🧠 Knowledge Series #20: Headless architecture explained

The benefits, downsides and how to migrate to a headless solution

🔒The Knowledge Series is a collection of easy to read guides designed to help you plug the gaps in your tech knowledge so that you feel more confident when chatting to colleagues. Clearly explained in plain English. One topic at a time.

If you’re a free subscriber and you’d like to upgrade to unlock them you can do so below. Or you can find out more about paid access here.

---

Hi product people 👋,

Headless architecture is now a well-established part of the modern product stack. If you work in an organization that has recently had to migrate to a new content management solution, chances are you've at least considered using a headless product.

But while the the concept is fairly straightforward, getting your head around the intricacies of headless solutions and how they fit into the wider tech stack can be difficult.

In this Knowledge Series, we’ll explore what headless architecture is, why you might want to use it and if you do decide to take the plunge, how to manage that migration process smoothly. We’ll explore some potential downsides of headless solutions, too. 

Coming up:

• What does headless mean?

• The benefits of using a headless set up

• Real world examples and practical uses of headless for product teams

• How to migrate to headless solutions and potential downsides

---

The Knowledge Series

What does the term headless mean?

Headless architecture refers to the separation of the front-end presentation layer of a website from the back-end logic and database. This separation allows for greater flexibility, scalability, and customization. 

The ‘head’ part of headless refers to the front end. And making the decision to use a headless solution means that you’re opting for a solution that dictates only how the backend operates, leaving you free to decide how the front end should look, completely independently of the backend.

Imagine a restaurant where the kitchen prepares the ingredients but the waiting staff decide how the food is presented. That’s a little bit like how a headless set up works; the backend ensures the structure and data is all in place but the front end decides how it is eventually presented back to users.

Ultimately, headless solutions are about flexibility. Building a store using something like Shopify’s standard package and content management system means you’re essentially locked into their site builder and styling. If you choose Shopify's headless solution instead, it means you can customize your front-end and back-end separately and present the front end in any way you want.

We’ll explore some real world examples together shortly but before we get into those, it’s important to understand the basic anatomy of headless architecture.

The anatomy of headless architecture

When your team decides to go down the headless architectural route, the headless product or solution you’re working on will typically include a mix of the following: