How a component CMS scales product UI experimentation

February 4, 2025ExperimentationBy Juliana Amorim

We know optimizing product interfaces is hard. Experimenting with product UI is not as simple as running AB tests on landing pages and websites.

Unlike traditional website content updates, which marketing teams can often handle independently using a CMS, product UI optimization typically requires engineering support, making the process slower and more resource-intensive.

This delay can hinder rapid experimentation and make it difficult to respond to business needs. Waiting for sprint planning, development, deployment, and code review which can easily take weeks or even months.

If marketers have website and landing page builders, the product team should also have a way to manage and optimize the product UI without over-relying on developers.

Hence, the component CMS.

But wait, we know it may be a new concept for you, so let's break that into pieces first.

What is a component CMS?

A component CMS is a modern approach to content management that structures content as reusable components rather than static pages or documents.

These components can be easily customized, versioned, and optimized within the product interface, allowing product teams to manage user experiences dynamically.

Unlike traditional CMS platforms that focus on content blocks and templates, a component CMS is designed for flexibility, allowing teams to:

• Define and modify UI components without altering the core codebase
• Integrate seamlessly with design systems and frontend frameworks
• Enable AB testing and personalization directly within the interface
• Maintain a structured content architecture that scales with the product.

How a component CMS gives product teams more autonomy

It's actually a mix of technical aspects and workflow-focused features. Let us explain.

1. Content consistency

A component CMS ensures that product consistency is maintained across all user-facing elements, reducing content differences that often arise when updates are made in silos. Here, we're both talking about consistency among pages and screens, but also consistency among devices.

2. Design system integration

By integrating with your design system, a component CMS ensures that designers won’t worry about unintended tweaks or inconsistencies in the interface, keeping everything aligned with the brand and UX guidelines.

3. Frontend framework compatibility

Since product interfaces are usually built using modern frontend frameworks, a good component CMS is designed to work seamlessly with frameworks like Next.js, React, and Vue, making it easy for developers to integrate with existing tech stacks.

4. Faster cycles

One of the biggest challenges product teams face is the slow iteration cycle due to engineering bottlenecks. A component CMS enables teams to:

• Adjust UI elements, layouts, and calls-to-action on the fly
• Launch AB tests and measure performance without deploying new code
• Optimize onboarding flows, pricing pages, or any other key product touchpoints
• Personalize content dynamically based on user attributes or behavior.

5. Low-code interface

Marketing and growth teams often rely on no-code platforms with a visual editor to optimize their website or landing pages. Since these types of technologies don't work well on product UI, a component CMS with a low-code user interface helps:

• Product teams control key UI elements without waiting for developer bandwidth
• Developers deploy dynamic elements without re-engineering the front end.

6. No development bottlenecks

With a component CMS, the product team gains full autonomy to manage content, run AB tests, and personalize the interface without the traditional development bottlenecks. This means not waiting for sprint planning, development, deployment, code review, etc.

Just like marketers have website and landing page builders, the product team should also have a component CMS to manage the product interface efficiently and independently.

Key features of a component CMS

A powerful component CMS typically includes:

• Structured content model: components are modular, reusable, and dynamic.
• API-first architecture: easy integration with different tech stacks and frontends.
• Versioning and rollback: track changes and restore previous versions effortlessly.
• Personalization and AB testing: target different audience segments dynamically.
• Real-time preview and editing: see changes in real-time before pushing live.

Main component CMS platforms

According to G2, several platforms offer component-based content management, each with unique strengths. Some of the top solutions include:

• Croct, a dynamic headless component-based CMS that enables AB testing, personalization, and real-time content optimization without disrupting the development process.
• Builder.io, a visual CMS that integrates with any front end, offering a no-code approach to building dynamic UI components.
• Contentful, a headless CMS with structured content modeling, ideal for enterprise teams managing multi-platform experiences.
• Storyblok, a flexible CMS that allows teams to customize content workflows while integrating with their preferred frontend tools.

Why component CMS is the future of product optimization

As product teams struggle with slow iterations, developer bottlenecks, or limited control over UI components and take on more responsibility for optimizing user experiences, a component CMS becomes a necessity rather than a luxury. It enables:

• Faster time-to-market with minimal developer involvement
• More flexibility in managing and experimenting with product interfaces
• Better collaboration between product, marketing, and engineering teams.

By adopting a component CMS, companies can move beyond static content management and towards dynamic, data-driven product experiences that continuously evolve based on real-world usage.

Want to see how a component CMS can transform your workflow? Try Croct today and start building dynamic, personalized user experiences with ease.