Cabin

An enterprise product leader at a national retail chain had a problem. Her team spent 18 months and $2 million building a customer portal meant to reduce call center volume and increase digital engagement. The prototype looked great in demos. But six months post-launch, adoption was under 15%, customer satisfaction hadn’t moved, and the call center was busier than ever.

The portal worked technically — but it didn’t solve the actual problems customers were trying to solve.

This kind of expensive failure happens when digital products are built without human-centered strategy, validated design, or cross-functional execution. According to Forrester’s 2024 Digital Experience research, over 60% of enterprise digital initiatives fail to meet adoption or ROI targets—not because of technical issues, but because what was built didn’t align with what users actually needed.

That’s where a digital experience consultancy comes in.

A consultancy doesn’t just design and build products—it bridges the gap between vision and execution by combining strategy, design, engineering, and enablement. They prototype with your team, validate with real users, ship working solutions, and strengthen your organization’s long-term capability to move faster on your own.

If you’re an enterprise leader with ambitious digital goals but limited internal bandwidth, this guide explains:

• What digital experience consultancy is
  
• What services consultancies provide
  
• How they differ from agencies and in-house teams
  
• How to choose the right partner

Whether you’re launching a new product, modernizing legacy systems, or scaling beyond prototypes, understanding digital experience consultancy will help you make smarter decisions.

What Is Digital Experience?

Digital experience (DX) is the sum of every interaction a user has with your digital products, platforms, and services — from website usability and app performance to personalization and system integration.

Digital Experience vs. Customer Experience vs. User Experience

These terms are related but distinct:

• User Experience (UX): How a person interacts with a specific product or interface — usability, navigation, and interaction design.
  
• Customer Experience (CX): The entire relationship a customer has with your brand across all touchpoints — digital and physical.
  
• Digital Experience (DX): The digital subset of CX where UX meets business strategy, content, technology, and data.

A great DX feels seamless: users accomplish goals quickly, systems work together, and the experience adapts intelligently.
Poor DX creates friction, confusion, and abandonment — even when individual components look polished.

Why Digital Experience Matters for Enterprises

Digital experience directly impacts revenue, retention, and efficiency.

According to Nielsen Norman Group, improving DX can:

• Increase conversion rates by 200–400%
  
• Reduce support costs by 30–50%
  
• Improve customer lifetime value by 25%+

But building great DX is hard. It requires:

• Cross-functional collaboration across product, design, engineering, and operations
  
• Validated user research
  
• Modern technical architecture
  
• Fast iteration cycles

Most enterprises have the vision and budget—but not the capacity or capability to execute at speed and quality.

Need help turning vision into a working product? Cabin combines strategy, design, and engineering to ship human-centered digital experiences users actually adopt.

What Does a Digital Experience Consultancy Do?

A digital experience consultancy provides end-to-end expertise to design, build, and scale digital products.

1. Strategy: Mapping Vision to Execution

They help define success, target users, and align capabilities.

Key services:

• User research & validation
  
• Product roadmapping
  
• Capability assessment
  
• Business case development
  
• Platform evaluation (build, buy, or integrate)

2. Design: Human-Centered, AI-Enabled Products

Design is how it works, not just how it looks.

Key services:

• UX/UI design & prototyping
  
• Design systems & component libraries
  
• Accessibility & inclusive design
  
• Content strategy & IA
  
• AI-enabled feature design

3. Engineering: Systems That Scale

Strong architecture and performant code turn ideas into reality.

Key services:

• Full-stack web & mobile development
  
• API design & integration
  
• Salesforce & platform implementation
  
• AI/ML integration
  
• DevOps, security, and performance

4. Enablement: Teaching While Delivering

Consultancies don’t just build—they upskill your team.

Key services:

• Design system documentation
  
• Code standards & development playbooks
  
• Training workshops
  
• Process documentation
  
• Change management support

Result: Your team continues building confidently after the engagement ends.

Consultancy vs. Agency vs. In-House

For most mid-market to enterprise organizations, consultancies strike the best balance of speed, expertise, and capability-building.

How to Choose the Right Consultancy

Evaluate Capabilities

Ask:

• Can you show full-lifecycle examples (strategy → design → build)?
  
• Are design and engineering in-house?
  
• What platforms do you specialize in?
  
• Have you worked in our industry?
  

Prioritize Enablement Over Dependency

Ask:

• What do we keep after the engagement?
  
• How do you train our team?
  
• What documentation and playbooks are provided?
  

Choose partners who build systems you can own—not dependencies you can’t escape.

Ask for Proof

Request case studies showing:

• The problem and business context
  
• The approach (research, design, delivery)
  
• The outcomes (adoption, NPS, ROI)
  
• Long-term sustainability
  

Core Consultancy Services

• Product Strategy & Roadmapping
  
• UX/UI Design & Design Systems
  
• Full-Stack Engineering & Integration
  
• Salesforce Implementation (Cloud Connects)
  
• AI Integration & Enablement
  

Each service layer builds toward one outcome: digital systems users adopt and teams can scale.

Real Outcomes: Case Studies

Retail:
Cabin built a Salesforce-integrated franchise portal for 200+ locations.
→ 85% adoption in 3 months, 40% fewer support tickets.

Finance:
Cabin created a real-time wealth management dashboard.
→ +22 NPS, +8% retention YoY.

Healthcare:
Cabin streamlined provider scheduling via Epic integration.
→ Scheduling time dropped from 8 minutes to 90 seconds, +30% provider satisfaction.

Why Cabin

Cabin blends strategy, design, engineering, and Salesforce expertise (via Cloud Connects) to deliver human-centered, AI-enabled systems that scale.

You get:

• Velocity with rigor: Prototype in weeks, ship in months.

• Human-centered + AI-enabled: Features that solve real problems.

• Teach while delivering: You keep playbooks, systems, and training.

• Platform + product: Salesforce integrated with custom UX.

• Enterprise-grade craftsmanship: Modular systems built to last.

Ready to move from vision to execution?
Schedule a Clarity Sprint with Cabin and see how we prototype, validate, and ship digital experiences that stick.

Final Thought

Digital experience consultancy is the bridge between vision and execution.

A great consultancy doesn’t just deliver — it transfers capability.
They install systems, train teams, and leave your organization stronger.

Choose a partner with:

• End-to-end expertise (strategy + design + engineering + platforms)
  
• Proven enablement DNA (playbooks, training, design systems)
  
• Real adoption metrics (not just pretty demos)
  

Work with Cabin.
We combine craftsmanship, speed, and human-centered AI to build digital experiences that ship, scale, and outlast the engagement.