The Digital Seeker: A Guide for Digital Teams to Build Winning Experiences

by Raj K. De Datta

Overview

A WALL STREET JOURNAL BUSINESS BESTSELLER

The internet was supposed to connect us to endless possibilities. So why do we keep ending up browsing the same old sites and best-seller lists? When sellers don’t offer potential customers a compelling digital experience, consumers miss out on great products—and businesses miss a vital opportunity to grow.

Raj K. De Datta, the founder of a company that powers digital-commerce experiences for many of the world’s biggest brands, offers an actionable playbook for companies looking to deliver better digital experiences. His key insight is that exceptional digital experiences are much more than marketplaces. They don’t just serve customers’ transactional needs but rather address the deeper problems for which they seek solutions. They are built on a digital-experience platform that provides agile, personalized, scalable performance. And they are created by product-centric digital teams, not traditional organizations.

The Digital Seeker distills key lessons from the compelling stories of innovative businesses: not just tech companies but companies spanning a wide range of industries, including amusement parks, fashion, sports, health care, distribution, and the public sector. De Datta defines and explains the power of the seeker-centric philosophy—translating it into a core operational playbook for digital teams to achieve transformative results.

Importantly, this book also offers crucial insights into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our digital lives and the long-term effects it will have on digital experiences of the future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231202206
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	06/01/2021
Pages:	200
Sales rank:	1,142,631
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Raj K. De Datta is the CEO and cofounder of Bloomreach, the leading commerce-experience platform powering the digital properties of a diverse set of businesses and organizations around the world, including Staples, Puma, Next, HD Supply, River Island, ING Bank, and FC Bayern München. He was previously a director of product marketing at Cisco Systems and a founding member of the telecommunications start-up FirstMark Communications. He is also an active seed investor in over twenty start-ups in Silicon Valley, a founder partner at the seed investment firm Founder Collective, and a member of the Champions Council for the U.S. Tennis Association. He holds a bachelor of science in engineering from Princeton University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Embrace the Winning Formula
1. Break Online/Offline Boundaries
2. Put the Seeker at the Center
3. Swap Customers for Seekers
4. Harness the Three As
5. Build Your Digital Dreams; Don’t Buy Them
6. Design for Disaster
7. Recast Your Team to Ship
8. Create Your Money-Making Architecture
9. The Winning B2B Experience
10. Max Out the R0
Acknowledgments
Index

Editorial Reviews

Just as we at Khan Academy designed an online student-led experience, Raj K. De Datta explains how all digital organizations can design a seeker-led experience. The Digital Seeker illuminates the promise of an accessible, individualized internet age.

Sal Khan

I've had the privilege of learning from the playbooks of strong Silicon Valley founders at companies like AirBnB, Pinterest, and Instacart. Raj K. De Datta puts his finger on the heart of digital disruptors—meeting deeply unmet consumer needs by delivering what they seek, rather than just what they say.

Jeff Jordan

Every commerce business today needs to build the DNA of a technology company. The Digital Seeker shows how businesses can practically create technology-led shopping experiences that get to the heart of what consumers seek.

Niraj Shah

In The Digital Seeker, Raj K. De Datta has provided what companies need most: A playbook, with concrete advice, on how organizations can build essential digital habits. Raj has lived this advice, has used it to build a massive company, and—most important—he draws on case studies from dozens of firms to show you where the future is going and what you need to succeed. This is essential reading for every CEO, entrepreneur, and digital thought leader—and a fantastic guide to building organizations that will thrive.

Charles Duhigg

The Digital Seeker leads business to a new level in the experience economy. Customers today desire more than mere products or services—they want an experience. The Digital Seeker shows how business can create that experience online in a way that gets to the heart of what individual people seek.

B. Joseph Pine II

The Digital Seeker is an exceptionally well-written and frank work about what it takes to succeed in a digital business. De Datta focuses not on the technical details of the digital world, but on the human side of what it takes to pull together a team and a strategy for digital services. He is generous in sharing previously developed solutions to clients’ problems as examples of best-practice problem-solving.

J. Robert Rossman

When the digital team gathers, team members come from different worlds—technology, marketing, finance, and products. The Digital Seeker gives that team a common text to win together.

Andy Main