About
13 years of Product Marketing and Product Management experience
4 years of Sales…
4 years of Sales…
Articles by Max
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The Hybrid Effect in Cloud Communications
The Hybrid Effect in Cloud Communications
Over the last couple of years, we’ve been hearing more about hybrid cloud computing and communications as companies…
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Where the Customer Journey meets the Agent Journey
Where the Customer Journey meets the Agent Journey
Think you can't provide a good customer experience and meet your cost requirements for your Contact Center? Join Ovum…
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Activity
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Max Ball shared thisA Landmark I've never seen celebrated before: Today I turn 66.6666666... Something I've not heard anybody mark as a milestone but, hey, why not? I could even have a 2/3rds life crisis. (a bit of a stretch to assume a 100 year lifespan but it makes the math easy). Not feeling tragic at all but if people are allowed a mid life crisis, or even a quarter life crisis - why not 2/3rds? Long live the 2/3rds!!!
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Max Ball shared thisTime sure flies when you are having fun! How lucky am I to have a job that I love with interesting people to talk to, a loud bullhorn to yell through, and ideas and challenges to keep me on my toes for 5 years!!! Very lucky I'd say.
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Max Ball shared thisI've blogged and whined and whinged about this - but I HAD to work it out on the couch with Julien. So Important to have a chance to talk through your issues. It was helpful to me - hopefully, it will be helpful to companies out there who are considering bots without any sort of human back-up. https://lnkd.in/gpdeYJYJ
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Max Ball shared thisMy time spent with AI has accelerated greatly over the past month or so... - Lots of time with copilot at work - I THINK it's making me much faster - I need to learn to edit something instead of write it - there are differences in that skill set and I tend to just accept what somebody (or somebotty) writes as good regardless of how good or bad it may actually be. I need to kill that instinct which is easier said than done. - Lots of time at home - Starting to move beyond using GPT as a fancier search engine and setting up dialogs to think through bigger things in my life - it can be very useful for that. (AND it tells me how wonderful and thoughtful I'm being on every question - I need to get over the warm glow that this gives me - it's software from criminy sakes). Is it just me? am I a laggard here? How is your relationship with AI evolving?
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Max Ball shared thisFor those of you deeper into agentic frameworks than I - how to architect your agentic framework.Max Ball shared thisI've been working with a ton of different teams building agentic applications in the past year and one theme keeps repeating: Enterprises are hungry for an idealized reference architecture for agentic AI. It doesn't exist, and trying to design as if it does is a quick way to create more technical debt. The problem? Agentic AI architectures are evolving too quickly for any design to remain "finished" for long. Just the past 12 months have seen rapid progress in architectural concepts around guiding model behavior - we went from context engineering to harness engineering to meta-harness engineering to loop engineering. Its not possible to build an agentic system that will stand the test of time. The organizations I see making the most progress aren't building toward a static end state. They're building modular capabilities that can adapt as models, tools, governance requirements, and business priorities change. In my new report for Forrester clients (blog linked for non-clients), I take practical lessons from enterprise firms who have taken agentic AI into production and break down eight foundational pillars of agentic architecture—runtime, reasoning, memory, tools, security, testing, governance and guardrails, and orchestration. Successful architectures are modular, deliberate, and adaptable rather than platonic target states. What's the architectural challenge you're struggling with most today: runtime, memory, orchestration, security, governance, testing, tools, or reasoning? https://lnkd.in/gy2n7Rbe #AgenticAI #EnterpriseAI #AIArchitecture #ArtificialIntelligence #SoftwareArchitecture #EnterpriseArchitecture #AIEngineering #GenerativeAI #MultiAgentSystems #Forrester #AIGateways #ContextEngineering #HarnessEngineering #LoopEngineering #FoundationModels #FrontierModelsArchitect For Evolution, Not Perfection, In Agentic AIArchitect For Evolution, Not Perfection, In Agentic AI
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Max Ball shared thisInteresting insights alert! William Maxwell McKeon-White who looks after Conversational AI for employee facing applications just published his "lessons learned" report with some of the stories and headlines behind his Wave. Interesting insights and aligned with a lot of what I learned from my Wave on ConvAI for customer service. https://lnkd.in/g9UF8t9SFive Lessons From The Forrester Wave™: Conversational AI Platforms For Employee Services, Q3 2026Five Lessons From The Forrester Wave™: Conversational AI Platforms For Employee Services, Q3 2026
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Max Ball shared thisMost of you think about me as a CX nerd but another rabbit hole that I go down is license plate nerdom... Anyone else share this affliction? We are coming up on a big moment in CA license plate history. Since 1980 the pattern for license plates in my home state have been this (number, letter, letter, letter number, number number). Look at this picture - we are almost out of plates that fit this pattern. It sounds like the new format has been in production since March but it takes a while for them to get distributed out. If you are in CA keep your eyes peeled for the new format. (I won't share what it is - I don't want to spoil the surprise). Do share if you see one!!! This image courtesy of my daughter's rent a car from this weekend.
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Max Ball shared thisInteresting story yesterday from Sabri Ben-Achour on Marketplace by APM on AI and customer service and how technology is (or is not) changing things. It's a great story but the highlight for me is hearing my voice on the program that I've been listening to since it's inception many many years ago. (okay - it's one sentence and I sound a bit like a frog at 9:00 AM when this conversation was recorded). The story is about 18 minutes into the episode - enjoy! https://lnkd.in/gs273-xM
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Max Ball shared thisWho knew I'd need this picture again so soon? https://lnkd.in/g3HFy9vK I have to vent on my experience in London with a large booking company. Ian Jacobs and I were traveling to London for a show and booked a two bedroom apartment for a couple of nights. Here is my smart customer service article with details on the story. Less than a week before the trip, the reservation was cancelled with no explanation and I was given three options all of which had only1 bedroom. Justin Robbins - Who knew AI could be as bad as your nightmare hotel manager who recommended you share a bed with a stranger? At least we were given options with two beds. Here is that story if you missed it: https://lnkd.in/gDzmZHmB.
Max Ball replied to a comment
12h
Tamal Islam Probably not - however, I did mark 33 and a third - but I didn't remember to do 45 - I have 78 in my future - maybe then.
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Max Ball liked thisMax Ball liked thisTwo AI tells that aren't an "—" that you should stop using immediately: 1️⃣ The use of "quietly" to describe any next verb. Quietly building; quietly disrupting; quietly ANYTHING 2️⃣ The use of "actually" to get to the point of what's happening or uncover the truth. Write for yourselves, everyone. Your unique word choice and syntax is what makes your ideas stand out... and it also makes reading them more fun. PS: Your writing should convey a feeling or conviction the way that you experience it—as textured and personal as this rainstorm my kid and her cousin played in during our trip to Buffalo this summer. How is it September already?
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Max Ball liked thisMax Ball liked this🎉 Celebrating Milestones and the Culture That Makes Them Possible 🎉 This August, as we celebrate employee milestone anniversaries at Forrester, I asked a few of our colleagues what has inspired them to build such lasting careers here. 🏆 Janice Moritz, celebrating 20 years, shared: "What has kept me at Forrester for 20 years is a culture that recognizes results and turns achievement into meaningful opportunities to grow my sales career in line with my aspirations." Anette Uronen, marking 10 years, reflected: "Forrester has given me the opportunity to continuously grow, reinvent myself, and expand my impact, from leading teams and a region to helping clients navigate change, developing talent, and shaping innovations alongside extraordinary colleagues." Their words perfectly capture what makes Forrester special. 🎖️ Culture is at its best when people feel recognized for their contributions, challenged to grow, and empowered to create impact. I am incredibly grateful to all of our milestone celebrants whose dedication, expertise, and passion continue to shape Forrester's success. 🌟 Congratulations to our August anniversaries: 20 Years 🎉 : Janice Moritz, Craig Le Clair, Damian Gagne , Lizzy Mucci 15 Years 🎊 : Matt I., Pamela Laws, Jenna Wohead, @Autumn Maus, Christophe Favre 10 Years ✨ : Anette Uronen, Bob Diack 5 Years 🪴 : Daryl Wright, Courtenay O'Connor, Gulshan Dua, Mattias Ahl, Saurabh Pachauri, Erma Toppo, Ankit Tyagi, Benjamin Nagle, Rebecca Rose, Rick Bradberry, Max Ball, Monita Eng-Milton, Mike McCoy, Travis Patrick, Timothy D., Christina Schmitt, Raluca Alexandru 👏 Thank you for your commitment, your contributions, and for helping make Forrester a place where people can thrive. #LifeAtForrester #EmployeeExperience #PeopleFirst #CompanyCulture #Recognition #Leadership #CareerGrowth #ForresterLife
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CJ Abdulla
RingCentral has acquired CommunityWFM, a market leading, cloud-based, AI-first contact center workforce management software solution. The acquisition strengthens RingCentral's RingCX contact center platform with advanced AI-driven workforce management capabilities, streamlining contact center operations and elevating agent experience. https://lnkd.in/gTmR6pqx
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Rob Roy
“AI isn’t the threat — your leadership mindset is.” I shared this on a recent podcast with Michael Aronowitz and Lauren Kindzierski , where we dug into why AI adoption in enterprises fails more often at the human level, not the technical one. Here’s what every organization needs to understand: • Decision velocity > data volume — move fast, decide well. • AI = co-pilot, not just a tool — teams that work with AI win. • Leadership + speed = competitive edge — perfect data is rarely required. • Transformation requires mindset change — not just rewiring operations, but how you think about risk, failure, and reward. Your turn: Which decisions in your team are slowing you down — and where could AI help? Comment below — I’d love to hear your biggest challenge. 🎧 Watch/listen to the full episode below #AI #DigitalTransformation #Leadership #FutureOfWork #Innovation #RobRoy
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