The Spotlight View: because no one acts on 360°
- Claas
- Sep 3, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 5, 2025
The “360° view” is one of those phrases that sounds like strategy but often turns into shelfware. Everyone says they want it. Every system claims to offer it. And yet, in the heat of real work, whether you're in sales, service, delivery, or leadership, you don't act on 360°.
You act on what's right in front of you.
That’s the paradox. We build massive platforms to capture everything about the customer, the case, the process. But when it's time to make a decision or take action, no one wants a full circle. They want a spotlight. A focused, timely, context-aware view that filters out noise and highlights relevance.
This isn’t just a UX preference. It’s a strategic necessity.
What the 360° view promises (but rarely delivers)
The idea behind a 360° view is noble: unify all touchpoints, build a complete picture, empower better decisions. In theory, that should enable smarter service, personalized sales, faster operations.
But in practice:
It becomes a data dumping ground.
Everyone has access, but no one knows what to look for.
Different roles stare at the same dashboard, trying to extract what matters to them.
In one CRM rollout I worked on, the team proudly launched a 360° customer view. Every contact, ticket, transaction, and survey result was just one click away. But users hated it. Why? Because what they really needed was simple: "Tell me what happened last week and what I need to do today."
Enter the spotlight view
The Spotlight View doesn’t try to show everything. It shows what matters now.
For a service agent: the last three interactions, flagged sentiment, and a suggested action.
For a salesperson: churn risk, open deals, and one insight to open the next conversation.
For a team lead: delivery risks, blockers, and progress against outcomes—not task status.
Spotlight views are built on three principles:
Context over completeness
Action over aggregation
Relevance over role
They don’t eliminate data. They prioritize it.
Why this matters in practice
When systems try to be everything to everyone, they fail everyone. When we obsess over data integration but ignore information design, we create noise. When we build for visibility instead of usability, we lose adoption.
The spotlight view turns this around. It’s a design principle that says: give people less, but make it count.
Because people don’t need more data. They need better timing, sharper signals, and clearer choices.
What we rarely talk about: spotlight requires trust
One reason organizations default to the 360° view is fear, fear of missing something, fear of being blindsided, fear of having incomplete information.
But the spotlight view is a preselection. It assumes someone (or something) made a judgment about what matters now.
That only works if there’s trust:
Trust that nothing critical is being hidden
Trust that the system will flag exceptions
Trust that users can raise their hand when something’s off
Without that trust, people revert to "show me everything," and the value of focus disappears.
Recommendation:
When designing spotlight views, don’t just ask what’s relevant. Ask what the organization is willing to let go of seeing by default. Build processes around surfacing what the spotlight might miss, not around recreating the 360° view.
Where consultants can help
This is where we, as consultants, can challenge the brief:
Ask: What does the user actually need in the moment of action?
Avoid: Don’t just implement a "360 module." Design workflows.
Push: Prioritize insight delivery, not just data architecture.
Test: Show users two views—one full, one focused. Let them choose.
The spotlight view isn’t a compromise. It’s a smarter use of data.
Final thought
360° views look impressive in demos. But in the real world, nobody turns in circles.
Great systems don’t just collect. They direct.
And in the moment where action matters, what your users need isn’t everything. They need a spotlight.
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