#70 Making CX technology work: Insights from James O'Connor on strategy and leadership

#70 Making CX technology work: Insights from James O'Connor on strategy and leadership

From CX Leadership Talks by Nienke Bloem CCXP

January 26, 2026 · 50 min · Episode 69

About this episode

Nienke Bloem interviews James O’Connor about leveraging technology to enhance customer experience leadership.

In this episode of CX Leadership Talks, Nienke Bloem is joined by James O’Connor, one of the early architects of customer experience as a professional discipline. James brings more than 20 years of experience working at the intersection of customer experience, strategy, operations and technology. He was one of the first CX advisors at Forrester, where he worked closely with CX leaders and executive teams across global organisations. Later, he continued his work in advanced analytics and customer strategy at Bain & Company. In this conversation, Nienke and James dive deep into a topic many CX leaders struggle with: technology. Not tools for the sake of tools, but how technology can truly accelerate CX leadership, business impact and decision-making. They talk openly about why CX technology so often disappoints, why imperfect technology sometimes works better than “Ferraris”, and what CX leaders should focus on if they want technology to actually deliver value. This is a practical, honest and strategic episode for CX leaders who want to move beyond dashboards, vendors and hype, and start using technology as a real leadership accelerator. Timestamped overview 00:00 Mentorship…

People in this episode

Host: Nienke Bloem

Guest: James O’Connor

Topics covered

  • customer experience
  • technology
  • leadership
  • strategy
  • analytics

Keywords

  • CX technology
  • customer experience
  • leadership
  • business impact
  • analytics

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Forrester, Bain & Company

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