Go From Full-Stack CxD to Full-Stack Team

Joseph Pagano • 15 Jan, 2025 • 3 min. read

A New Year's Resolution Worth Keeping

As we roar into 2025, CDI is preparing to launch a new Audit service based on the CDI Standards Framework. This service is based on custom work we’ve delivered to some of the largest enterprises in the world—now packaged so it's accessible for every kind of organization.

A key feature of the CDI Audit service is a maturity assessment that shows you where your Conversational AI program is today and how you can take it to the next level. And one yellow flag that comes up frequently is an over-reliance on full-stack CxDs, which in multiple instances, can spell trouble for your program, team, and customers.

The good and bad of the full-stack concept

The full-stack concept, in which a single person performs all the tasks in an end-to-end delivery model, isn’t new. For example, full-stack engineers were all the rage about 15 years ago, about the time when companies began to replace websites with web-based applications featuring tightly integrated front- and back-ends.

The allure of full stack is powerful. If one person manages end-to-end delivery, accountability is clear, speed of communication is fast, and people costs are low. Such benefits are particularly attractive for startups looking to move fast, or large companies looking to build innovation teams to exploit new technologies quickly.

But as teams, technologies, and companies mature, the shortcomings of full stack become a concern.

  • Stacks eventually become too complex. Full stack talent, be they engineers or CxDs, struggle to keep up with complex technology. If the stack in question is new or its components closely coordinated, a single person can be an expert in all of it. But as technology evolves, as it always does, it's very difficult for any one person to be an expert in the full stack.
  • You can’t stack tasks. The hyperfocus on technology stacks often ignores a more important stack: the ability to stack tasks in a workflow (as opposed to working on them in sequence). For example, an efficient delivery team should be able to plan Use Case D while building Use Case C while testingUse Case B while optimizing Use Case A. Such task stacking is impossible if one person is responsible for all the tasks.
  • Relying on full stack talent makes your program brittle and inflexible. Full stack talent is, by definition, special and hard to find. This also makes it very brittle: lose one or two people from a team, and work grinds to a halt. A team organized around full stack talent is also very difficult to flex: it's much easier to outsource a narrowly-defined specialist role than a full-stack role.

Moving from full-stack CxDs to full-stack teams

To be clear: there are lots of good reasons to embrace the full-stack concept. This is why so many CxDs have invested time and money in mastering end-to-end Conversational AI delivery—and why so many companies have come to rely on them.

But one thing we've learned from auditing some of the best Conversational AI teams on the planet is that the costs of relying only on full-stack CxDs eventually outweigh the benefits.

The good news is that an alternative concept already exists: the full-stack team. 

A full-stack team is an end-to-end delivery team consisting of specialists in planning, design, building, optimization, and technology. This modular approach turns all the shortcomings of the full-stack CxD concept on its head:

  • Each of your specialists is given the opportunity to do one or two things extraordinarily well, and extraordinarily fast. This is great for output and morale.
  • Complexity is less of an issue, allowing your team to embrace new technology faster and with less risk.
  • Tasks can be stacked/coordinated across timeframes or even deliverables without reducing quality or burning out team members.
  • Your team as a whole is more resilient and can be easily flexed up or down to meet demand.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, a modular full-stack team of CAI specialists at different seniority levels isn’t necessarily more expensive than a team of full-stack CxDs. 

Nor does having more people in the mix mean a loss in efficiency or quality. The trick is to have thoughtful processes based on best practices that allow team members to be more productive—and more happy.

To learn more about CDI’s Auditing Services, please contact Global Head of Sales Ben Taylor, on [email protected].