI learns behaviors from us! It’s mostly trained on data created by humans, so it picks up our natural tendencies. If our writing is polite and avoids confrontation, the AI will be trained to follow those patterns.

Additionally, humans help validate the training – even crowdsourced to the general public. When you give a thumbs up to a response from an LLM, you’re teaching it what you prefer to see in the output. Over time it will lean toward agreeableness. While it’s not conscious, AI is learning to mimic humans.

The Con Man (Tricking)

The term “con man” or “con artist” comes from the word “confidence.” It refers to the act of manipulating or persuading people into believing something false.

Con artists have existed as long as humans have been able to communicate. There are fun ones, like magicians who amaze us with the spectacular. Then there are the bad kind that scam people out of their life savings. Even reputable sources like the BBC, CNN, Forbes, The Atlantic, and others can sometimes spread misleading information, confusing us even further.

AI is trained on a mix of data, including quality sources like scientific research papers but also the text of trolls attacking everything, and your mother, on Reddit. It learns from both the best and the worst of humanity.

The Confident Leader (Inspiring)

Confidence has two sides. We’re often inspired by confident leaders. When leaders seem uncertain, many people get nervous and may leave the group. It’s clear that we prefer a strong front over complete transparency.

Don’t get me wrong… We know that transparency is important. A quick Google search shows droves of experts saying that transparency is the best policy. We also understand the consequences of an over-confident leader.

But at the end of the day, we’re just regular folks looking for stability and security. Time and again, we’re attracted to leaders who exude confidence and instill inspiration.

Conclusion

We often laugh at poorly executed AI – it makes us feel superior. The same goes for poorly articulated statements from people – it makes us feel superior. We’ve all seen how we collectively attack and criticize each other online.

AI learns from us. It relies on us for continual improvement. It adopts our positive traits but can also mimic our negative behaviors.

As we continue to use AI, it will become a bigger part of our lives. Often, we’ll seek out the interaction, while other times, hidden AI will quietly work in the background. Just like with other people, we need to validate our interactions with AI. Trust, but verify.

……

If you are looking for a strong partner that loves AI but will verify results, reach out to your Perficient account manager or use our contact form to begin a conversation.

As we progress through 2025, the banking industry is set for substantial transformation driven by several key trends. Digital transformation will remain a powerful force, with advancements in AI and machine learning enabling unparalleled operational efficiencies and hyper-personalized customer experiences. Banks will look to transform the way they do business by moving beyond their walls with the maturing of open banking and embedded finance.

To stay competitive, banks must adapt and embrace emerging industry trends. This will require being more inquisitive and innovative compared to previous years, as the adoption of AI and cloud technologies continues to expand.

Banking Trend #1: Hyper-Personalization for Customer Satisfaction

Customers increasingly demand personalized banking experiences tailored to their unique needs and preferences. Hyper-personalization transforms the traditional banking model into a customer-centric approach, significantly boosting satisfaction and retention rates. Banks can use advanced data analytics and AI to deliver highly personalized financial services, such as customized savings plans and tailored investment advice. By leveraging data, banks can anticipate customer needs and proactively offer solutions, like recommending mortgage products or providing financial wellness tools based on individual spending patterns. Delivering these tailored experiences will be a crucial differentiator for banks aiming to attract and retain customers.

Recommended Approach: Banks should leverage advanced data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) to create highly individualized experiences. By understanding customer preferences, behaviors, and financial needs in real-time, banks can offer tailored products, services, and communication, leading to a more seamless and intuitive customer experience. This approach improves engagement and loyalty, increases revenue opportunities, and provides competitive differentiation.

See Also: Transforming Industries, Powering Innovation

Banking Trend #2: Adapting to Regulatory Shifts

As the banking landscape evolves, staying compliant with regulatory requirements becomes increasingly challenging, especially with the rise of open banking, AI, and data privacy concerns. In 2025, banks will face a more complex regulatory environment, with new rules focused on data privacy, cybersecurity, and sustainability. The rise of digital banking, cryptocurrency, blockchain, and AI adoption across banking operations will prompt regulatory bodies to implement clearer frameworks and guidelines to ensure stability and consumer protection.

Recommended Approach: Navigating constant changes in risk and regulatory environments is crucial for banks in 2025. By ensuring compliance with regulations, banks mitigate risks and maintain trust with customers and regulatory authorities. To stay ahead, banks should adopt compliance technologies that automate regulatory reporting and help them stay agile in a rapidly changing landscape. Investing in advanced technologies like AI and machine learning can help identify potential risks and streamline compliance efforts. By adopting these strategies, banks can better manage the dynamic risk and regulatory environment, ensuring compliance while maintaining competitiveness and customer trust.

Related: Strategies + Solutions to Ensure Regulatory and Compliance Excellence

Banking Trend #3: Embedded Finance Enables Industry Crossover

Embedded finance integrates financial services into non-financial platforms, allowing users to access banking services within applications they already use. By embedding payment, lending, and insurance services into apps and websites, non-financial companies are able to offer financial products directly to their customers. For example, ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft offer in-app payment options, and e-commerce platforms provide financing options at checkout. By integrating financial services into non-financial platforms, banks can tap into new markets and customer bases, generating additional revenue.

Recommended Approach: Banks looking to start or deepen their embedded finance solutions should take several key steps. These steps include identifying strategic partnerships and collaborating with fintech companies and non-financial platforms that align with their goals. These partnerships provide the necessary technology and customer reach to implement embedded finance solutions effectively. Next, invest in technology by upgrading IT infrastructure to support embedded finance, including adopting cloud-based solutions and modern technologies that offer the agility and scalability needed for seamless integration. Create robust APIs that allow third-party platforms to integrate your financial services. Ensure these APIs are secure, reliable, and easy to use. Leverage advanced data analytics to understand customer behavior and preferences, helping you offer personalized financial services that meet the specific needs of your customers.

You May Enjoy: 6 Digital Payment Trends Set to Transform 2025

Banking Trend #4: Leveraging AI for Insights and Automation

AI and automation have evolved from buzzwords to essential components of banking operations. In 2025, AI will play a pivotal role in customer service, fraud detection, risk management, and personalized financial advice. AI-powered chatbots will handle routine customer inquiries, freeing human agents to tackle more complex issues. Additionally, AI-driven algorithms will enhance banks’ ability to detect emerging fraud patterns and mitigate risks more effectively. Automation will streamline internal processes, leading to cost reductions and improved operational efficiency.

Recommended Approach: To fully utilize AI, banks need to prioritize improving their data strategy, recognizing that high-quality, reliable, and trustworthy data is essential for AI to deliver significant outcomes. They need to align AI initiatives with the bank’s overall business goals. Then identify areas where AI can add the most value, such as customer service, fraud detection, and risk management and focus on value-driven AI use cases. They also need to invest in modern technology and infrastructure for agility and scalability.

Read More: Transform Your Business With Cutting-Edge AI and Automation Solutions

Banking Trend #5: Responsive Resilience

Responsive Resilience continues to be a key banking trend in 2025, emphasizing the ability of financial institutions to adapt swiftly and effectively to changing conditions. Banks must be prepared to respond to economic fluctuations, market changes, and unexpected events. This requires robust risk management frameworks and the ability to pivot strategies quickly. A compounding factor, the shift to digital has caused increased exposure to financial fraud and cyber threats.

Recommended Approach: Invest in advanced technologies such as AI, machine learning, and cloud computing to enhance operational efficiency and adaptability. These technologies can automate processes, improve decision-making, and provide real-time insights. Utilize data analytics to gain deeper insights into customer behavior, market trends, and potential risks. This data-driven approach allows banks to make informed decisions and respond swiftly to changes in the banking landscape.

Explore More: Reimagine Business for the Digital Age

Banking Trend #6: Embracing Open Banking and Connected Ecosystems

Although many institutions have deprioritized open banking in recent years, establishing an open banking strategy now offers significant benefits. Open banking continues to revolutionize the financial industry by enabling secure data sharing between banks and third-party providers through APIs. It unlocks a wealth of third-party financial data, enabling banks to better-tailor products and services, enhance customer loyalty, improve operational efficiencies, and open new revenue streams. This trend will change how banks engage with third-party financial service providers, fostering the development of innovative financial products and services. Open banking will drive greater competition, promote collaboration, and empower consumers with more choices and personalized banking experiences. Examples include budgeting apps that aggregate data from multiple bank accounts, personalized financial advice based on spending patterns and streamlined loan application processes by accessing a customer’s financial data to provide a more accurate and personalized credit score.

Recommended Approach: Banks must establish a clear vision for open banking that aligns with their overall business goals. They should determine specific objectives, such as driving innovation, improving customer experience, or expanding market reach. Additionally, banks need to update their IT infrastructure to support open banking. This includes developing secure and reliable APIs for data sharing and ensuring systems are resilient and scalable.

See Also: 1033 Open Banking Mandate Blueprint for Success

Unlocking New Opportunities in 2025

Our end-to-end digital solutions drive business outcomes, enhance experiences, and ensure robust risk and compliance management to improve operational efficiency and business resilience.

• Business Transformation: Align the business with an actionable roadmap to optimize operations, improve service, and enhance profitability.
• Modernization: Advance technologies to enhance digital capabilities and customer engagement.
• Data + Analytics: Proactively leverage integrated data and AI to refine banking product portfolios and mitigate risks.
• Risk + Compliance: Strengthen risk management frameworks, ensure adherence to banking regulations, and enhance operational stability.
• Consumer Experience: Improve customer satisfaction with hyper-personalized banking services and intuitive digital experiences.

Discover why we have been trusted by 18 of the 20 largest commercial banks. Explore our financial services expertise and contact us to learn more.

Choosing the right framework for your first cross-platform app can be challenging, especially with so many great options available. To help you decide, let’s compare Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP), React Native, and Flutter by building a simple “Hello World” app with each framework. We’ll also evaluate them across key aspects like setup, UI development, code sharing, performance, community, and developer experience. By the end, you’ll have a clear understanding of which framework is best suited for your first app.

Building a “Hello World” App

1. Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP)

Kotlin Multiplatform allows you to share business logic across platforms while using native UI components. Here’s how to build a “Hello World” app:

Steps:

1. Set Up the Project:
   • Install Android Studio and the Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile plugin.
   • Create a new KMP project using the “Mobile Library” template.
2. Shared Code:In the shared module, create a Greeting class with a function to return “Hello World”.

   // shared/src/commonMain/kotlin/Greeting.kt
   class Greeting {
       fun greet(): String {
           return "Hello, World!"
       }
   }

3. Platform-Specific UIs:For Android, use Jetpack Compose or XML layouts in the androidApp module. For iOS, use SwiftUI or UIKit in the iosApp module.Android (Jetpack Compose):

   // androidApp/src/main/java/com/example/androidApp/MainActivity.kt
   class MainActivity : ComponentActivity() {
       override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
           super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
           setContent {
               Text(text = Greeting().greet())
           }
       }
   }

   iOS (SwiftUI):

   // iosApp/iosApp/ContentView.swift
   struct ContentView: View {
       var body: some View {
           Text(Greeting().greet())
       }
   }

4. Run the App:Build and run the app on Android and iOS simulators/emulators.

Pros and Cons:

2. React Native

React Native allows you to build cross-platform apps using JavaScript and React. Here’s how to build a “Hello World” app:

Steps:

1. Set Up the Project:
   • Install Node.js and the React Native CLI.
   • Create a new project:

     npx react-native init HelloWorldApp

2. Write the Code:Open App.js and replace the content with the following:

   import React from 'react';
   import { Text, View } from 'react-native';
   
   const App = () => {
       return (
           <View style={{ flex: 1, justifyContent: 'center', alignItems: 'center' }}>
               <Text>Hello, World!</Text>
           </View>
       );
   };
   
   export default App;

3. Run the App:Start the Metro bundler:

   npx react-native start

   Run the app on Android or iOS:

   npx react-native run-android
   npx react-native run-ios

Pros and Cons:

3. Flutter

Flutter is a UI toolkit for building natively compiled apps for mobile, web, and desktop using Dart. Here’s how to build a “Hello World” app:

Steps:

1. Set Up the Project:
   • Install Flutter SDK and Android Studio/VS Code.
   • Create a new project:

     flutter create hello_world_app

2. Write the Code:Open lib/main.dart and replace the content with the following:

   import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
   
   void main() {
       runApp(MyApp());
   }
   
   class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
       @override
       Widget build(BuildContext context) {
           return MaterialApp(
               home: Scaffold(
                   appBar: AppBar(title: Text('Hello World App')),
                   body: Center(child: Text('Hello, World!')),
               ),
           );
       }
   }

3. Run the App:Run the app on Android or iOS:

   flutter run

Pros and Cons:

Comparing the Frameworks

1. Initial Setup

• KMP: Moderate setup complexity, especially for iOS. Requires configuring Gradle files and platform-specific dependencies.
• React Native: Easy setup with tools like Expo and React Native CLI.
• Flutter: Smoothest setup with the Flutter CLI and flutter doctor command.

Best option: Flutter (for ease of initial setup).

2. UI Development

• KMP: Platform-specific UIs (Jetpack Compose for Android, SwiftUI/UIKit for iOS). Offers native flexibility but requires separate UI code.
• React Native: Declarative UI with JSX. Powerful but can feel like a middle ground between native and custom rendering.
• Flutter: Widget-based system for consistent cross-platform UIs. Highly customizable but requires learning Dart.

Best option: A tie between KMP (for native UI flexibility) and Flutter (for cross-platform consistency).

3. Code Sharing

• KMP: Excels at sharing business logic while allowing native UIs.
• React Native: High code sharing but may require platform-specific code for advanced features.
• Flutter: High code sharing for both UI and business logic but requires Dart.

Best option: Kotlin Multiplatform (for its focus on sharing business logic).

4. Performance

• KMP: Native performance due to native UIs and compiled shared code.
• React Native: Good performance but can struggle with complex UIs due to the JavaScript bridge.
• Flutter: Excellent performance, often close to native, but may not match native performance in all scenarios.

Winner: Kotlin Multiplatform (for native performance).

5. Community and Ecosystem

• KMP: Growing community backed by JetBrains. Kotlin ecosystem is mature.
• React Native: Large and active community with a rich ecosystem.
• Flutter: Thriving community with strong Google support.

Best option: React Native (for its large and mature community), but Flutter is a close contender.

6. Developer Experience

• KMP: Gentle learning curve for Kotlin developers but requires platform-specific UI knowledge.
• React Native: Familiar for JavaScript/React developers but may require native mobile knowledge.
• Flutter: Excellent developer experience with hot reload and comprehensive documentation.

Best option: Flutter (for its excellent developer experience and tooling).

7. AI-Assisted Development Speed

With the rise of AI tools like GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, etc.. Developers can significantly speed up app development. Let’s evaluate how each framework benefits from AI assistance:

• KMP: AI tools can help generate Kotlin code for shared logic and even platform-specific UIs. However, the need for platform-specific knowledge may limit the speed gains.
• React Native: JavaScript is widely supported by AI tools, making it easy to generate boilerplate code, components, and even entire screens. The large ecosystem also means AI can suggest relevant libraries and solutions.
• Flutter: Dart is less commonly supported by AI tools compared to JavaScript, but Flutter’s widget-based system is highly structured, making it easier for AI to generate consistent and functional code.

Best option: React Native (due to JavaScript’s widespread support in AI tools).

The resolution:

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. The best choice depends on your priorities:

• • Prioritize Performance and Native UI: Choose Kotlin Multiplatform.
  • Prioritize Speed of Development and a Large Community: Choose React Native.
  • Prioritize Ease of Use, Cross-Platform Consistency, and Fast Development: Choose Flutter.

For Your First App:

• Simple App, Fast Development: Flutter is an excellent choice. Its ease of setup, hot reload, and comprehensive widget system will get you up and running quickly.
• Existing Kotlin/Android Skills, Focus on Shared Logic: Kotlin Multiplatform allows you to leverage your existing knowledge while sharing a significant portion of your codebase.
• Web Developer, Familiar with React: React Native is a natural fit, allowing you to utilize your web development skills for mobile development.

Conclusion

Each framework has its strengths and weaknesses, and the best choice depends on your team’s expertise, project requirements, and long-term goals. For your first app, consider starting with Flutter for its ease of use and fast development, React Native if you’re a web developer, or Kotlin Multiplatform if you’re focused on performance and native UIs.

Try building a simple app with each framework to see which one aligns best with your preferences and project requirements.

References

This series of blog posts will cover the main areas of activity for your marketing, product, and UX teams before, during, and after site migration to a new digital experience platform.

Migrating your site to a different platform can be a daunting prospect, especially if the site is sizable in both page count and number of assets, such as documents and images. However, this can also be a perfect opportunity to freshen up your content, perform an asset library audit, and reorganize the site overall.

Once you’ve hired a consultant, like Perficient, to help you implement your new CMS and migrate your content over, you will work with them to identify several action items your team will need to tackle to ensure successful site migration.

Whether you are migrating from/to some of the major enterprise digital experiences platforms like Sitecore, Optimizely, Adobe, or from the likes of Sharepoint or WordPress, there are some common steps to take to make sure content migration runs smoothly and is executed in a manner that adds value to your overall web experience.

Part I – “Keep, Kill, Merge”

One of the first questions you will need to answer is, “What do we need to carry over?” The instinctive answer would be everything. The rational answer is that we will migrate the site over as is and then worry about optimization later. There are multiple reasons why this is usually not the best option.

• This is a perfect opportunity to do a high-level overview of the entire sitemap and dive a bit deeper into the content. It will help determine if you still need a long-forgotten page about an event that ended years ago or a product that is no longer being offered in a certain market. Perhaps it hasn’t been purged simply because there is always higher-priority work to be done.
• It is far more rational to do this type of analysis ahead of the migration rather than after. If nothing else, it is simply for efficiency purposes. By trimming down the number of pages, you ensure that the migration process is shorter and more purposeful. You also save time and resources.

Even though this activity might take time, it is essential to use this opportunity in the best possible manner. A consultant like Perficient can help drive the process. They will pull up an initial list of active pages, set up simple audit steps, and ensure that decisions are recorded clearly and organized.

Step I – Site Scan

The first step is to ensure all current site pages are accounted for. As simple as this may seem, it doesn’t always end up being so, especially on large multi-language sites. You might have pages that are not crawlable, are temporarily unpublished, are still in progress, etc.

Depending on your current system capabilities, putting together a comprehensive list can be relatively easy. Getting a CMS export is the safest way to confirm that you have accounted for everything in the system.

Crawling tools, such as Screaming Frog, are frequently used to generate reports that can be exported for further refinement. Cross-referencing these sources will ensure you get the full picture, including anything that might be housed externally.

Step II – Deep Dive

Once you’ve ensured that all pages made it to a comprehensive list you can easily filter, edit, and share, the fun part begins.

The next step involves reviewing and analyzing the sitemap and each page. The goal is to determine those that will stay vs candidates for removal. Various different factors can impact this decision from business goals, priorities, page views, conversion rate, SEO considerations, and marketing campaigns to compliance and regulations. Ultimately, it is important to assess each page’s value to the business and make decisions accordingly.

This audit will likely require input from multiple stakeholders, including subject matter experts, product owners, UX specialists, and others. It is essential to involve all interested parties at an early stage. Securing buy-in from key stakeholders at this point is critical for the following phases of the process. This especially applies to review and sign-off prior to going live.

Depending on your time and resources, the keep-kill-merge can either be done in full or limited to keep-kill. The merge option might require additional analysis, as well as follow-up design and content work. Leaving that effort for after the site migration is completed might just be the rational choice.

Step III – Decisions and Path Forward

Once the audit process has been completed, it is important to record findings and decisions simply and easily consumable for teams that will implement those updates. Proper documentation is essential when dealing with large sets of pages and associated content. This will inform the implementation team’s roadmap and timelines.

At this point, it is crucial to establish regular communication between a contact person (such as a product owner or content lead) and the team in charge of content migration from the consultant side. This partnership will ensure that all subsequent activities are carried out respecting the vision and business needs identified at the onset.

Completing the outlined activities properly will help smooth the transition into the next process phase, thus setting your team up for a successful site migration.

Python is an open-source programming language. We can use Python to build/enable AWS services such as Terraform or other IAC code. In this blog, we are going to discuss setting up the CloudFront service using Python.

Why We Use Python

As we know, Python is an imperative language. This means that you can write more customized scripts that can perform advanced complex operations, handle errors, interact with APIs, etc. You also have access to AWS SDKs like Boto3 that allow you to perform any AWS operation you desire, including custom ones that might not yet be supported by Terraform.

How It Works

We have defined methods and classes in the boto3 library for AWS services that we can use to create/modify/update AWS services.

Prerequisites

We require only Python and Boto3 library.

How to Write Code

As we know, boto3 has different functions that handle AWS services. We have lots of functions, but below are the basic functions to manage CloudFront service:

• create_distribution is used to create CloudFront Distribution,
• update_distribution is used to update CloudFront Distribution,
• delete_distribution is used to delete CloudFront Distribution,
• create_cache_policy is used to create cache policy,
• create_invalidation is used to create invalidation requests.

create_distribution and update_distribution require the lots configuration values as well. You can use a Python dictionary variable and pass it to a function, or you can pass it as JSON, but you have to perform parsing as well for that.

Let me share with you a basic example of creating CloudFront distribution using Python & boto3:

import boto3
import os 

s3_origin_domain_name = '<s3bucketname>.s3.amazonaws.com'  
origin_id = 'origin-id'

distribution_config = {
        'CallerReference': str(hash("unique-reference")),
        'Comment': 'My CloudFront Distribution',
        'Enabled': True,
        'Origins': {
            'Items': [
                {
                    'Id': origin_id,
                    'DomainName': s3_origin_domain_name,
                    'S3OriginConfig': {
                        'OriginAccessIdentity': ''
                    },
                    'CustomHeaders': {
                        'Quantity': 0,
                        'Items': []
                    }
                }
            ],
            'Quantity': 1
        },
        'DefaultCacheBehavior': {
            'TargetOriginId': origin_id,
            'ViewerProtocolPolicy': 'redirect-to-https',
            'AllowedMethods': {
                'Quantity': 2,
                'Items': ['GET', 'HEAD'],
                'CachedMethods': {
                    'Quantity': 2,
                    'Items': ['GET', 'HEAD']
                }
            },
            'ForwardedValues': {
                'QueryString': False,
                'Cookies': {
                    'Forward': 'none'
                }
            },
            'MinTTL': 3600
        },
        'ViewerCertificate': {
            'CloudFrontDefaultCertificate': True
        },
        'PriceClass': 'PriceClass_100' 
    }
try:
        aws_access_key = os.getenv('AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID')
  aws_secret_key = os.getenv('AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY')
        session = boto3.Session(
aws_access_key_id=aws_access_key,
aws_secret_access_key=aws_secret_key,
             region_name='us-east-1'
          )
        client = session.client('cloudfront')
        response = client.create_distribution(DistributionConfig=distribution_config)
        print("CloudFront Distribution created successfully!")
        print(response)
except Exception as e:
        print(f"Error creating CloudFront distribution: {e}")

As you can see in the above sample code, after importing the boto3 module, we have the distribution_config variable where all the configs are stored. After that, we call the  create_dirtibution function to cdn distribution:

        response = client.create_distribution(DistributionConfig=distribution_config)

So, in a similar way, you can write more complex Python code to implement your complex AWS infrastructure as well and automate setting up a cache invalidation request pipeline, which will give users functionality and allow them to clear CDN cache without logging in to the AWS console.

Driven by factors ranging from generational wealth transfer to technological advancements, Perficient’s Principal in Wealth and Asset Management, Gerardo Montemayor, provides valuable insights into the wealth management trends set to transform the industry in 2025.

Wealth Management Trend #1: Hyper-Personalized Experiences With AI

Driven by advancements in AI, big data, and machine learning, hyper-personalization is reshaping wealth management firms’ ability to tailor financial services based on individual preferences, behaviors, and investment goals. This transformation has been accelerated by a confluence of shifting client demographics and expectations along with mounting competitive pressure from emerging tech-driven players, financial product innovation, and industry consolidation. To remain competitive, wealth managers are driven to strengthen client relationships, redefine client experience, foster loyalty, deepen engagement, and drive long-term growth.

Recommended Approach: By leveraging user research and behavioral analytics, journey sciences help define and optimize the user journey, supporting more-meaningful hyper-personalization that addresses customer needs and preferences at each touchpoint. AI, machine learning, and big data analytics for predictive insights and personalized financial strategies require well-governed, securely democratized data. Cloud computing and modern data integrations unlock the benefits of scalable data management and real-time collaboration while advanced visualization tools and API integrations with third-party data equip teams to isolate priority scenarios and accelerate deeply tailored outreach.

Learn More: Optimize Every Touchpoint

Wealth Management Trend #2: Client Advisor Empowerment

Empowered client advisors drive AUM growth. Wealth managers, meanwhile, aim to boost advisor collaboration and, together, grow their book of business. To be effective, both groups need the tools and insights to drive faster progress, efficiently delivering high-quality, proactively personalized service in less time and with fewer manual tasks. With those efficiencies in place, these important business contributors can focus on strategic, high-value activities—ultimately driving client acquisition, retention, and long-term growth.

Recommended Approach: Empower client advisors with cutting-edge technologies that enhance efficiency, provide deeper insights, and strengthen client engagement, transforming raw information into actionable insights that support personalized investment strategies and tailored financial advice. Strategically implemented AI, augmented analytics and visualizations can accelerate smarter decision-making, while intelligent automation equips teams to streamline processes, enhance efficiency, and drive significant cost savings. Ease client management and foster seamless collaboration with compliant CRM and messaging tools. Mobile and cloud-based solutions enable anytime, anywhere, access to critical data and tools, ensuring greater flexibility.

See Also: Speeding Insights and Powering Investment Experience

Wealth Management Trend #3: Navigating ESG in a Shifting Political Landscape

The political environment significantly influences the integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations in wealth management. With the current administration rethinking of ESG, regulatory frameworks are rapidly evolving, creating both challenges and opportunities for investors and their advisors. Despite federal pushback, state-level initiatives and international regulations, particularly from the EU, continue to drive the importance of ESG. Investors are increasingly focused on aligning their portfolios with personal values, financial goals, and global sustainability trends, even as they navigate a complex and often contradictory regulatory environment. This dynamic underscores the need for adaptability and vigilance in ESG investing.

Recommended Approach: Build regulatory agility without losing site of investors’ expectations and consider how digital efficiencies and advisor enablement can differentiate your brand experiences. Advanced analytics and AI can provide personalized scoring, risk assessment, and greenwashing detection, ensuring transparency and data-driven decision-making. Big data integration is crucial for obtaining a unified view of diverse data sources, supporting robust ESG insights – particularly as ESG reporting becomes more fragmented when no longer mandated. Additionally, proactive regulatory insights can equip your organization to mitigate risks and capitalize on new opportunities. By staying agile and informed, investors can continue to drive long-term growth and meaningful impact through sustainable investment strategies.

Success In Action: Elevating ESG in Wealth Management Portfolios

Wealth Management Trend #4: Omnichannel Access

Digital platforms are reshaping how investors monitor portfolio progress, driven by expectations for convenience, accessibility, and personalized services. Omnichannel tools enhance client experience by offering seamless access to investment portfolios, performance insights, and account management tools. These platforms not only serve existing clients but also expand wealth management services to a broader audience. Additionally, they enable a wider range of investment products, support a do-it-yourself (DIY) model, and facilitate more strategic client collaboration, allowing for deeper engagement and more effective financial planning.

Recommended Approach: Mobile and cloud-based solutions form the backbone of digital platforms, providing seamless, anytime-anywhere access to critical data and tools for greater flexibility. Automation platforms support the DIY model, streamlining administrative tasks and enhancing efficiency. Additionally, custom development allows wealth managers to differentiate their services, offering tailored solutions and personalized collaboration channels to strengthen client relationships.

Explore More: Future-Proof Your Tech Investment

Wealth Management Trend #5: Optimizing Operational Efficiencies

In the current macro-environment, wealth and asset management firms face rising costs, global volatility, increasing competition, and compliance challenges. Despite expanding industry assets and revenues, operating margins are under pressure, making profitability a top priority. Firms are also navigating a landscape of mergers and acquisitions, strategic outsourcing, and vendor consolidation to hone core strengths and boost a competitive edge. These business pressures drive the need for digital investments to enhance efficiency and maintain profitability.

Recommended Approach: Leverage a power combination of process mining and automation to streamline operational workflows and improve experiences. Process mining helps identify and prioritize inefficiencies, errors, and delays in complex business processes that are prime for optimization. Automation platforms, in turn, reduce costs by intelligently handling time-consuming tasks in back-office operations, portfolio management, reporting, and compliance, allowing advisors and client support teams to focus on what matters most: nurturing meaningful relationships and delivering value. By enhancing data quality and supporting advisors’ strategic planning efforts, these technologies drive scalability and sustainable growth, enabling firms to remain competitive. These advantages can be further amplified with a digital partner that offers robust, agile global delivery capabilities and platform relationships, maximizing cost savings without compromising quality and ensuring rapid deployments that drive business outcomes.

You May Enjoy: Transform Your Business With Cutting-Edge AI and Automation Solutions

Embrace the Future and Transform Your Wealth Strategy

We empower wealth and asset managers with proactive insights, hyper-personalized experiences, and proactive risk management to drive sustainable growth.

• Business Transformation: Develop and optimize strategies and processes for efficient wealth management operations.
• Modernization: Upgrade technology and processes to ensure seamless integration and enhanced, streamlined client advisor experiences.
• Data + Analytics: Harness data-driven insights for personalized investment strategies, client collaboration, and operational efficiency.
• Risk + Compliance: Implement robust strategies to safeguard investor relationships and ensure regulatory adherence.
• Consumer Experience: Enhance engagement and satisfaction with tailored advisory services and digital tools.

Discover why we have been trusted by 16 of the 20 largest wealth management firms. Explore our financial services expertise and contact us to learn more.

Sometimes purely looking at an Azure DevOps backlog or Board may not tell the right story in terms of progress made towards a specific goal. At first glance, it may seem like a horror story, but in reality, it is not the case. The data needs to be read or conveyed in the right way.

Though Azure DevOps provides multiple ways to view work items, it also provides a powerful reporting capability in terms of writing queries and configuring dashboards.

Work Items in Azure DevOps contain various fields which can enable data reports. However, to make that data meaningful, the right queries and the use of dashboards can help to present the precise state of the work.

Author purposeful Queries

Every Azure DevOps query should have a motive. Fields on work items are attributes which can help to provide an answer. Let us look at a few use cases and how those queries are configured.

Example 1: I want to find all Bugs in my project that are not in a State of ‘Closed’ or ‘Removed’ and which contain a tag ‘CMS’. I can use the work item fields ‘Work Item Type,’ ‘State,’ and ‘Tags’ to find any matches.

Example 2: I want to find all Bugs that are Severity 1 or Severity 2 that are not Closed or Resolved (I want to see only Severity 1 or 2 Bugs that are in New or Active State.) In this example, I have grouped the 2 rows for Severity to be an ‘Or’ condition. This allows me to get results that include both Severity 1 and Severity 2 results.

Example 3: I want to find all Bugs that contain the Tag “missing requirement” which were created on or after November 5, 2024. Another helpful attribute to report on is by Date – in this example, I am querying for results created after a specific date, but you can change the operator or set a date range for further control of results.

Tips:

• • In these examples, I am using out-of-box field types, however, there are ways to create custom fields for an Azure DevOps project, to further enrich or customize your reports.
  • Review the columns you have showing once you run a query. You may need to use the ‘Column Options’ to enable additional columns for additional data points.
  • Save your query as a Shared Query, so that its results can be viewed by other members of the team.

Having these queries is great if you need a list of work items or if you want to make bulk updates for items which match your criteria. However, we can take these results a step further by visualizing the data onto a Dashboard.

Publish your results with Dashboards

Sometimes visuals can help to better portray a story; the same can be true when reporting on a project’s progress.

Out-of-the-box, Azure DevOps provides a variety of widget types which can be used to configure a Dashboard. Some widgets require the use of a Query, while others are purely based on settings you define.

Here are a few examples of widgets I use most often:

• Burndown: This widget does NOT require a query. When you place the widget, you’ll be able to control how data is pulled:
  • Work Item Type
  • Dates span
  • Team (if applicable)
  • Field Criteria
  • Interval of time (days/weeks/months)
• Chart for Work Items: This widget is based on a Query. I find this widget to be very versatile, as you can choose the type of chart and which data points you want to display.
• Query Results: This widget is based on a Query and will simply display the results in a list, however, you can select which columns of data to show/hide in the widget.
• Query Tiles: This widget is based on a Query and will display the number of results matching a query. You can further customize this widget to dynamically show in unique colors, based on specific count criteria.

Tips:

• • There is no limit to the number of Dashboards you can have. Consider creating Dashboards for unique purposes or for unique audiences, which contain only the relevant data needed.
  • Queries and Dashboards are only as good as your data. Make sure you are regularly maintaining your work items to ensure they are tagged, parented, and prioritized appropriately.
  • There is also an option to export query results into excel files, if you find that dashboard widgets are not filling all your reporting needs.

Convey the Story

Identify what is most important for your team or client to know, monitor, or be aware of. Once you have the data you need, you will be better equipped to explain progress and status to your team and the client.

In my personal experience, some types of unique dashboards I found to be effective for my clients or team members:

• Dashboard related to UAT activities
• Dashboard for Backlog Maintenance monitoring
• Dashboard for Executives
• Dashboard for QA Sprint-Based Activities
• Dashboard for Dependency monitoring

Example of an Executive Dashboard, using Burndown, Chart for Work Items, and Query Tile widgets:

With each of these dashboards, I wrote unique queries to find data that my team or client most often needed to reference. This enabled them to know if we were on track or if some action is needed.

By having a precise way to explain the story of your project, you will find that your team is able to make better decisions when the right data is available to them, in order to lead to a happy project ending.

Every development team knows the frustration of juggling competing priorities, misaligned goals, and shifting customer needs. Agile backlog items serve as the cornerstone of order in this chaos, shaping how efficiently teams can deliver value and adapt to change. Each stage, from initial creation to final delivery, directly impacts the team’s ability to adapt to changes and prioritize tasks effectively, ensuring streamlined progress. By examining this lifecycle, teams can identify obstacles and improve their processes, ultimately leading to better product outcomes.

Backlog items undergo several phases, including discovery, refinement, prioritization, and execution. Each phase requires collaboration among team members to ensure that the items align with project goals and customer needs. Recognizing the significance of these stages fosters a culture of continuous improvement and adaptability.

Grasping the lifecycle of backlog items empowers teams to work smarter by optimizing their focus on high-value tasks. Understanding these dynamics creates opportunities for better planning and development, making it an essential topic for anyone involved in Agile methodologies.

Conceptualizing the Agile Backlog

The Agile backlog is a crucial element in planning and executing project phases. Understanding its definition, purpose, structure, and types provides a foundation for effective backlog management.

Definition and Purpose

The Agile backlog refers to a dynamic list of tasks, features, requirements, and fixes that are prioritized for development. Its primary purpose is to organize work for the team, ensuring that the most valuable items are addressed first. The backlog is not static; it continuously evolves based on feedback, findings, and shifting priorities.

Stakeholders and team members collaborate to refine the backlog, ensuring it aligns with project goals. By clearly defining and prioritizing items, the backlog helps streamline project progress and enhance productivity. It serves as a roadmap that the team follows during sprints, maintaining focus on delivering value.

Backlog Structure and Types

An Agile backlog typically consists of structured items, categorized by priority and type. Common types of backlogs include the Product Backlog and Sprint Backlog.

• Product Backlog: This is a comprehensive list that encompasses all desired features and requirements for the final product. It serves as the single source of truth for the development team.
• Sprint Backlog: This subset focuses specifically on items selected for a particular sprint. It includes tasks that the team commits to completing within the sprint.

The backlog structure usually includes attributes such as description, priority, estimated effort, and status. Organizing items this way aids in transparency and clarity, allowing teams to quickly assess current workload and progress.

Managing Backlog Items

Effective management of backlog items is vital for the success of Agile projects, as it lays the groundwork for efficient delivery. This process involves creating, refining, prioritizing, estimating, and eventually including items in sprint planning. Each component plays an integral role in ensuring that teams can deliver maximum value.

Creation and Refinement

Backlog items typically begin as user stories, epics, or tasks. User stories should capture a singular requirement from the user’s perspective, promoting clarity and focus. This can involve stakeholders who contribute ideas, ensuring alignment with project goals.

Refinement occurs in regular intervals, often called refinement meetings. During these sessions, the team reviews items to clarify requirements, assess dependencies, and determine their size and complexity. Adding acceptance criteria is essential to set clear expectations for delivery.

Prioritization Techniques

Prioritization ensures that the team focuses on delivering the highest value items first, maximizing impact and efficiency. Techniques like the MoSCoW method classify items into four categories: Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won’t have. This approach fosters structured decision-making.

Another popular technique is the Kano Model, which helps teams evaluate features based on customer satisfaction. Items are categorized as basic, performance, or excitement features, guiding prioritization based on user needs.

Implementing these techniques aids in managing backlog items more effectively, ensuring alignment with business objectives.

Estimation and Grooming

Estimation involves predicting the effort required to complete backlog items. Teams often use story points to assess the relative complexity and effort necessary. This allows teams to gauge their velocity more accurately.

Grooming involves continuously assessing items for clarity and relevance. During grooming sessions, items can be broken down further, dependencies identified, and outdated items removed. Regular grooming keeps the backlog manageable and focused.

These practices mitigate the risk of bloated backlogs and unmanageable workloads.

Sprint Planning Inclusion

Items selected for sprint planning should align with the team’s capacity and goals. During sprint planning, the team discusses which backlog items can be realistically achieved in the upcoming sprint. Factors considered include item priority, team velocity, and resource availability.

Clear communication is essential, especially in aligning expectations and ensuring accountability across the team. Each team member should understand the rationale behind item selection to foster commitment and accountability. Additionally, ensuring that items have well-defined acceptance criteria supports smoother execution during the sprint.

By focusing on these aspects, teams can manage backlog items effectively, leading to successful project outcomes. Our team of Product Development consultants is here to help you optimize your Agile processes and achieve exceptional results. Interested in learning more? Contact us today to explore how we can support your journey.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, then you are a leader” – John Quincy Adams

 I have always thought that the word LEADERSHIP is a word of great proportions, not only because of the union of its 10 vowels and consonants but also because of the background that entails being a true leader.

Becoming an agile leader in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment (a term known as VUCA 3) is a whole new challenge for those of us who are immersed in the wonderful world of “project management.” Taking advantage of this space, I would like to share some tips on agile leadership.

6 Tips for Agile Leadership

1. Moving From an “Ego-system” to a “Healthy Ecosystem”

Jordi Alemany, in his article “The Key to Transforming an Ego-system into a Healthy Ecosystem,” published on LinkedIn, warns of the risks of working in an ego-system instead of seeking to generate a healthy ecosystem for working with other people to create innovative solutions:

“In an ego-system, unlike in a healthy ecosystem, social interactions are characterized by unfair competition and an absolute lack of trust and collaboration.

Egosystems hinder the development of talent and the competitive capacity of organizations since the people who live in them lose all their focus and consume their energy in internal conflicts” (Alemany, 2023).

Thus, based on the above premise, I recommend that new and current agile leaders assume the responsibility of becoming true leaders who serve the team and leave their ego behind the project’s entrance door.

On the other hand, Belen Maspoli’s article “5 Keys to Leading with Agility: Driving Transformation and Organizational Success” provides valuable advice that I think is prudent to address.

2. Fostering Collaboration and Autonomy

According to Peter G. Northouse, leadership is moving from the leader as the “boss” who must be obeyed and respected—a practice that prevailed in the 1920s—to “the leader as an authentic, adaptive person at the service of others ” (Northouse, 2015).

Therefore, leaders must foster psychological safety among teams so that they feel free to express their ideas without guilt, make decisions, and assume responsibility. This increases the chances of improving creativity and innovation and, therefore, team results.

3. Promote Effective Communication

It is said that “life happens in a conversation,” and 99.9% of misunderstandings and problems should be solved through good communication. The same applies to agile teams, where clear and open communication can help us stay in the game, anticipate possible risks, build trust, and improve collaboration. However, it is not only about communicating but also about learning to actively listen and act accordingly.

If you have doubts about the impact of communication on the success of organizations, according to David Grossman in his study ‘The Cost of Poor Communications’ “four hundred companies with more than 100,000 employees revealed that in 2016 they had average losses of 62.4 million dollars annually due to inadequate communication towards and between employees” (Grossman, 2016).

4. Embrace Change and Experimentation

“The only constant is change.” It could be read as a cliché, but we now live in an increasingly dynamic world that demands quick adaptation. As leaders and teams, we need to change our concept of error and embrace mistakes as the best opportunity to improve and learn. Leaders see error as those small steps to success and lose the fear of it. “The biggest mistake a person can make is to be afraid of making a mistake” (Elbert Hubbard).

5. Leading by Example

This is an easy phrase to read but sometimes challenging to follow. To become a truly agile leader, congruence between what you think, say, and do is necessary. Remember that words convince, but actions drag.

6. Promote Continuous Learning

If the world constantly changes, our cognitive abilities cannot remain static. The agile leader must acquire new skills and knowledge to respond to change and learn from others. Here, I pause to tell you what I am experiencing today. With the rise of artificial intelligence, I am becoming fascinated by the practices and tools for project management. This is what is coming, and we must train ourselves in it.

I could discuss improving agile leadership, but I’ll save a bit for future posts.

I hope these tips can help you improve your daily performance. Trust your leadership; even when you don’t see it, believe it.

Glossary:

VUCA: Acronym for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity. VUCA model defines the current environment in which companies must thrive. New project managers must thus be able to change while maintaining what makes the project and the organization unique.

Bibliography:

• María Alonso. (December 19, 2024). VUCA environments: project management in a changing world. Retrieved from https://asana.com/es/resources/vuca
• Jordi Alemany . (July 9, 2023). The Key to Transforming an “Egosystem” into a Healthy Ecosystem . Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/la-clave-para-transformar-un-egosistema-en-ecosistema-jordi-alemany/?trackingId=nuk6R5XgTR%2BzXAyR43caGQ%3D%3D 
• Peter G. Northouse, leadership, Theory and Practice (2015).
• David Grossman. (February 18th, 2016). The Cost of Poor Communication. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/organizational-employee-development/cost-poor-communicat

“Data is everywhere—so how do we make it work for us?” 

Imagine walking into your favorite store, and before you even reach the counter, your phone buzzes with a personalized discount for an item you’ve been eyeing. This isn’t the future—it’s happening now. Adobe and Perficient are revolutionizing digital experiences, making personalization smarter, faster, and more intuitive.

Ross Monaghan, Principal of Perficient’s Adobe practice, breaks it down: “There’s a lot of different parts of a customer that are left in a multitude of places. Some individuals may have multiple devices, in-store experiences—there’s a lot of data to stitch together.” The challenge? Unify this scattered data into a single, actionable profile. The solution? Adobe’s AI-powered ecosystem, coupled with Perficient’s expertise, turns raw data into seamless, hyper-personalized experiences.

Why Data Readiness is the Key to Success 

Most businesses have enormous amounts of data but struggle to use it effectively. Often, IT controls the data, leaving marketers without the access they need. Perficient helps bridge this gap through its Adobe Data Factory Jumpstart, allowing marketing and IT teams to collaborate, unify attributes, and act on real-time customer insights.

“We bring all those different sources of data together and unify them within a profile that’s constantly enriched,” Ross explains. This means that every new interaction—whether online, in-store, or via mobile—enhances the customer’s profile, allowing brands to communicate with precision, relevance, and consistency.

The Future is AI-Driven & Dynamic 

Adobe Experience Cloud is a game-changer, enabling businesses to leverage AI-powered automation for content creation, audience segmentation, and journey optimization. Instead of relying on manual A/B testing, companies can now dynamically generate and deploy personalized ads, website experiences, and messaging in real time.

“Leveraging Adobe’s GenStudio and Firefly, we can dynamically create new imagery and messaging at scale,” says Ross. “This isn’t about replacing creativity—it’s about amplifying it.” The result? Highly relevant, on-brand experiences that resonate with customers and drive conversion.

Personalization That Delivers Results 

True personalization is about being in the right place, at the right time, with the right message. With Adobe Journey Optimizer, brands can send contextual notifications based on real-time triggers. Picture this: A loyal customer enters your store, and their phone alerts them to use their $20 loyalty reward—right at the perfect moment.

Ross highlights the power of this, “These are highly relevant contextual experiences that matter, and Adobe’s experience platform really allows you to satisfy that end-to-end.” By leveraging AI-driven insights and real-time customer profiles, businesses can enhance loyalty, increase engagement, and maximize revenue.

 The Perficient Advantage: Turning Data into Actionable Personalization 

Implementing personalization at scale isn’t easy. Data readiness, AI adoption, and seamless customer journeys require the right strategy and execution. As an Adobe Platinum Partner, Perficient has the expertise to help businesses unlock their full digital potential.

“These are complex topics, but Perficient is ready to help you take your digital marketing to the next level,” Ross assures. Whether you’re looking to optimize your content strategy, enhance your customer journey, or scale your personalization efforts, our team is ready to bring your vision to life. Let’s unlock the full potential of your digital marketing strategy together.

Get in touch with us today and take the next step toward digital excellence. 

While the world of digital experience platforms continues to evolve at a break-necking pace, and exponentially more so with the evolution of technologies like AI, there are still some steps digital marketing and development teams building digital customer experiences on the Sitecore platform can take to ensure long-term growth over the next five years and beyond. This will ensure your team won’t get stuck in an endless cycle of rework, patching or updates that are no longer relevant as soon as they are deployed. While there is no crystal ball that can tell us what the future might hold (even tomorrow), consider these steps as you continue to iterate on your Sitecore ecosystem.

1. Embrace a Composable DXP Approach & Move to the Cloud

It’s not new news that Sitecore’s approach has shifted away from a monolithic CMS in favor of a Composable DXP. This allows businesses to pick and choose best-in-class solutions rather than rely on one singular system.

Why It Matters

• Composable architecture provides greater flexibility and scalability
• They allow for faster go to market, and therefore innovation by integrating with the latest AI, automation, personalization and analytics technologies
• Components can be swapped in and out or modified without wreaking havoc on the entire Sitecore ecosystem
• Reduces IT overhead and maintenance costs, while improving security via automatic updates and uptime reliability

Action Items to Take

• Consider migrating from Sitecore XP to Sitecore XM Cloud
• Apply Sitecore CDP & Personalize for advanced audience building and personalization
• Leverage auto-scaling and AI-driven analytics

2. Prioritize Headless and Omnichannel Delivery

Modern digital experiences extend beyond traditional websites to mobile apps, chatbots, voice assistants and more. A headless CMS allows organizations to manage content in one place while being able to deliver it anywhere, seamlessly.

Why It Matters

• Content can be distributed faster across multiple touchpoints
• Allows your digital experience to be easily adaptable as new channels emerge across web, search, social media (or even insert the latest, not-yet invented, channel here, because we all know that’s coming at some point)

Action Items to Take

• Explore Sitecore Content Hub to adopt headless content management
• Use GraphQL to integrate content in omnichannel settings
• When creating digital customer experiences and workflows, consider how to make the experiences channel-agnostic, so that a customer’s journey isn’t inconsistent across the various touchpoints they may have with your brand

3. Leverage AI and Machine Learning for Personalization and Conversion Optimization

Customer’s expect real-time, personalized experiences, now more than ever. In most instances, consumers are even willing to go as far as supplying personal data in order to get to this type of experience. With this data and segmentation capabilities, the leading brands must take action to deliver relevant content, offers and experiences to ensure these expectations are being met at a minimum, and exceeded wherever possible.

Why It Matters

• Boosts customer engagement, loyalty and, ultimately, conversion rates
• Enables predictive analytics, allowing anticipation of customer needs

Action Items to Take

• Use Sitecore CDP & Personalize to personalize digital experiences in real-time fashion
• Leverage marketing automation integrations within Sitecore, including Sitecore Send
• Integrate A/B testing and AI-driven content recommendations

4. Implement a Scalable Content Strategy

Especially within the digital space, content can become stale, and FAST! Content can take a while to ideate on, produce and distribute, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Finding ways to ideate, produce and distribute content as efficiently as possible is a great step in future-proofing your Sitecore implementation.

Why It Matters

• Empowers omnichannel content distribution
• Improves production workflow efficiency
• Supports consistent branding and messaging

Action Items to Take

• Implement (and use) Sitecore Content Hub for centralized digital asset and content management
• Explore incorporating Sitecore Stream to automate and enhance content workflows
• Document and govern metadata and taxonomy best practices to make content easily searchable both internally and externally

5. Build and Maintain Strong Data and Analytics Practice

Data-driven decision-making is no longer a “nice-to-have” – it is a must. It helps marketers understand user behavior and measure success. In addition to this, there are many legal considerations around data collection and storage practices, and so having defined guidelines and guardrails in place can prevent organizations from being exposed to a whole host of risks.

Why It Matters

• Helps marketers make well-informed decisions around strategy that ultimately lead to sustainable growth
• Enables teams to experiment and optimize quickly with high degree of confidence that decisions will lead to increased user engagement
• Ultimately supports the growing list of legal requirements that organizations must abide by in order to continue to globalize their presence

Action Items to Take

• Utilize analytics software like those native to the Sitecore platform, or Google Analytics to perform usability experiments – and then act on findings
• Invest in Sitecore Search or similar intelligent search technology to harness the power of data around consumer intent on your site
• Work with legal team or outside counsel to ensure that data practices are adhering to any applicable data privacy legislation

Moving Forward

The most important thing to keep in mind as you work toward applying these principles is to keep an open mind. It is an understatement to say that the DXP world and the technologies and tools that are available are constantly changing. Embrace the change. Find use cases for new best practices and technologies. Experiment, and most of all, have some fun! This will help your organization to adapt to the ever-changing digital landscape and make sure you are always there to meet your customers and prospects where they are on their journeys

A successful Sitecore implementation isn’t just about what works today – it is about ensuring long-term flexibility, success and innovation. Build for that and the rest will follow. Now is the time to assess your strategies and pivot where needed. Are you ready to future-proof your organization’s Sitecore implementation? Reach out to Perficient today!

Out of the box, Azure DevOps provides black-and-white capabilities in terms of how it can be utilized to support a project and its code repository. Over time, teams establish and settle into work processes, often continuing to use those basic settings, which can lead to a mundane operation and, perhaps, risk losing sight of the end goal.

Even if a project is customized in terms of workflow, custom state options, or custom fields, sometimes it is still difficult to know where things stand and what is important to focus on.

There are a few ways in which Azure DevOps can aid in making those items visible and obvious, to better help guide a team.

Leverage color to draw attention

When viewing a Board in Azure DevOps, it can often be overwhelming to look at or find specific work items. Consider: what is most important for the team to complete or prioritize, and, what could be a unique identifier to locate those items? These are the items we want the team to notice and work on first.

There are a couple of ways in which Azure DevOps allows us to style work items on a board:

• Card Styles
• Tag Colors

Let’s take an example of Card Styles: We want the client to quickly and easily see if items on the Board are blocked. In our board settings, we can use the Board Settings > Cards > Styles options to apply some rules to make any work items which contain the tag ‘Blocked’ to appear Red in color.

Example Settings:

Example Card Preview:

Another use case for applying Card Styles could be that we want our team members to prioritize and focus on any Bug work items which have a Priority of 1. In the same settings dialog, we can add another styling rule so that any Bug work item which has a Priority of ‘1’ should appear Yellow in color. This will make it extremely easy to find those Priority 1 Bugs when viewing the board, so that it is obvious to any team member who is assigned to one.

Example Card Preview:

Let’s look at one more use case – we want our team to easily recognize work items containing the tag ‘content.’ In this example, this tag means that the work item will require manual content steps, along with the code changes. In the Board Settings > Cards > Tag Colors options, we can configure a rule so that this specific tag will appear in Pink while viewing the board.

Example Card Preview:

TIP: While it is great to provide color styling rules to work items, it is best to reserve those rules only items needing specific, frequent attention. Consider this before applying any styling setting on a project’s Board.

Find key details in a dash on your Dashboard

Lastly, Dashboards are a fantastic way to provide fast, summary information regarding the progress of a team or project. Consider creating dashboards to display results of queries that you often find yourself referencing for reporting or oversight. Like the Backlog and Boards views, keep the dashboards focused on the most valuable information. Make it easily visible by organizing the most important widgets to the top of the dashboard.

In this example below, the team wanted to automate a way of finding work items which were mis-placed in the backlog or were without tags. A series of queries were created and used to provide data of matching results. In the first screenshot, there are no results, and all the tiles are equal to 0 – this is the ideal state. In the second screenshot, there are results in one of the tables and three of the tiles have a matching result of 1, in which case the tile is configured to turn Red in color. This makes it very easy for a team member to notice and take action to make sure specific work items are addressed quickly.

Screenshot 1:

Screenshot 2:

TIPS:

• • Create multiple dashboards, each with their own purpose, to prevent having just 1 or 2 dashboards being overwhelmed by too much information.
  • The ‘Chart for Work Items’ widget on the dashboards also allows for the color options to be customized. Consider this in cases where you want to draw attention to a specific attribute, such as work item State.

Paint the picture for your team

To help keep the team focused and from settling into a mundane work pattern, keep the most important data in Azure DevOps accessible and visible on project Boards, Backlogs, and Dashboards. Use visual indicators like color to help enable the team to quickly find what is most important to use their time most efficiently towards the project’s goal.

By using these simply tips and tricks, it will help to paint a masterpiece of a project that both the team and client will be better engaged in.