Data, Identity, Context

Layer 1: the records, the identity, the reasons why — fragmented here, every layer above pays for it.

Five-Layer ModelValue-First

The Five-Layer Model

Data, Identity, Context

Layer 1: the records, the identity, the reasons why — fragmented here, every layer above pays for it.

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Five-Layer Model

Data, Identity, Context, in the Five-Layer Model

Sources of truth, memory

The foundational layer — the org's Data, Identity, and Context, each read at the full breadth of the layer's own name.

FromThe data is there, but it's spread across the CRM, the ERP, spreadsheets, Google Drive, Microsoft Office, and a dozen other places. Identity isn't resolved across them. Context lives in the inboxes of the people who made the decisions.

ToThe CRM, the ERP, and Google/Microsoft surfaces all feed a unified foundation that the layers above can read coherently. Identity is resolved. Context is attached to the record, not to the person who created it.

What it holds

  • Data — every record about every customer, every interaction, every commitment, every transaction, held in a structure that lets the layers above actually use it. Not just "the data" in the spreadsheet sense — the shape of the data too.
  • Identity — who the org and its brands ARE. Broad: brand / show / person identity and voice (the identities that define how the org and its brands show up) belong here — not only the customer- and people-entity identity resolved across systems. Identity is who you are (foundational, L1); the interface is where humans meet that identity (L5) — two distinct layers.
  • Context — the org's contextual knowledge, broadly. Broad: the org's documented contextual knowledge — its linked knowledge graph, durable memory, and the source material feeding them — belongs here, not only the context each record carries about why it exists.

What's at stake

If Layer 1 is fragmented, every layer above it is doing fragmentation work — Sales is reconstructing context the Support team already had, Marketing is reaching out to customers without seeing the last conversation, AI agents are hallucinating because they can't see the underlying truth. Most "AI projects" that fail are actually Layer 1 problems wearing AI clothing.

NextCustomer Value Model

Each of these has its own address too.

This word is one of a whole language — four families, the named frameworks, and every inherited word they replace.

See it in the whole language