The Customer Experience Community of Practice (CX CoP) has always been a gathering place. A moment in our days when we came together to learn from each other and to acknowledge the amazing work being done by our colleagues across the federal space.

Now, whether we like it or not, that space is changing. For the foreseeable future, it will not be the same place we knew, loved, and served. But even though that is true, the relationships and respect we built as feds remain. It’s for this reason we’re rebooting the CX CoP here in the private sector. We’re building this community for ourselves and for you, because we know that our relationships can and should outlast this moment.

We’re not going to lie: when we were told that our enterprise digital experience (EDX) work in support of 2018’s 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act wasn’t mission-critical, we were insulted. We worked every day to improve the digital experience for public and federal users, saving taxpayer dollars and unraveling red tape, and now this administration told us that what we did wasn’t necessary.

What we’ve realized, however, is that we weren’t let go because we were unnecessary; we were let go because of no reason at all. So, we look forward. We look forward to reconnecting with all of you, and we look forward to sharing human-centered CX, DX, and UX practice to public and private organizations and to building a culture that we love based on the culture that used to exist in the federal space.

Our community is you: the service-oriented, human-centered workforce. We’re holding the CX CoP so that we can gain insights, strength, and knowledge from each other. We’re building Ishmael Interactive, a business based on the excellent, human-centered CX and DX audits, workflow development, trainings, and deep-dives that we previously did as proud feds. The post has changed, but the mission continues. Join us, friends.

— With love and respect, Aaron Meyers, Ana Monroe, & Felecia Edwards