Episode web page: https://tinyurl.com/2b3dz2z8 ----------------------- Rate Insights Unlocked and write a review If you appreciate Insights Unlocked, please give it a rating and a review. Visit Apple Podcasts, pull up the Insights Unlocked show page and scroll to the bottom of the screen. Below the trailers, you'll find Ratings and Reviews. Click on a star rating. Scroll down past the highlighted review and click on "Write a Review." You'll make my day. ----------------------- In this episode of Insights Unlocked, we explore the evolving landscape of omnichannel strategies with Kate MacCabe, founder of Flywheel Strategy. With nearly two decades of experience in digital strategy and product management, Kate shares her insights on bridging internal silos, leveraging customer insights, and designing omnichannel experiences that truly resonate. From the early days of DTC growth to today’s complex, multi-touchpoint customer journeys, Kate explains why omnichannel is no longer optional—it’s essential. She highlights a standout example from Anthropologie, demonstrating how brands can create a unified customer experience across digital and physical spaces. Whether you’re a marketing leader, UX strategist, or product manager, this episode is packed with actionable advice on aligning teams, integrating user feedback, and building a future-proof omnichannel strategy. Key Takeaways: ✅ Omnichannel vs. Multichannel: Many brands think they’re omnichannel, but they’re really just multichannel. Kate breaks down the difference and how to shift toward true integration. ✅ Anthropologie’s Success Story: Learn how this brand seamlessly blended physical and digital experiences to create a memorable, data-driven customer journey. ✅ User Feedback is the Secret Weapon: Discover how continuous user testing—before, during, and after a launch—helps brands fine-tune their strategies and avoid costly mistakes. ✅ Aligning Teams for Success: Cross-functional collaboration is critical. Kate shares tips on breaking down silos between marketing, product, and development teams. ✅ Emerging Tech & Omnichannel: Instead of chasing the latest tech trends, Kate advises businesses to define their strategic goals first—then leverage AI, AR, and other innovations to enhance the customer experience. Quotes from the Episode: 💬 "Omnichannel isn’t just about being everywhere; it’s about creating seamless bridges between every touchpoint a customer interacts with." – Kate MacCabe 💬 "Companies that truly listen to their users—through qualitative and quantitative insights—are the ones that thrive in today’s competitive landscape." – Kate MacCabe Resources & Links: 🔗 Learn more about Flywheel Strategy 🔗 Connect with Kate MacCabe on LinkedIn 🔗 Explore UserTesting for customer insights for marketers
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts and guest of this episode?
Welcome to the Insights Unlocked podcast. I'm Nathan Isaacs, Senior Manager for Content Production and User Testing. And joining us today as host is User Testing's Bobby Meixner, Senior Director of Industry Solutions. Welcome, Bobby.
Hello, everyone.
And our guest today is Kate McCabe, founder of Flywheel Strategy. With 17 years of experience in the digital space at Ancestry, Rothy's, Brooklinen, and OurPlace, Kate specializes in blending the voice of the customer, data insights, and marketplace opportunities to create streamlined roadmaps for high growth organizations. Welcome to the show, Kate.
Thanks, Nathan. I'm excited to be on the podcast today.
We're excited to have you, Kate. And I know that you've had a really impressive career working on customer-focused omni-channel strategies. Can you share a bit about your journey, how it shaped your perspective on creating those sometimes ever-elusive, seamless, customer-first interactions?
Yes, I'll give a little peek into where I started in the industry, which was in the marketing space. And then I pretty quickly stumbled into product management. So my background and most official expertise is in product management. And the reason I stumbled into product management is I was seeing this really constant struggle between our marketing teams and our development teams.
where marketing wanted to go chase and build something different every three weeks. And the technical team was always flabbergasted that what the asks were being changed. And also just speaking like pretty technically about why it was going to take so long.
So as I moved into what I call the translation space between those organizations, that's where I really found the unlock that can happen in organizations as they figure out Who are the right people? What are the right practices internally as a team?
And what levers and metrics of performance really drive that user experience that customers are going to love and are also going to help the business be successful in their goals?
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Chapter 2: What is omnichannel strategy and why is it essential?
Chapter 3: How did Kate MacCabe's career shape her omnichannel perspective?
Yes, I'll give a little peek into where I started in the industry, which was in the marketing space. And then I pretty quickly stumbled into product management. So my background and most official expertise is in product management. And the reason I stumbled into product management is I was seeing this really constant struggle between our marketing teams and our development teams.
where marketing wanted to go chase and build something different every three weeks. And the technical team was always flabbergasted that what the asks were being changed. And also just speaking like pretty technically about why it was going to take so long.
So as I moved into what I call the translation space between those organizations, that's where I really found the unlock that can happen in organizations as they figure out Who are the right people? What are the right practices internally as a team?
And what levers and metrics of performance really drive that user experience that customers are going to love and are also going to help the business be successful in their goals?
So you wanted to jump in. You wanted to be the referee. You wanted to be the mediator. Yes. And that's what carried you.
Yes. And when I, I sort of just volunteered for the space because I thought we're all brilliant people. Why are we angry at each other? It's time.
Yeah.
Yeah. Why is this so hard? And then I started, I actually didn't even know it was product management. I just said, let me, let me step into referee and try to see if I can create a story that everyone feels heard and seen and it feels comprehensive. Then I started going to conferences and I learned, oh, this is product management.
And this is where I feel like, well, User Insights often officially lives with design teams and user research teams. I feel like product teams and product leaders have a really invested interest because we're responsible for shaping product. the full picture across all of the different departments? Like, what are we all trying to accomplish?
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Chapter 4: What lessons can be learned from Anthropologie's omnichannel success?
This is the third or fourth year we've done it. In the first few years, it did not feel like this. One year we had a penthouse. Everyone was shoulder to shoulder. It felt like a cocktail party, which is not who we are as a brand. But she was like, each year we tinkered with it. And now we have this manifestation of the experience.
And so my biggest takeaway for Omnichannel to really have Omnichannel become... so integrated into your business. it's this long-term commitment to learning, iterating, and adapting the experience. If you have a mindset of, okay, in Q4, we're going to try a holiday, you know, implementation once, or a back-to-school implementation if school is your big selling season.
If it doesn't take, you know, flushing it down the toilet and saying, you know, being integrated in our mindset doesn't work for us, I think is walking away from a huge opportunity. So
So suggestion number one is really give your company the time and space, which is a multi-year commitment to we're going to do Omnichannel, we're going to do it well, and we know it's going to take time and we're going to learn as we go. But those learnings are actually getting us closer to our end goal. So that's suggestion number one. The second suggestion is the cross-functional planning.
And really early, you know, when you think about when e-commerce businesses specifically are thinking about the holidays, they usually are coming to market in October, which can be even too early for some people, you know, November, October, November.
The fact that Anthropologie did this six weeks before the holiday chatter and it was executed so well to me speaks to how many meetings, conversations, project plans must have been happening across all of these teams to execute it so well. And then the last piece is priority alignment.
So if they had a bunch of different teams, their retention team, their marketing team, their digital team who owns their website, the operations team to bring and set up their visual merchandisers, if any one of those groups had said, this is my 18th priority. I'm going to get everything else done before this. The whole thing could have crumbled.
And so I think that internal alignment, not only planning early, but just making sure everyone's aligned from a, and has the space to execute well, it really will help your business stand apart and win in the omni-channel space in a way that very few people are doing it today.
So start early, and it may not pan out exactly how you would like it to, at least right from the beginning. It may take a few baths, which I think people probably have some battle scars from. So when you think about the components of all the different systems, platforms, the touch points that go into creating a truly omnichannel experience, what are some of the key ones?
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Chapter 5: How can brands leverage omnichannel strategies effectively?
So it's really about thinking less about are we multichannel, meaning, okay, we are available in different marketplaces and in different touchpoints, but they are all living in their own universe. versus being omni-channel saying, what are the bridges we're creating across each of these channels we show up in? So it's cohesive.
And users will tell you directly whether it's through reviews, whether it's through customer emails, whether it's through more guided, moderated and unmoderated before you even go to market. And then there's the qualitative takeaways. So that example with anthropology, you know, they observed this penthouse experience is not, you know, our vision of anthropology customers' homes.
And, you know, this isn't where our products live on a daily basis. So that was a qualitative insight that they pulled just observing sort of how is this landing once you're really in the moment omni-channel.
Certainly. So you touched on multi-channel, which I think is an interesting term. You don't hear it a lot. I think people don't like to talk about it. Everyone likes to think that they are omni-channel. But I think some companies are still in transition from a multi-channel strategy to a true omni-channel strategy that gives you that completely seamless integrated customer journey.
For companies that are at least perhaps being honest with themselves around where they're at, what advice would you give them along that journey?
Yeah. I think, you know, give yourself space to start multichannel. If multichannel is this concept of we have a presence in different places and then see it as a gradual progression line into omnichannel. If multichannel is being called omnichannel and that's your end-all be-all, what I'm seeing in a lot of companies today, now that we're a few years into omnichannel,
every company trying to be omnichannel is you have a team who manages your Amazon marketplace. You have a team who manages retail. You have a team who manages your digital and technology for your owned site. And what happens is that to me is multichannel. Yes, you have a presence in many places, But those teams are not roadmapping together.
They don't have strategic initiatives to say, how do we bind this experience? So for the customer who is bopping around to us through all of these different touch points, they're going to feel that we are the same brand with the same values everywhere that they interact with us. So it's okay to be multi-channel first. That's the first step to this more mature omnichannel mindset.
I think the danger is in thinking we're, you know, saying that you're omnichannel when you haven't yet built your technology, your infrastructure, or structured your teams to really collaborate in an omnichannel way.
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