How Empathy Drives Digital Product Innovation at Caterpillar

What It’s Like to Build Digital Solutions at Caterpillar

Over the course of her 25-year career at Caterpillar, Magy Kramer has learned that the best products originate outside a conference room. 

Kramer, a senior director of digital product management for Caterpillar’s digital technology arm, Cat Digital, said that customer empathy leads to the most impactful solutions. 

Kramer’s team delivers robust digital solutions that enable customers to get the most out of Caterpillar’s equipment. Team members support the entire customer journey, assisting with everything from researching and purchasing equipment to connecting with aftermarket resources and locating their dealer.

“Everything we do — from machines and engines to digital products and e-commerce experiences — is ultimately about solving our customers’ toughest challenges and helping them succeed,” Kramer said.

To ensure customers find success with Caterpillar’s equipment, Kramer’s team follows various best practices, such as quarterly customer interviews, as well as ongoing stakeholder reviews with business partners and dealers. 

“Our role is to protect the customer experience, and we make sure the customer problem is understood at the beginning, middle and end of the digital solution,” Kramer said.

Empathy isn’t just a tool for building products. Kramer said it also helps her foster an environment of psychological safety on her team, which helps employees perform their best. Below, Kramer shared more about the work her team does at Caterpillar and how leaders like herself keep the company mission front and center.

Magy Kramer

DPM, Senior Director of Digital Product Management • Caterpillar

Magy Kramer’s Career Journey at Caterpillar

I am the senior director of digital product management in Caterpillar's Digital division, and I recently celebrated 25 years with Caterpillar. My team has responsibility for e-commerce and the owner’s experience. 

I lead a large digital product organization, the purpose of which is to empower customers with robust digital solutions to become owners and get the most out of their equipment. We support customers across their entire journey, from researching and purchasing equipment to connecting with dealers, managing ownership and maximizing value throughout the equipment lifecycle.

Some examples of the applications we support are Cat Central, cat.com and parts.cat.com. One of the things I enjoy most about e-commerce is that it sits at the intersection of technology, business strategy and customer experience. Success requires understanding customers, collaborating across functions and leading through influence.

“Success requires understanding customers, collaborating across functions and leading through influence.”

How Caterpillar’s 3D Parts Models Help Customers Find the Right Parts 

We deliver a personalized and easy e-commerce experience with simplified search, 3D images, AI, analytics-based recommendations and flexible global payment options. Ultimately, we help our customers find the right part at the right time to keep their operations successful. 

My team worked very hard and recently launched our 3D parts models. Enabling a customer to view the machine and part in 3D gives them confidence to buy the part. They can see the part online and visually confirm that is the part they urgently need. This type of parts identification complements text-based search. 

This enables a whole new way customers can experience finding parts with confidence. It cuts through any translation issues, misinterpretation and confusion of marketing versus engineering terminology. With 3D models, the customer can see the part in their hands or on the machine and online for validation and purchase. We measure parts identification through our customer surveys, and customers are happy.

How Caterpillar Keeps Customers at the Center of Product Development

Post-purchase customer surveys provide continuous, large samples that tell us what customers feel and how sentiment is trending. This is one aspect we use to keep the customer as our priority. Every week, our insights team also hosts business reviews. They review data from our digital experience and behavioral analytics platforms with our product owners. These tools are always on and capture the full population. This data tells us what customers do, where they drop off, where they struggle and what paths they take. We also conduct quarterly customer interviews, which are a deep-dive sample that tells us why and the underlying frictions and motivations behind the number. There are also ongoing touchpoints, stakeholder reviews and idea reviews with our business partners and dealers. Our role is to protect the customer experience, and we make sure the customer problem is understood at the beginning, middle and end of the digital solution.

Why Empathy Is a Business Skill at Caterpillar

One of the most important leadership lessons I’ve learned over my career is that empathy is not a soft skill — it’s a business skill. Early in my career, I thought effective leaders either commanded the room or were the nice person everyone liked. It took me time to realize there was a third option: Lead with empathy.

I saw this most clearly when working on digital experiences for our customers. The best solutions rarely came from assumptions made in a conference room; they came from understanding what customers were actually trying to accomplish and where they were struggling. When we took the time to understand their context, we built products that were trusted, adopted and ultimately helped customers solve real problems. 

The same applies to leading teams. When people feel safe, supported and clear about what success looks like, they do their best work. For me, that’s where I connect personally to Caterpillar’s mission. Building a better, more sustainable world starts with understanding the people we’re serving — our customers — and creating an environment where our teams can bring their best ideas forward to help solve their toughest challenges.

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