David Truog

VP, Research Director Serving Customer Experience Professionals

David leads a team of analysts focused on experience design and experience research. In addition, his own research focuses primarily on three areas: 1) emerging technologies — designing experiences that use natural language processing (chatbots and voice) and other forms of machine learning/AI as well as AR/VR, wearables, and IoT; 2) providers of digital tools and platforms for experience design; and 3) foundational ideas for experience design such as evidence-based innovation.

Previous Work Experience

As a Forrester analyst, David researched the design and development of websites and software. Since then, he has held various leadership roles in the research organization, managing teams ranging from eight to 60, cocreating one of Forrester’s most successful products, and heading up research quality and operations, prior to rejoining the CX team as a research director.

David began his career as a software developer and UX designer. In addition to eight years at software companies, he worked for nine years as a director and producer of short films throughout the US and Europe. He pitched, planned, researched, filmed, interviewed, edited, and composed music, creating 340 videos for clients as well as a series of 20 documentary shorts about topics in technology, design, and the life sciences.

Education

David holds a BA with honors in cognitive science from Amherst College, where he focused on cognitive psychology, philosophy of mind, and artificial intelligence and wrote a thesis that predicted the ascent of neural networks (deep learning algorithms) two decades before they displaced traditional approaches to artificial intelligence. He also holds an MA in the history of ideas from St. John's Graduate Institute, Santa Fe. Prior to college, David grew up in France, where he earned a baccalauréat from Lycée des Eaux Claires and discovered his passion for software development and UX design.

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David Truog

VP, Research Director Serving Customer Experience Professionals

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David Truog's Research

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For Customer Experience Professionals

REPORT: Why And How To Lead A CX Transformation

The Executive Overview Of The CX Transformation Playbook

January 27, 2021David Truog

A laser-like focus on CX is the best path to business success. Forrester has proven this by analyzing major brands' financial results and showing that they correlate with how customers perceive their interactions with those brands. Few companies have achieved that focus — for most, it will require a journey of deep transformation toward a new mindset and a new way of operating. This report for executives tasked with leading CX transformations provides an overview of our framework for how to complete this journey successfully: the CX transformation playbook. Forrester refreshes this report regularly based on new research.
For Customer Experience Professionals

REPORT: Gear Up For Experience Design

Tools And Technology: The User Experience Playbook

January 21, 2021David Truog

Companies investing in better user experience (UX) need tools for experience design (XD) but face a complex provider landscape spanning 19 categories of digital services and products. These tools help your XD team work faster, leaner, and smarter when creating experiences for your customers and employees. If you're responsible for making (or contributing to) your company's decisions about which of these providers to parter with, this report for XD leaders is for you. It will help you guide your company's spending decisions on XD tools and technologies.
For Customer Experience Professionals

REPORT: Why And How To Master Experience Design

Executive Overview: The User Experience Playbook

January 21, 2021David Truog

As customers gravitate to digital more than ever, companies are prioritizing user experience (UX). Why this response? Because experience quality can make or break a business, and the range from bad to good is even wider in the digital medium than in the physical world — from abysmal to magical. This report introduces Forrester's UX playbook, in which we examine: 1) three shifts elevating experience design (XD); 2) how XD teams are changing; 3) how to scale XD; 4) how to measure its impact; and 5) the technologies XD pros use to design faster, leaner, and smarter.
For eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

REPORT: The Forrester Digital Experience Review™: US Investing Websites, Q4 2020

Fidelity Leads With A Breadth Of Functionality, While TD Ameritrade Delivers A Strong User Experience

December 29, 2020 Vijay Raghavan, David Truog

Investment firms' websites have become hubs for their clients' investing activities and financial planning decisions. To gauge the ease and effectiveness of the experiences these websites offer, we evaluated those of nine large US investing companies. This report lays out where they excel, where they fall short, and how digital executives and their teams can learn from and improve the experiences they offer investors.
For Customer Experience Professionals

REPORT: Ingredients Of Great Design: Conquer Six Myths

Principles: The User Experience Playbook

December 15, 2020David Truog, Gina Bhawalkar, Karine Cardona-Smits, Andrew Hogan, Kelly Price, Joana de Quintanilha

Many companies striving to get better at designing experiences won't. Why? Because they fall for widespread myths about what design is, who should be involved in it, and how to do it well. For example, they believe that design is about look and feel and should only be done by professionals (or the opposite — another myth) or that iterating (which is essential to design and modern development) is about delivering sooner. This report highlights four key principles to help XD pros overcome these common misperceptions so your company can thrive on the design revolution.

For Customer Experience Professionals

REPORT: Why And How To Lead A CX Transformation

The Executive Overview Of The CX Transformation Playbook

January 27, 2021David Truog

A laser-like focus on CX is the best path to business success. Forrester has proven this by analyzing major brands' financial results and showing that they correlate with how customers perceive their interactions with those brands. Few companies have achieved that focus — for most, it will require a journey of deep transformation toward a new mindset and a new way of operating. This report for executives tasked with leading CX transformations provides an overview of our framework for how to complete this journey successfully: the CX transformation playbook. Forrester refreshes this report regularly based on new research.
For Customer Experience Professionals

REPORT: Predictions 2017: The CX Quality Split

An Elite Few Brands Will Break Away

October 31, 2016David Truog, Allegra Burnette, Tony Costa, Andrew Hogan, TJ Keitt, Rick Parrish, Kelly Price, Maxie Schmidt-Subramanian, Samuel Stern

The Customer Experience Index (CX Index™) leaders of 2015 barely improved in 2016, even as brands that had lagged behind caught up significantly. Does this herald a leveling out in 2017, with companies converging toward CX parity? No. This document lays out for CX professionals what will happen instead.
For B2C Marketing Professionals

REPORT: Vast, Fast, And Relentless: Consumer Buying Enters A New Era

What B2C Businesses Need To Know To Survive And Thrive In The Next Decade

August 11, 2020 Sucharita Kodali, Anjali Lai, Joe Stanhope, David Truog

It won't be news to anyone that consumers are more empowered than ever, but it's hard to pin down in precisely what ways they're empowered and how that changes the way businesses must serve them. If you're in a consumer-facing business, let us be the ones to break it to you: You're entering the most frenzied phase of innovation you've ever experienced, and consumers won't let you rest anytime soon. This report explores the future of buying and what B2C firms must do to be successful in the next 10 years.
For Customer Experience Professionals

REPORT: Forrester's Top Customer Experience Research Findings Of 2019

February 21, 2020 Rick Parrish, Gina Bhawalkar, Angelina Gennis, Andrew Hogan, David Truog

Forrester's customer experience (CX) research team published more than 100 reports in 2019. In this review, we pull our most important CX findings — across a range of topics — out of those reports and highlight them in one place. We also provide links to the original reports for CX professionals who want to dive more deeply into topics of interest.
For Customer Experience Professionals

REPORT: Demystifying The Language Of CX And UX

Essential Definitions For Your Execs To Avoid Making Misguided Strategic Decisions About CX And UX

October 2, 2018David Truog

CX and UX pros can't go it alone — you need your colleagues to be onboard, to deliver the right experiences to your customers. The foundation for this is a shared understanding of what you're talking about. To help grow your colleagues' fluency in essential CX and UX language, we've created a lexicon of key definitions in terms your colleagues will understand — simple, clear, and free of jargon. We've grouped them into tables — each one goes progressively deeper, so you can distribute them gradually, to educate without overwhelming.