Articles

composable Article

Agentic CMS: Why Kontent.ai’s Vision for the Future of Content Management is Inspiring 

matt-garrepy

AI ROI? A-OK: MACH Alliance Report Says Enterprises with Composable Foundations are Netting Returns

Flying the Agentic Skies: easyJet’s Paul Curtis on Taking Off with Agents and Soaring with MACH

Orchestrate and Create: Umbraco Compose Streamlines Integration of New Technologies and Agentic AI

Griddo DXP Powers University Websites and Digital Experiences with a PhD in Performance

Step into the AI ‘Time MACHine’: Jason Cottrell of MACH Alliance on what’s ahead in 2026

What is a CMS in 2026? Mark Demeny on AI, Content Supply Chains, and the Future of Content Management

Combatting Composable Regret in 2026

filip-larsen

The Headless Holodeck: Joel Varty of Agility CMS on Warp-Speed Demos, AI, and the Next Generation of CMS

Hotjar - Spot what confuses

Spot what confuses your users with Hotjar & AI

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Welcome to the 'Agent Ecosystem': MACH Alliance unites tech leaders to build the future of enterprise AI

There’s a little-known psychological condition called footballis doldrumus that affects millions of people each year.
This peculiar phenomenon strikes around mid-July – the “dog days,” as we say – causing North American football fans to incessantly pine for the pigskin. The hotter the summer, the more intense the craving. And this has been a hot one.
Symptoms include (but are not limited to): listing the season opener as a holiday on your Outlook calendar, leaving messages on refrigerator wipe boards that read “6 weeks left ‘til kickoff,” and waking up from a deep sleep and shouting first and ten for no apparent reason.
It’s a sinister malady that Joel Varty is undoubtedly familiar with, given his own experience on the field. When we met in New York City this past May, he told me about his son’s goal of playing football at the collegiate level, and perhaps one day in the NFL. I learned later that Joel played during college, and has a passion for coaching. 
As a victim myself of footballis doldrumus, talking with Joel was a bit like a support group on multiple levels. I resisted any mention of Tom Brady for fear of getting too off-topic (or sounding like an insipid fanboy), and we focused instead on the real-world challenges impacting the content management game.
In his role as Chief Technology Officer at <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/agility-cms-introduces-simplified-pricing-tiers-for-headless-content-management/">Agility</a> – <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">a headless CMS</a> – Joel is facing a deep bench of competitors with similar strengths on the field. As many platform features become commoditized, executing the right plays to differentiate is essential to win.
When I learned that Agility was releasing new updates to its UI, I caught up with Joel to learn more about his company’s strategy and get his perspective on the marketplace. We talked about how composable is changing the game, why trust is critical to customer experience, and how he’s quarterbacking his own way to victory.
<h2>Coaching the long game in CMS </h2>
Like most content management veterans, Joel’s path to product was circuitous. While playing football at the <a href="https://www.uoguelph.ca/" target="_blank">University of Guelph</a> in Ontario, he parlayed a love of prose into programming and graduated with honors in English and Computer Science.
It’s not an uncommon story in the development world. Some of the best coders I’ve ever worked with started analyzing James Joyce before JavaScript.
Guelph is also where Agility’s CEO, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonvoigt/">Jon Voigt</a>, attended – and the two have been teaming up ever since. They both endured the rise and fall of the dot.com era, and that lead to a stint of website consulting gigs that encompassed the buildout of their own CMS.
“[I think] everyone has said, ‘hey, I can build my own CMS’ at some point,” he recalls with laughter. “We started ours around 2005 and kept doing it because we really like working together. But by 2017, we decided we didn’t want to build websites anymore – we just wanted to build a CMS, and we think headless CMS is the way to go.”
Joel also said that one of the catalysts for this shift in priorities was the maturity of the Agility CMS itself. Not only was it stable and trusted at a foundational level, but it now had enough customers running on it to make financial sense. As a totally bootstrapped company with solid profitability, they were able to sell off some of their existing contracts in 2018 and go all-in on the CMS.
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<h4>“I think where Agility shines isn't in a specific vertical market. It's with folks who have complex, unique needs – and you have to approach those in a special way. We love to teach our partners how to do that.”</h4>
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“It was really hard to let go,” Joel admitted. “Giving [our business] to partners was a double-edged sword, but it was great to stop competing with our partners. We were always the first party vendor building stuff, so we didn't feel it was fair to have a product we have an upper hand with.”
I asked Joel how they made the transition successful, particularly around client care. I’ve heard this projects-to-products story many times, but the failures often come from a lack of top-down leadership and cultural investment – like a self-inflicted form of pass interference. 
“We actually looked at our core values as a company, and really focused on teaching,” he said, “so we took the lessons we’ve learned and started teaching our partners how to do things. I think where Agility shines isn't in a specific vertical market. It's with folks who have complex, unique needs – and you have to approach those in a special way. We love to teach our partners how to do that.”
Teach... or coach? Either way, Joel and his team have made the knowledge transfer a big part of the Agility experience. This includes clear documentation, tutorials, transparent practices, and regular communication with their community of users. 
<h2>Outplaying sameness with service </h2>
At a recent event, I was discussing the headless CMS category with several attendees, and the subject of commoditization came up (as it frequently does). One of the pedaled analogies was that DXPs are akin to “apples and oranges” based on their feature sets, while headless CMSes are more like red apples versus green.
I asked Joel about this swelling box of apples and how he views the commoditization challenge.
“It’s interesting because there's almost more of a move to be enough of the same so that you're recognizable across vendors – like things have to be ‘same enough,’” he observed. “If you're too different, that's not actually a good thing, because it's hard to compare in a DX or composable space. So we strive to be ‘same enough’ while being unique.”
Commoditization is a real threat, but Agility is rising above the challenge by investing in its customer experience. This is embodied by its “White Glove Service,” which assures each client receives human interaction – which Joel admits is a challenge for most vendors as it inhibits scalability. But when the average lifetime of an Agility customer is eight to ten years, there’s value in this hands-on approach.
This felt like a key differentiator to me, so I asked if it was a key selling point for Agility.
“We haven't been using it enough,” Joel said. “We need to listen more to that part of our customers’ reactions. Our product was built based on customer feedback, and that's how we decide what we're going to do. It's 100% customer driven. We spent a lot of time and effort tracking what people say and want regarding features. And that's how we decide what we build into the product.”
To that end, Agility continues to provide transparency around its roadmap, engaging with its users via <a href="https://roadmap.agilitycms.com/tabs/3-launched" target="_blank">roadmap.agilitycms.com</a> around ideation. Joel said developers are very vocal within their community, but Agility strives to ensure that marketers and business decision-makers have a voice. That’s important, given the critical role of content operations within most enterprises.
“Our ideal customer needs to understand the value of content,” he explained. “Sometimes it's the developer, an information management role, a head of marketing, a CTO – maybe even the CEO of a smaller company. But if they can get the value of that content… then that’s going to be a good fit for Agility.”
<h2>Tackling the composable hype-cycle with trust</h2>
As a headless CMS, I asked Joel what he thought about the growth of composable and the advent of <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/wrestling-with-category-confusion-in-the-dxc-slackdown/">DXC (digital experience composition)</a> and other categories emerging in the space. On the one hand, DXC vendors like <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/uniform-raises-28m-in-series-a-funding-round-for-composable-dxp/">Uniform</a> are solving the visualization challenges for headless CMSes. But are these TLAs (or “three-lettered acronyms” for the unindoctrinated) helping or hindering our understanding of the composable space?
“My opinion is those acronyms are holding us back as much as they bring us forward,” he said. “They give us something to talk about, but you always have to go beyond that. There's always some explaining that has to happen when you're talking to someone who actually wants to use this in their business. I think it comes down to having more trust between people.”
That trust is hard-earned, as Joel explained. <a href="https://www.cineplex.com/" target="_blank">Cineplex</a>, one of Agility’s customers since 2007, has relied not just on its CMS, but on the expertise of a team that understands their business imperatives. Over the years, trust in Agility has guided the cinema giant’s digital transformation, from site rebuilds to infrastructure changes. This ingredient of trust has shaped Joel’s perspective on composable, which is as much about the business considerations as the technology posture.
“I think the idea of enterprise software should mean long-term ROI, not just fast ROI,” he said. “How can you take a piece out and put it back in, or fix something that you don't like? That, to me, is like the best of composable.”
I probed further about the importance of composable standards and the rise of the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">MACH Alliance</a> over the last few years. The organization has advocated for best-of-breed technologies that meet the rigid standards of MACH (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, Headless). Are relationships with vendors in DXC, e-Commerce, search, and other categories becoming an important growth channel for headless CMS?
“Yes, and the long-term goal is to have a combination of technology and relationships accelerated, where it's like a pre-built stack or grid that everyone knows works,” he said. “So CMS is going to be hosted here, and it will have this for search, this personalization, and this for commerce. We know how it all works together – and everyone trusts it.”
Joel admitted that we might be three or four years away from any broad market buy-in, suggesting that it’s still a hard sell given the institutional culture of some IT departments. This is why the efforts of thought leaders within the MACH Alliance community have been key to advancing the growth of composable.
“They won’t get it until they trust it,” Joel punctuated.
<h2>Agility’s new UI delivers more than a fresh uniform</h2>
I heard Agility’s plans for its new user interface some time ago, well before its scheduled GA. While modernizing a UI is an accepted part of any software lifecycle, it offers as many opportunities as challenges. Most people loathe change – so any modification can be met with temperamental responses. That’s why this UI "refresh" is as much about empathy and sentiment as it is about systems and processes.
I wanted to hear how Agility approached this undertaking, and what stood out for Joel.
“Interestingly enough, we started this new UI project about 18 months ago,” he revealed. “The last time we redid our UI was in 2015, and Jon [our CEO] and I knew that you always do it once and then refresh it after everyone's already had a chance to see it. We started base testing with cohorts of new or existing users, and we actually brought design in-house – which, for a smaller company, was a big deal. We also have this amazing person who A/B tested different things and conducted interviews to determine what makes [users] feel better. And we focused as much on that as we could and tried to be very consistent about how we handled content.”
As Joel detailed the process, it was clear his team didn’t cut things out or remove extraneous elements just to satisfy the simplification goal. To his point, CMS users claim to want all the features – even if they won’t be using them.
“There's a real balance there,” he continued. “But overall, we wanted things to be faster and easier across the board and ultimately make people feel better.”
I had a chance to peruse the new UI while comparing it to the classic version (which will continue to be available to users). Right off the bat, the visual design system is cleaner and more streamlined, offering a modern lightweight experience that feels more like an app. The main navigation panel provides more contrast, aimed at reducing eye strain during prolonged use. The authoring tools are still intuitive and familiar, a staple of Agility's previous UI. 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/07/agility-new-ui-2023-1024x692.jpg" alt="New Agility software UI" />
You can read about the full scope of features <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/agility-unveils-refreshed-design-system-in-ui-delivering-enhanced-user-experience-and-accessibility/">in our previous post</a>, but a few stand out, including new filters that offer augmented search. Users will find the new org selector handy, and there’s a slick heartbeat indicator coming that will provide greater visibility around specific events and tasks. Also noteworthy are the drag-and-drop model editor and the table column reordering, both designed to simplify and accelerate tasks.
You can check out the UI for yourself by creating an Agility account at <a href="http://www.agilitycms.com">www.agilitycms.com</a>. While Joel and his team are still fine-tuning some details, scope creep has pushed the original launch date into late July – a frustrating reality of software launches.
“But I think it will be worth it,” he said. “Our company anniversary is July 19, so I'm kind of thinking maybe that's a good day.”
<h2>Keeping the game fun – even with AI on the field</h2>
I’ve already waxed extensively about Joel’s affinity for football. But that affection is grounded by a deep gratitude for his family and their shared pastimes. Much like his dual pursuits of literature and computer science, he blends a love for athletics and a passion for art and scholarship in his life outside Agility.
“I am super blessed with two really, really cool kids,” he said glowingly. “My son plays football, and I've been a dedicated ‘dad coach’ for that. But my daughter is super into theater, and I love directing, being on stage, or getting involved from a community standpoint. It's got nothing to do with technology – it's just having fun.”
As we rounded out our time together, the subject of AI meandered into the conversation. What does Joel think about the advent of this technology and its impact on content? He has, after all, helped shape the CMS space over the last two decades. What does the world look like now that ChatGPT is a growing fixture in the creative process?
“I look at it like this: ChatGPT needs us,” he said. “It copies ideas. Nothing comes out of thin air, and someone has to come up with the ideas.”
Kind of like a quarterback audibling on the field. Sometimes, human instinct takes over – no matter how rehearsed the play might be. And while AI may prove its worth as a key automation tool, it’s heartening to hear from a content veteran that people are still core to the process.
As a headless CMS in a densely-packed market, Agility is executing in all the right ways. And with so many seasons under its belt, the platform and its people have proven resilient in the face of change. That speaks volumes about its vision and go-to-market strategy, which gives it a strong position in the new composable game. 
I still reserve the mantle of GOAT for Tom Brady, but Joel definitely has my vote for the “CMS Hall of Fame.”

Playing to Win in the Headless CMS Game: Interview with Joel Varty, CTO at Agility CMS

<hr /> Hey, it’s Friday, folks! Queue the confetti!!!If you don’t already have a skip in your step, I highly recommend adding some music to your current situation. And if you happen to stumble upon a terrestrial ‘80s rock station or Spotify playlist, maybe you’ll <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_for_the_Weekend">get lucky and score some Loverboy.</a>As those Canadian crooners have maintained for almost a quarter of a century, everybody’s working for the weekend…Of course, “working stiff” anthems aside, Murphy’s Law is also a song on repeat, particularly in the digital world. We’ve all heard the macabre pipe organ play when a “503: Service Unavailable” message appears on screen where a website homepage should.Why on Friday? And why does stuff invariably hit the fan at 4 PM, just as Happy Hour starts calling your name?That’s the central premise of a fictional yet highly relatable blog series from <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelvarty/">Joel Varty,</a> CTO at <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/agility">Agility CMS.</a> It’s called “The Incremental Approach,” and across four snappy installments, it weaves a sordid tale of haywire and hope – and how a leaked press release turned a Friday afternoon into a ring of fire (hats off to the OG loverboy, Johnny Cash).I won’t give too much away, but this engaging series reminded me of the many lessons we learn along the way, and how there’s no replacement for real-world experience. For those of us responsible for the uptime of high-availability website workloads, “game day” testing our infrastructure for unexpected traffic spikes, outages, and other scenarios is essential. But there are always things we can’t see or prepare for – even with the best runbooks and failovers in place. For those situations, we need human assets. Seasoned leadership. Teams that are ready to think on their feet and bring unconventional ideas to the table.As Loverboy might say, the trusted people who have a piece of your heart. If your Friday is dragging, inject it with a little fun! This story has everything you want: drama, intrigue, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/nextjs">Next.js.</a> All the trappings of a world gone mad, and how a headless CMS – and its intrepid team – saves the day.Tapping his signature humor, Joel traverses his own playlist of hits, from how a CDN can turn a sad song into a happy one, how running code at the edge can rock the room, and how incremental steps can rewrite the lyrics and take a whole new tune to the top of the charts. You can read the series here:<ul><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://agilitycms.com/blog/the-incremental-approach-go-to-market-in-less-than-half-the-time-part-1">Agility CMS: “The Incremental Approach” – Part 1 </a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://agilitycms.com/blog/the-incremental-approach-go-to-market-in-less-than-half-the-time-part-2">Agility CMS: “The Incremental Approach” – Part 2 </a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://agilitycms.com/blog/the-incremental-approach-go-to-market-in-less-than-half-the-time-part-3">Agility CMS: “The Incremental Approach” – Part 3 </a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://agilitycms.com/blog/the-incremental-approach-go-to-market-in-less-than-half-the-time-part-4">Agility CMS: “The Incremental Approach” – Part 4</a></li></ul> <hr /><h4 style="text-align:center" id="looking-for-guidance-on-agility-cms?-talk-to-an-expert.">Looking for guidance on Agility CMS? <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/contact">Talk to an expert.</a></h4><hr /> <h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:31.83%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/01/cms-connect-2025-logo.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-connect-25"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect25">CMS Connect 25</a></h4>August 5-6, 2025 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present the second annual summer edition of our signature global conference dedicated to the content management community! CMS Connect will be held again in beautiful Montreal, Canada, and feature a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. Join vendors, agencies, and customers from across our industry as we engage and collaborate around the future of content management – and hear from the top thought leaders at the only vendor-neutral, in-person conference exclusively focused on CMS. Space is limited for this event, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect25">so book your seats today.</a>

Hey Loverboy, Don’t be Heartbroken: Agility CMS Offers Levity and Lessons in ‘The Incremental Approach’ 

<hr /> <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jina-zohori/">Jina Zohori</a> is a customer fanatic. OK, maybe customer-centric is more corporately apropos. But given her passion and gusto, fanatic feels a little more on target. It reflects her enthusiasm for championing success at a human level – and bringing <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/agility">Agility CMS's</a> powerful yet simple solutions to content creators and developers.She also sees this rabid customer commitment as a holistic calling, one that marshals an entire organization's collective efforts.“Being customer-centric isn't just marketing's job, or sales’ job, or customer success,” she said during our chat at <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/the-deep-dish-on-composable-6-tasty-takeaways-from-the-mach-alliances-2025-conference">“The Composable Conference”</a> a few weeks ago. “It's an engineering job. It's everybody's job. Technology is for everybody. And that experience, driven through our technology, doesn't have to stop at our customers.”That attitude is one of the many reasons why Jina is a rockstar leader – and exactly what Agility CMS needs to navigate the dense and fiercely competitive jungles of the headless CMS landscape. As president, she combines her tech savviness and business acumen to drive strategy and meet the needs of her users, especially those in the deep trenches of digital experience and content creation.When I met with Jina at the recent <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/the-composable-conference-2025-takes-shape-as-mach-alliance-announces-speakers-and-new-events">MACH Alliance conference in Chicago,</a> I was eager to talk to a headless CMS that was a member of the open, best-of-breed cabal. This year’s conference modified the formula a bit, and I wanted some perspective on what’s changed through the CMS lens – and how the Alliance is continuing to support the goals of <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">content management systems. </a>This is a key question, especially as the market wrestles with questions about the ROI of composable strategies. As stories of failures and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7310313384015511552/">contradictory posts by VTEX</a> color the decision-making, customers are looking to their trusted SIs and vendors to help them navigate the complexities.As a 22-year veteran of the space, Agility is taking it all in stride. A big part of their success? You guessed it: customer centricity. And as Jina explained, that’s manifested through Agility’s focus on meaningful outcomes.“Our bread and butter isn’t just our content management system as a platform,” she said, “but the experience you gain through that as an editor, as a developer, and of course as an end user consuming that content on the front end.”<h3 id="the-evolution-to-headless-cms">The evolution to headless CMS</h3>While we didn’t go deep into the archives, Agility’s heritage is arguably one of its key advantages. With more than two decades under their belt, they’ve seen market opportunity and turmoil – and continued to persevere. Over the years, the Canadian-born and bred platform has earned a stellar reputation, powering large-scale enterprise brands like Cineplex, Scotiabank, and Mitsubishi Electric with its headless CMS. Like many of its legacy peers, life began as a solution to a common agency problem.“When we were building sites for our customers, we realized, 'Hey, it'd be really great if we had a CMS for this,'" Jina said. "Not only would we be able to have everything housed in one really nice package, but it would give the customer more autonomy, so they're not reliant as much on the developers, which would be us at that point.”As a consultancy, building websites opened more doors for implementing their homegrown CMS. As the footprint expanded, the mission shifted from easing the burden for their internal developers and giving more ownership and domain to their customers.The pivot to a headless CMS architecture came later, as CEO and co-founder <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonvoigt/">Jon Voigt</a> and CTO <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelvarty/">Joel Varty</a> saw the advantages of decoupling to provide even greater control and autonomy for developers. According to Jina, this journey began before the headless “Gold Rush.”“Prior to ‘headless’ being coined as a term, we were already looking at how we become more cloud-native, API driven, and decoupled,” she said.It wasn't quite SaaS at that time, but as Jina explained, Agility was aiming for greater flexibility and optionality, so the front end – whatever it might be, whatever channel the presentation layer should be – provided greater freedom and control.“It allows users to just be able to do more.” And the rest, as they say, is history. From an architectural perspective, Agility’s scalable and flexible posture makes it a seamless solution for composable stacks. I’ve spent a lot of time in the Agility UX, and it reflects thoughtful and persistent innovation. The company makes a conscious effort to engage customers around product betas to help perfect their tooling, which has resulted in its <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://agilitycms.com/product/web-studio">rock-solid Web Studio</a> and other features that put the headless CMS over the top. <h3 id="the-road-to-mach">The road to MACH</h3>Agility has been a member of the MACH Alliance since mid-2023. Since then, the Alliance has ballooned to well over 100 member technologies, many of which have aligned to deliver a myriad of composable solutions. As Jina described, the MACH ecosystem of partners – and the resulting collaboration – has really made an impact for Agility.“What MACH does for us is it gives us that sense of community,” she said. “Not just headless in the CMS space, but all these other vendors that come together and provide a full composable solution. Which, again, gives more autonomy to our customers to be able to easily plug and play with different technologies to fit their stack and their needs to better service their customers.”<h3 id="mapping-the-future-with-ai">Mapping the future with AI</h3>AI was on everyone’s mind at “The Composable Conference,” from agentic AI to agentic commerce and beyond. Like all of its other endeavors, Agility has been careful and intentional around its AI roadmap, blocking and tackling around the hype and engaging with customers around their practical and “blue sky” wish lists.Being at the conference helped crystallize things for Jina – and reinforce Agility’s approach.“Obviously, AI is a big part of what our future roadmap looks like,” Jina said. “But being really strategic and listening to these kinds of stories helps refine that for us. So there's an idea of what you think your customers would want, and you're like, okay, I'm gonna give them AI. But really, how is it impacting their day-to-day experience in our platform to do more with less?”As Jina explained, Agility’s AI play is focused beyond the low-hanging fruit, focusing on tangible ways to make their product experience easier, smoother, and more enjoyable to use.“You're on the platform for eight hours a day sometimes,” she reminded me. To that end, usability is key, and AI should help simplify everything from block editors to manipulating pages and templates. “We're really focused on that day-to-day usage and how we enhance and make that better for our users.”<h3 id="takeaways-from-“the-composable-conference”">Takeaways from “The Composable Conference”</h3><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/the-deep-dish-on-composable-6-tasty-takeaways-from-the-mach-alliances-2025-conference">As I've written about previously,</a> this year’s MACH Alliance confab provided different tracks for attendees, designed for the early “MACH Curious” to “Active” and “Pro” practitioners. Obviously, Agility falls into the latter, and I wanted Jina’s perspective on what stood out.“I've been hearing some of the stories from potential customers, and a lot of the MACH Alliance members are telling us about their pain in the beginning of moving towards a composable stack,” she said. I heard this from attendees as well. She noted that some of this angst might have come from the lackluster promise of easy-to-use software combined with a gap in proper training – or even the introduction of “green” staff with limited experience.One of the big changes Jina zeroed in on was the shift in narrative surrounding use cases. Based on her observation, last year’s content focused more on vendors and how their composable tech stacks were central to solving problems. This year, brands took center stage, and customer experience was the focal catalyst for composable transformation. Interestingly, Jina gained a lot of perspective on this from attending the “MACH Curious” sessions.“I wanted to [know] what triggers people to want to move to a composable solution,” she said. “If they're solving these problems with their monolithic solution, and it’s doing the thing it's supposed to do – the website's up, it's running, it's great, it's converting – what's triggering you to think about what else you can do to make things easier?”Smart. And as Jina noted, uncovering the factors requires a deeper dive with the people working on the product and the solution, and the brands in attendance were openly sharing their lessons on a multitude of dimensions. She found this to be incredibly refreshing.“I love that we're [putting] customers first,” she said exuberantly. “It's not all about how I use these really great brands to build out my tech stack, and now we're making X/Y dollars. A lot of the presentations actually had some of the metrics completely wiped out. Because it wasn't about that – it was about the customer experience.”An “agile” conclusion if there ever was one. Here’s six minutes with Jina:  <figure class="media"><div data-oembed-url="https://youtu.be/dIXrxCrTBho"><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:100%;height:0;padding-bottom:56.2493%"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dIXrxCrTBho" style="position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;top:0;left:0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div></figure> <hr /><h4 style="text-align:center" id="looking-for-guidance-on-agility-cms?-talk-to-an-expert.">Looking for guidance on Agility CMS? <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/contact">Talk to an expert.</a></h4><hr /> <h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:33.07%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/05/contentcon25-logo-1747412490394.png" /><h4 id="contentstack-contentcon-25"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.contentstack.com/contentcon">Contentstack ContentCon 25</a></h4>June 3-5, 2025 – Chicago, USAThe future of digital is waiting for you! Contentstack presents ContentCon, the premier event for digital teams and industry leaders who are reimagining the future of digital experiences. Join us for two days of transformative presentations and workshops designed to help you put personalization and AI strategies into action. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://contentcon2025.site.zuddl.com/">Register today! </a> <img style="width:31.83%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/01/cms-connect-2025-logo.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-connect-25"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect25">CMS Connect 25</a></h4>August 5-6, 2025 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present the second annual summer edition of our signature global conference dedicated to the content management community! CMS Connect will be held again in beautiful Montreal, Canada, and feature a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. Join vendors, agencies, and customers from across our industry as we engage and collaborate around the future of content management – and hear from the top thought leaders at the only vendor-neutral, in-person conference exclusively focused on CMS. Space is limited for this event, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect25">so book your seats today.</a>

MACHtales: Voices from “The Composable Conference” with Jina Zohori of Agility CMS

<hr /> During a recent <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/agility">Agility CMS</a> “Ask Me Anything” webinar, I was subjected to a trifecta of “dad jokes” – courtesy of <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/playing-to-win-in-the-headless-cms-game-interview-with-joel-varty-cto-at-agility">Joel Varty</a>. In addition to his part-time standup vocation, Joel is the Chief Technology Officer of the Toronto-based headless <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">content management system</a>, where he’s spent almost two decades innovating around digital experiences and supporting notable brands like Cineplex, Mitsubishi Electric, and ScotiaBank.As a comically blessed father myself (IMHO), I appreciated his technique and material – especially the closer about a sad math book that couldn’t solve its own problems. Insert rimshot.Dad jokes aside, Joel is as cool as they come on stage. I’ve seen him bake under the hot lights of the now-famous <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/blog/2024/8/kajoo-wins-cmsidol24-montreal">“CMS Idol” competition</a>, and from my perspective, he’s one CTO who keeps his demo muscle in solid shape (I’m sure there’s a dad joke in there). As advertised, Agility’s AMA session effectively “pulled back the curtain” on its new <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://agilitycms.com/product/web-studio">Web Studio,</a> which promises enhanced features for customers to create, preview, and collaborate on web content. Web Studio reflects a tacit transformation we’ve been seeing across the headless CMS market, one where pure-play platforms have been bridging the visual gap. Content creators want a simple UI that enables them to see exactly what their stuff will look like when it’s live. At the same time, they need to collaborate with team members to preview, review, comment on, and approve their pages before publishing. Agility's Web Studio delivers the full monty and then some – with dynamite features already penciled in on the roadmap. The company has flown Web Studio with a few test pilots as part of what it calls its “Ambassador Program,” and the solution is getting solid reviews. As part of the AMA, I got a first-hand tour of Web Studio, and I concur. As billed, it’s a heckuva lot more than just a WYSIWYG editor. The entire experience feels intuitive, elegant, lightweight, and easy to navigate – and fits seamlessly into Agility’s clean, minimal framework while providing easy access to all the essential tooling. <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:66.45%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/joel-brendan-headshots.jpg" alt="" /></figure>Agility's AMA presenters: Joel Varty, CTO (left), and Brendan Cooney, Senior Manager Joel conducted the webinar with <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bmcooney/">Brendan Cooney</a>, Senior Manager at Agility. They showcased how content creation and teamwork are central to the new experience and woven into its new attributes.A bit of history on the genesis of Web Studio: It began as a feature called Preview Center, which made its debut at the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://aarhus25.boye-co.com/">Boye Aarhus 2023 Conference</a> and ended up <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/blog/2023/11/agility-wins-the-2023-small-feature-award">winning the event's coveted “Small Feature Award.”</a> The achievement sparked some new thinking – both practical and blue sky – which Joel crystallized during the AMA.“What if Brendan’s typing in a field, and then I’m typing in a field? What happens there? That snowballed into ‘now we need Figma-style comments,’ [and] ‘now we need Google Docs style content editing.’ So it kind of turned into a whole lot of things, which is really exciting for us.”Here’s a snapshot of what I saw, and what you can expect as it rolls out.<h3 id="it’s-a-lot-less-lonely-with-presence">It’s a lot less lonely with Presence</h3>One of the coolest new features in Web Studio is the Presence Indicator, which visually displays an icon of who’s online in the system. With a click, you can jump to the specific page or asset that a person is working on and collaborate in tandem. It’s simple but super handy – and editors are sure to love it.  <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:83.64%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/agility-web-studio-presence.jpg" alt="" /></figure>The Presence Indicator (appearing at the top of the Agility UI) shows other team members actively working in the system As Joel and Brendan noted, Presence accentuates collaboration in a personal way, making the experience feel like hanging out with friends. By reducing the friction to share and connect within the system, Agility is offering a more human (er… humane?) experience – one that can reduce the challenges around communicating and collaborating.<h3 id="instant-field-locking-and-built-in-commenting">Instant field-locking and built-in commenting</h3>Content collisions are a pain, but version conflicts might be a thing of the past with Web Studio’s slick new field locking feature. Simply slide the lock button into place and you effectively control your session. At the same time, your collaborators can see what fields you’re working on and what changes you’re making in real time. Users can also leave comments with total ease. Just tag a team member with an “@“ and leave a notification, comments, or even reactions. You can also resolve the comment once you reply, making the function more like a task assignment or project management feature. You can also access a full history of comments. All around, it’s definitely a win for users and teams.Once you see the commenting and collaboration tools, it’s logical to thread the needle with other communication tools in the broader ecosystem. As Joel indicated, users can expect both email and Slack notifications in the near future.<h2 id="previews">Previews</h2>Out of the box, Web Studio provides both a staging and preview environment in addition to your live view. It’s all easily within reach. You can also leverage the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://github.com/agility/web-studio-sdk">Agility Web Studio SDK</a> to decorate the fields and components. Previews also work with pages and content items. A big upgrade: you’ll be able to switch between multiple deployments, an action that's been less flexible in the past in Agility.  <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:86.64%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/agility-web-studio-preview.jpg" alt="" /></figure>Web Studio provides a seamless preview within Agility as well as easy-to-use commenting features You can also manually expand or collapse your window to preview and inspect different device sizes. That might sound like a simple expectation with most modern CMS UIs, but it's more fluid than you think. The word “silky” comes to mind, and it's worth seeing in action.One other cool benefit is the commenting mode, which allows you to click anywhere and leave comments on your preview. It's just another example of how collaboration has been baked into the foundation of Web Studio.<h3 id="decorating-components">Decorating components</h3>This is where developers can customize their components for editors. As Joel demonstrated in real time, you can access code in Agility to decorate your component fields, making it easier for developers to render changes and empower content creators to do their thing. Once his changes were complete, it was all pushed to <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://vercel.com/">Vercel</a>, and… presto. Ready in minutes.As he noted, it takes a little more time to set up new components the right way, but doing so ultimately enhances the editor experience. Joel reinforced the importance of this vital relationship between developers and content creators, and how it can unleash greater value.  <h3 id="the-critic-consensus">The Critic Consensus</h3>Visual editing and preview capabilities have become an expectation for every headless CMS. But delivering the right mix of capabilities – wrapped in a simple yet satisfying experience – is the real dealmaker. Agility Web Studio offers a differentiated visual experience and a fantastic upgrade to the platform’s easy-to-use interface. With trick features like the Presence capability, users should find it intuitive and (dare I say) fun to interact and collaborate around content. And in the high-pressure, high-stakes world of accelerating your marketing content, finding more productive and rewarding ways to make the journey is a win-win.The collaboration enhancements are slick, and the in-app commenting and task resolution capabilities are sure to please marketers, developers, and content creators alike. The seamless ability to share, review, and approve within Agility should help reduce bottlenecks and laborious back-and-forth emails.From a broader market perspective, headless CMSes continue to appreciate steady demand as fixtures across many RFPs. That’s also why we continue to see new platforms entering the market. While the noise has dampened from the peaks of 2023 and early 2024 (I must have been talking to a new headless platform every week), opportunity and choice continue to drive persistent growth.Generally speaking, choice is good for buyers. But above all, they want confidence and trust – and that’s where platforms like Agility have a key advantage in a sea of sameness. As a veteran player, they’ve amassed a solid track record with globally recognized brands, powering workloads with mission-critical performance and compliance considerations. <h3 id="one-last-note-on-the-‘art-of-the-live-demo’">One last note on the ‘Art of the Live Demo’</h3>No one wants to code in front of other people. It’s a bit like using a public restroom – which, for many people, is fraught with anxiety. When Joel started to manually update a component on the fly, he demonstrated how easy it is to customize. That said, when a few tags went off the rails, he kept his cool and made the whole process feel smooth and authentic. Call it Murphy’s Law, but there’s always a bump or two in the road. The “agility” (see what I did there?) to keep rolling when things don’t go as planned is, in itself, a testament to the presenter. If you’re evaluating a CMS, I still stand by the impact of a live demo from a qualified practitioner – bumps and all. Yes, good documentation is a must-have; ultimately, we're trying to empower our users and get out of the way. But a solid CMS in your composable stack is a critical decision, and Agility is doing it right by emphasizing the human part of its proposition.Speaking of which, you can learn more about Web Studio <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://agilitycms.com/product/web-studio">here</a>. Dad jokes not included. <hr /><h4 style="text-align:center" id="looking-for-guidance-on-agility-cms?--talk-to-us.-">Looking for guidance on Agility CMS?  <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/contact">Talk to us. </a></h4><hr /><h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-2025"><a href=" https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25">CMS Kickoff 2025</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaMeet industry leaders at our third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global CMS event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">so secure your tickets today.</a> <img style="width:30.46%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/cms-summit-25.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-summit-25"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit25">CMS Summit 25</a></h4>May 13-14, 2025 – Frankfurt, GermanyDon't miss the first European edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community! CMS Summit 25 will bring together top-notch speakers, our renowned learning format, and engaging social events. Hear from leading practitioners like Deutsche Bahn, Dr. Oetker, and more – and join customers, agencies, and CMS vendors as we discuss current trends and what's ahead for the content and digital experience fields. Connect and network at the only vendor-neutral, in-person conference focused on CMS. Space is limited for this exclusive event, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit25">so book your seats today.</a>

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