Martech, explained · Buying and running · 2:26
How to read the CDP Magic Quadrant
What the chart measures, who it keeps out, and the axis it doesn't have
The short answer
Gartner's Magic Quadrant for CDPs places vendors on two axes, completeness of vision and execution. Getting on it takes revenue, briefings and references; vision leans on roadmap slides; execution counts sales reach as well as delivery. It has no axis for fit with your team, data and governance: use it for the market view, then build an evidence pack.
Questions this answers
What does the CDP Magic Quadrant measure?
Two things: completeness of vision, judged largely on strategy and roadmap slides, and execution, which counts market presence, sales reach and marketing muscle as well as delivery.
Why isn't every CDP on the Magic Quadrant?
Getting on it takes revenue thresholds, months of briefings, documentation and customer references, so a smaller vendor with a better product can be filtered out before anyone opens it. Many engagement platforms and composable tools that do the same job aren't on it at all.
What can't the Magic Quadrant tell you?
Whether a platform fits your team, your data and your governance. It describes what a platform can do in theory, gives mid-market and regional buying no extra weight, and trails a market that ships faster than its editions.
Should an RFP only invite vendors from the Magic Quadrant?
No. Then your shortlist was decided before you wrote a single use case. Write the use cases first and invite the vendors that can meet them.
How should you use the Magic Quadrant in a CDP selection?
For the view of the whole market, as one page of an evidence pack: practitioner and peer feedback checked for incentives, checks on partners and integrations, and a proof of concept on your own data.
Transcript
Every chapter as text. Click a time to play the film from there.
0:00 One dot in the upper right
One dot in the upper right of a chart can move millions in a CDP budget.
What does that dot measure, and what can't it tell you?
0:11 Two axes, four boxes
The chart is Gartner's Magic Quadrant for CDPs.
It places vendors on two axes, in four boxes: leaders, visionaries, challengers and niche players.
0:23 How a vendor gets on it
The process itself is serious: analyst interviews, vendor briefings, reference checks.
One axis is completeness of vision, the other is execution.
Getting onto the chart at all takes revenue thresholds, months of briefings, documentation and customer references.
So a smaller vendor with a better product can be filtered out before anyone has opened it.
0:49 What the axes measure
Vision is judged largely on strategy and roadmap slides.
Execution isn't only delivery.
It includes market presence, sales reach and marketing muscle.
A product can score high while it's still maturing.
1:05 What it can't tell you
Look, here's what the chart can't tell you.
It measures what a platform can do in theory.
Your team, your data and your governance are an axis it doesn't have.
Mid-market budgets and regional buying get no extra weight.
And the market moves faster than the chart, so a vendor can ship three major features between editions.
Many tools that do the same job, engagement platforms and composable tools among them, aren't on it at all.
Its own fine print even disclaims fitness for a particular purpose.
1:40 The RFP trap
The trap is an RFP that only invites vendors from the chart.
Then your shortlist was decided before you wrote a single use case.
1:51 How to use it
Use it for what it's good at, a view of the whole market.
Then build an evidence pack around it.
Feedback from practitioners and peers, checked for incentives.
Checks on partners and integrations.
And a proof of concept on your own data.
2:08 The answer
The upper right tells you who plays the analyst game well.
Whether a platform fits you is the axis it doesn't have, and only your own use cases can answer it.
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The articles this film is drawn from.