Interview with Vineet Mahajan, Chief Technology Officer at U.S. News
The Challenge: Real-Time Engagement Was Missing
Vineet Mahajan:
What we felt the gap was—we weren’t doing real-time analysis of consumer data. Our systems were built around traditional data warehousing and batch processing, which made it difficult to respond to users in the moment.
That’s where we brought in the Blueshift CDP.
Building Unified Profiles from Real-Time and Historical Data
We integrated our data warehouse with the real-time event data Blueshift collects from user engagement—on-site and from other touchpoints. By connecting these two sources, we were able to start building unique customer profiles that updated dynamically.
Once we had those profiles, we could begin engaging with users in real time, whether they were on our site or interacting through other channels.
Plug-and-Play Data Connectors Saved Time
Another thing I found extremely valuable was the connectors that come with Blueshift—both for data ingestion from third-party sources and for activating segments across platforms.
These connectors made it easy to bring in external data and push out personalized messaging without long integration timelines.
Data Democratization: A Game-Changer for the Business
One unexpected but hugely important benefit was data democratization.
In a typical data warehouse setup, internal users need to go through the technology team to get insights. Whether it’s a report or a dashboard, it becomes a request-and-wait process.
But once we had our data integrated within the CDP, that changed.
Blueshift offers enough built-in functionality that marketers and analysts no longer need engineers to query or customize dashboards. They can self-serve, explore, and activate data directly within the platform.
Marketers Move Faster—Without Relying on Engineers
This wasn’t even a capability we were looking for when we started—but we quickly realized how transformative it was. Blueshift gave our teams the ability to move faster, act on insights, and personalize experiences without technical dependency.
