Martech, explained · CDP architectures · 2:28
The Dual Zone model, explained
David Chan's Dual Zone model: two speeds, one seam, and who owns the handoff
The short answer
The Dual Zone model, from David Chan, splits customer data work by speed. Zone one, the data zone, does the heavy work on warehouse time: identity, history and scoring. Zone two, the engagement zone, decides in the moment. A scheduled handoff moves scores across, so before you buy for either zone, decide how fresh each decision needs to be.
Questions this answers
What are the two zones?
Zone one, the data zone, joins records into one customer and works out value and churn risk from the full history, on warehouse time. Zone two, the engagement zone, holds a real-time profile and decides what each customer sees next.
What is the handoff?
The scheduled transfer of scores and segments from zone one to zone two, with what was shown and what happened sent back. Its schedule decides how old a score can be when it is used.
Who owns each zone?
Usually the data team holds zone one and marketing holds zone two, so the line between the zones tends to fall where the organization is already split.
Is the Dual Zone model a CDP?
No. It is an architecture, credited to David Chan. Vendors place different bets on it: keep the zones apart, run both in the warehouse, or sell one product per zone. None of them removes the handoff.
Transcript
Every chapter as text. Click a time to play the film from there.
0:00 Ten past ten
A customer places an order at ten this morning. At ten past, the website offers them twenty percent off to come back. The score that says they're about to leave won't update until tonight.
Nothing in that stack is broken. Two speeds meet at one seam, and David Chan's Dual Zone model gives that seam a name.
0:22 Two zones, two speeds
The model splits the work by how fast it has to move. Zone one, the data zone, does the heavy work on warehouse time. Zone two, the engagement zone, answers in the moment.
0:35 How it works
Events from the website, the app and the store go into a stream that carries each one two ways at once. One copy goes to the warehouse, where identity rules join the records into one customer and models work out value and churn risk from the full history. The other copy goes straight to a real-time profile, which decides what this customer sees next and sends it.
0:58 The handoff
Between them sits the handoff. On a schedule, zone one sends its scores and segments across. Zone two decides with them in the moment, and sends back what it showed and what happened. That schedule decides how old a score can be when it's used.
1:16 The line follows the org chart
Now look at who holds each side. Zone one belongs to the data team, zone two to marketing. The line between the zones tends to fall where the organization is already split, which is why so many stacks end up in this shape without anyone drawing it.
1:33 Three questions to ask
That leaves three questions. For each decision, how old can the score be before it does harm? Who owns the handoff, its schedule, and what happens when it breaks? And when zone two acts on something zone one hasn't seen yet, whose version of the customer wins?
1:52 Every vendor's bet
Vendors place different bets on the seam. Some keep the zones apart, some run both inside the warehouse, some sell one product per zone. None of them removes the handoff. They decide who runs it.
2:07 So what is it?
What is the Dual Zone model, then? Heavy work on warehouse time, decisions in the moment, and one handoff in between. Before you buy for either zone, decide how fresh each decision needs to be.
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The articles this film is drawn from.