The composable DXP: digital experiences of the future?

A composable digital experience platform (DXP) is fully composable: each component works on its own and communicates with the others through APIs. There's been a lot of talk about composable DXPs. Are they the digital experiences of the future? Who better to ask than Roger Connolly, Vice President of product management at Sitecore?

We did this interview in 2022. XM Cloud, mentioned below, was relaunched as SitecoreAI in November 2025.

Hi Roger, thanks for making the time. Let's dive right in: Sitecore is moving to a composable DXP. Technology is one thing, but why would a marketer want a composable digital experience platform? What's in it for them?

What composability offers a marketer is above all choice. Gone are the days when your entire marketing stack can and should come from a single vendor. In the end, the marketer is the business user who has to run their organisation, and we want to let them keep using the best tools for the job, and offer seamless ways for Sitecore to plug into that ecosystem.

Make no mistake, we'll keep focusing on being best in class across categories, but we acknowledge the reality of the modern marketing stack.

How do you see Sitecore's CMS evolving? What's the vision for Sitecore's web CMS in the move to a headless CMS?

Since JSS launched in 2018, Sitecore XM has let our customers deliver headless experiences, and each release added richer features, such as Experience Edge.

But we recognise the market is looking for a true standalone, SaaS-native headless CMS, and we will bring a new product to market this year to fill that need. Sitecore customers will then have a full range of SaaS solutions for their needs, from quick departmental and campaign sites with low-code and no-code solutions, to enterprise-grade multi-site and multilingual experience management with advanced customisation.

That sounds exciting! Talking about headless: why should a marketer choose a headless CMS?

We believe in a no-compromise approach to headless for the marketer. That's why we feel strongly that the future of headless must offer best-in-class composition tools. That way, marketers design their experiences with WYSIWYG tools, on top of a powerful headless CMS built with the developer in mind.

Most of our clients have a Sitecore XP platform. If they're planning a personalisation roadmap, what's the best, future-proof approach: Sitecore XP's personalisation features or Sitecore Personalize?

Sitecore Personalize is a level up in the breadth and depth of its omnichannel personalisation, combined with a modern, API-first SaaS architecture. Existing XP customers can easily enable Personalize by adding a JavaScript tag to their websites. We're exploring more ways to give existing XP personalisation customers a path to the Sitecore personalisation engine.

Could you explain the difference between Sitecore Personalize and Sitecore CDP?

Sure! Simply put: Sitecore Personalize is a standalone product for personalisation and experimentation, without the need to implement a full CDP. CDP is best for customers who want to activate offline data (through batch or interactive ingestion) alongside real-time behavioural data. CDP offers advanced segmentation and analytics on the resulting customer profiles.

Will all the products, like Sitecore Send, Sitecore CDP, Sitecore Content Hub and Sitecore XM Cloud, be integrated natively?

We're pursuing a multi-pronged integration strategy across the portfolio: a combination of point-to-point integrations where they add value (such as creating personalisation segments from within XM Cloud), consistent APIs, and a common services backbone to exchange data between products. All of it will be accessible through a common customer portal.

And finally: what's your favourite feature on the Sitecore roadmap?

Sitecore will launch 4 new products in content alone in the next 12 months, so we're thinking way beyond features at this stage. The most exciting "feature" for me is Project Symphony. It will completely change the way our customers use Sitecore products to build their digital experiences, and deliver world-class composability within the Sitecore portfolio and beyond.

Four new products: that sounds interesting. A big thank you to Roger for his insights!

Inspired by the possibilities of Sitecore? Let's talk! We've been building digital experiences with Sitecore since 2012.