Customer Experience in Disruptive Times

March 31, 2026

Our March 2026 members’ meeting featured Curtis Kopf, the Group Vice President for Customer Experience for Insulet, a maker of medical devices, and a veteran of Amazon, REI, Microsoft, and Alaska Airlines. Slides are available in PPT form below. Here are seven key ideas from the meeting:

1. Customer Expectations Keep Rising — Even as Satisfaction Stalls

Kopf highlights a critical paradox: while customer expectations are continuously increasing, overall satisfaction is flat or declining across major indices. This is grounded in the data he presented showing stagnation across Forrester, KPMG, ACSI, and Gartner benchmarks. The implication is that companies are failing to keep pace with rising expectations, not that expectations have leveled off. Kopf frames this as both a warning and an opportunity—those who break through can meaningfully differentiate.

2. AI Is the Next Wave — But Most Companies Aren’t Ready

Kopf positions AI as the next major wave of innovation, arriving after digital transformation has become “table stakes.” However, he emphasizes that many organizations are trying to build AI on top of “broken customer journeys and fragmented data,” which severely limits its potential. He compares this moment to the early days of the internet—full of hype, uncertainty, and uneven readiness—but suggests AI may move even faster. The challenge isn’t recognizing AI’s importance; it’s knowing how to operationalize it effectively.

3. Don’t Start with Technology — Start with the Customer Problem

A core principle Kopf returns to repeatedly is: “don’t start with the technology.” Organizations often default to chasing new tools, especially with AI, but this leads to scattered efforts and limited impact. Instead, Kopf argues for beginning with a deep understanding of the customer journey and identifying unmet needs that matter.

As he explains, “I still believe, at the end of the day, organizations are going to succeed or not succeed with AI based on how deeply they understand their customer journey and are obsessed with it…”

4. Technology Overload Is Real — Focus Creates Advantage

Kopf acknowledges the growing problem of “technology overload,” where organizations layer on tools without clear purpose. This is especially pronounced with AI, where leaders feel pressure to “have an AI story” without grounding it in real customer value.

His advice: focus on solving meaningful customer problems that drive business value, not on deploying technology for its own sake. He reinforces that strong alignment between business and technology leaders is essential to maintain this discipline. Companies that simplify and focus their efforts will outperform those that accumulate complexity.

5. In Uncertainty, Experiment Relentlessly (and Cheaply)

Kopf emphasizes that AI is inherently uncertain—and that uncertainty should be met with experimentation, not hesitation. On his slide, he advocates using “prototypes” and “low risk experiments” when uncertainty is highest.

He says, “When uncertainty is high, use prototypes [to] reduce the cost of learning and failure.”

His teams run continuous proof-of-concepts, accepting both “winners and losers” as part of the process. The discipline is to start with hypotheses, test quickly, and scale only what works — turning ambiguity into a competitive advantage.

6. Speed Comes from Agile Decision-Making — Not Just Technology

A major bottleneck in large organizations is decision-making speed, not technological capability. Kopf introduces Amazon’s concept of “one-way” vs. “two-way” door decisions as a way to address this.

As he explains, “If the decision is reversible… you should probably make that decision with 60 to 70% of the information, go, learn, iterate…”

He observes that many companies treat too many decisions as high-risk “one-way doors,” slowing progress unnecessarily. Shifting more decisions into the “two-way door” category dramatically increases speed and learning velocity.

7. Culture Is the Ultimate Differentiator

Kopf makes clear that culture — not strategy or technology — is the ultimate determinant of success. He advocates for empowered small teams, decision-making close to the customer, and viewing failure as learning.

(Featured image by Ahmed Adly on Unsplash.)