Understanding Segment Customization Limits in Customer Insights – Journeys

We’ve all been there. You’re building something great in Power Platform, everything’s humming along nicely, and then bam you hit a wall. Recently, we worked with users who ran into exactly this kind of roadblock with Segments in Customer Insights – Journeys, and it’s worth sharing because it highlights an important reality about virtual entities.

The Problem

Users working in the Customer Insights – Journeys app wanted to customize the “Segment” table (specifically msdynmkt_virtualsegment or msdynmkt_segment) to achieve what seems pretty reasonable:

• Add a new custom field to the Segment table
• Incorporate this field into an existing system view
• Integrate the field into the main form so it can be filled out

Standard customization stuff, right? The kind of thing you’d normally do without thinking twice.

Except… it didn’t work. And no amount of clicking, configuring, or creative problem-solving was going to change that.

What Went Wrong?

Here’s the thing about Segment tables in Customer Insights – Journeys: they’re built on virtual entities. That sounds like a technical detail, but the implications run deeper than you might think.

Unlike regular Dataverse tables that store data directly in your environment, virtual entities are essentially windows into external data sources. They don’t own their data; they’re just showing it to you. And because of that fundamental architecture, certain customizations that work perfectly fine on regular entities simply aren’t possible.

Think of it like trying to repaint a reflection in a mirror. The reflection looks real, behaves like it’s real in many ways, but at the end of the day, you can’t modify what you don’t actually own.

The Investigation

I dug into this one.I mean really dug in, bringing resources from Microsoft’s Product team into the conversation to make absolutely sure we weren’t missing something. And the verdict? There’s no supported workaround. The limitations exist because of how virtual entities fundamentally work, not because of a bug or oversight.

Understanding the Limitation

This is a core architectural constraint of virtual entities, including the Segment tables in Customer Insights – Journeys. Since they’re representations of external data rather than data stored directly in Dataverse, customizations like adding custom fields, modifying system views with new fields, or integrating custom fields into the main form simply aren’t supported. It’s not about something being missing from the documentation; it’s about the fundamental design of how these virtual entities operate.

So… Now What?

If you’re working with Segments in Customer Insights – Journeys and need to track additional information, you’ve got a few options:

1. Work within the limits. Use the existing Segment fields and features that are already supported. Customer Insights – Journeys offers powerful segmentation capabilities out of the box.

2. Consider workarounds with related tables. If you need to track additional metadata about segments, you might create a separate custom table that references segments and stores your custom data there.

3. Leverage related entities. Look at other entities in Customer Insights – Journeys that do support customization and see if your use case can be addressed through those.

4. Stay informed. Product capabilities evolve. What’s not possible today might be on the roadmap for tomorrow. Keep an eye on release notes and feature announcements for Customer Insights – Journeys.

The Silver Lining

While hitting a hard limit is never fun, there’s something to be said for knowing why something doesn’t work. Virtual entities have trade-offs: less customization flexibility in exchange for real-time access to external data without replication overhead. Understanding those trade-offs helps you make better architectural decisions from the start. And hey, at least now you know: if you’re planning to heavily customize Segment tables in Customer Insights – Journeys, you’ll need to work within the supported capabilities or explore alternative approaches. Your future self will thank you for planning accordingly.