Breaking the "Braze Glass Ceiling" Created in Traditional Onboardings

Previously we explored how onboarding decisions can quietly set the ceiling for everything that follows in Braze in this post. But what if your onboarding is already “complete”?

The SDK is live, Events are processing, Campaigns are sending, and so on.

And yet something still feels off, maybe even underwhelming.

If you’re already live on Braze, consider this quick diagnostic.

• Do most new campaigns require engineering support to launch?

• Are you primarily sending scheduled batch messages instead of behaviorally triggered journeys?

• Do advanced features like AI personalization or complex Canvas logic feel aspirational rather than operational?

• Has experimentation slowed because your team lacks confidence in the data model?

• Did onboarding end because the calendar expired rather than because your desired marketing capability was achieved?

If you answered “yes” to any of these your onboarding may have left you hanging (and not necessarily a technology gap).

The reality is this: onboarding sets the ceiling for everything that follows. It defines your data structure, your team workflows, and your speed of evolution. When it’s rushed, generic, or purely advisory, the long-term cost compounds.

The good news? This Braze glass ceiling isn’t permanent…and here’s how you can break it.

Step 1: Assessment – You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

The first mistake teams make is assuming they simply need to “try harder.” When in reality, what you actually need is clarity.

Bring in subject matter experts, whether internal leaders, external specialists, or experienced consultants, you need people who can provide an objective evaluation of:

1. Feature Utilization

• Which Braze features are actually in use?

• Are they configured properly?

• Are they being used strategically or merely operationally?

Many teams technically “use” Canvas, segmentation, or personalization, but not in a way that maximizes impact. There’s often a smarter architecture or more efficient segmentation model hiding in plain sight.

2. Data Architecture

• Are the right events being captured?

• Are attributes structured to support personalization?

• Are you over-reliant on static lists instead of real-time behaviors?

Underserved onboarding often results in rigid data models that quietly limit downstream innovation.

3. Deliverability & IP Health

If email is part of your channel mix, assess:

• IP warming history

• Sender reputation across providers like Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft

• Bounce and complaint rates

Sometimes the ceiling isn’t about journeys at all, it’s about foundational email health.

And it’s important to keep in mind assessment like these aren’t about assigning blame, it’s about creating visibility so you can begin to make a plan.

Step 2: Reset – Rebuild the Foundation Intentionally

After an honest assessment, the next move isn’t incremental improvement, it’s intentional recalibration. A real reset means stepping back from day-to-day campaign execution and redefining what success inside Braze actually looks like.

Revalidate Your KPIs

What does “high-performing” mean for your organization today?

• Revenue per user?

• Retention lift?

• Lifecycle acceleration?

• Cross-channel engagement depth?

Too often, teams inherit onboarding-era metrics tied to launch milestones instead of business impact. Establish baseline performance benchmarks before making structural changes. Without a quantified starting point, optimization becomes guesswork.

Reprioritize High-Leverage Use Cases

Not every campaign deserves equal attention. Look to separate mission-critical lifecycle automation from “nice-to-have” batch sends. Focus first on journeys that compound over time such as:

• Welcome flows

• Abandonment triggers

• Replenishment reminders

• Churn mitigation programs

These automated systems often drive outsized ROI and lay the behavioral foundation for advanced personalization later.

Redefine Autonomy

Adoption is not a milestone: it’s a roadmap. With that in mind ask yourself:

• Should marketers be able to build complex Canvas flows independently?

• Should segmentation be fully self-serve?

• Should experimentation cycles run weekly instead of quarterly?

Define what operational maturity looks like, and treat capability development as an ongoing objective.

Secure Executive Alignment

Breaking the ceiling may require data refactoring, renewed engineering resources, or expert support.

Framed correctly, this isn’t remediation, it’s acceleration. When leadership understands that foundational improvements unlock long-term efficiency and ROI, the reset becomes an evolution, not a setback.

A rushed onboarding may have set the original ceiling. A deliberate reset is how you raise it.

Step 3: Optimize – Tune the Engine

Once the foundation has been reset, optimization becomes both possible and powerful. But true optimization is not about randomly testing subject lines or tweaking send times. It is about tuning the entire engagement engine, structurally and tactically, to support scalable growth inside Braze.

Macro Optimization: Architecture

• Are events firing reliably and in real time?

• Are attributes structured for dynamic personalization?

• Is your API trigger framework scalable?

The biggest constraints often live in infrastructure decisions made months earlier, not in campaign dashboards. Therefore, refining data inputs, platform configurations, and orchestration logic increases both flexibility and velocity.

Micro Optimization: Execution

• Smarter segment logic

• Intentional branching in Canvas

• Tighter experimentation loops

• Strategic layering of AI personalization

Advanced features should no longer feel theoretical. They should become operational habits. Every journey should be architected backward from a clearly defined business objective rather than forward from a feature checklist. As Stephen Covey famously advised, “Begin with the end in mind.”

Optimization without clarity creates motion without momentum. Once every marketing flow, trigger, and test is designed with a specific outcome in mind, then your KPIs will realize the gains you’ve been looking for from the start.

Optimization is not a one-time initiative. It is an operating discipline. And once the structural barriers are removed, it becomes the mechanism that steadily pushes your team beyond the glass ceiling.

Step 4: Education – Build Internal Capability

Technology maturity is not sustained by configuration alone, it’s sustained by capability. Even the most elegantly architected system will stagnate if the team operating it lacks confidence. That is why education must evolve from a one-time onboarding deliverable into a continuous investment.

Identify Confidence Gaps

• Do marketers fully understand segmentation logic?

• Are they comfortable building complex Canvas journeys?

• Is experimentation embedded into weekly workflows — or avoided?

Capability gaps are rarely uniform. Targeted development is far more effective than generic training.

Leverage the Braze Ecosystem

Braze offers certifications, role-based learning tracks, and technical modules that many teams underutilize.

The Braze Amplifier marketplace and complementary tools can also streamline workflows and reduce friction; sometimes the barrier to progress isn’t knowledge, it’s tooling.

Ultimately, breaking the glass ceiling requires more than fixing architecture. It requires developing operators who can think strategically, build confidently, and iterate independently. Education transforms a configured platform into a high-performing system because capability, not configuration, determines long-term ROI.

The Bigger Mindset Shift

The most important thing to remember is that it’s never too late to get your Braze platform back on track. A sluggish system isn’t a verdict - it’s a signal.

Many high-performing teams didn’t get it perfect the first time. They reassessed, they reset, they optimized, and they invested in capability. 

They moved from:

• Activation --> Autonomy

• Campaigns --> Orchestrated journeys

• Manual execution --> Intelligent automation

  
  

That’s when the glass ceiling finally breaks, and that’s when the ROI you envisioned at purchase actually begins to materialize.

If you’re not sure where to start cleaning up your stagnating platform contact Covalent to schedule a strategy session and break through your Braze Glass Ceiling today!