Serialization Exception in the Sitecore 8 Experience Explorer

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I recently received a serialization exception when attempting trigger a Campaign within the new Experience Explorer feature in Sitecore 8, using the LaunchSitecore demo site.

Expecting state 'Element'.. Encountered 'Text' with name '', namespace ''.

[SerializationException: Expecting state 'Element'.. Encountered 'Text' with name '', namespace ''. ]
ReadArrayOfKeyValueOfstringstringFromJson(XmlReaderDelegator , XmlObjectSerializerReadContextComplexJson , XmlDictionaryString , XmlDictionaryString , CollectionDataContract ) +885
System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.JsonCollectionDataContract.ReadJsonValueCore(XmlReaderDelegator jsonReader, XmlObjectSerializerReadContextComplexJson context) +154
System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.JsonDataContract.ReadJsonValue(XmlReaderDelegator jsonReader, XmlObjectSerializerReadContextComplexJson context) +61
System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlObjectSerializerReadContext.InternalDeserialize(XmlReaderDelegator reader, String name, String ns, Type declaredType, DataContract& dataContract) +210
System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlObjectSerializerReadContext.InternalDeserialize(XmlReaderDelegator xmlReader, Type declaredType, DataContract dataContract, String name, String ns) +69
System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.DataContractJsonSerializer.InternalReadObject(XmlReaderDelegator xmlReader, Boolean verifyObjectName) +177
System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlObjectSerializer.ReadObjectHandleExceptions(XmlReaderDelegator reader, Boolean verifyObjectName, DataContractResolver dataContractResolver) +628
System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.DataContractJsonSerializer.ReadObject(XmlDictionaryReader reader) +73
Sitecore.Common.Serializer.Deserialize(String data, Type resultType) +541
Sitecore.Common.Serializer.Deserialize(String data) +89
Sitecore.SecurityModel.UserRuntimeSettings.DeserializeInnerDictionary(UserRuntimeSettings data, String dictionaryKey) +259
Sitecore.SecurityModel.UserRuntimeSettings.Deserialize(String data) +198
Sitecore.Security.Accounts.User.get_RuntimeSettings() +333

I also found the same issue when running my LaunchSitecoreTDS code base on a fresh instance…

Debugging this was difficult, as no exceptions were popping up in Visual Studio, and nothing useful was being written to the logs other that this exception.
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