Information about the extra- or intracellular environment is often captured as biochemical signals that propagate through regulatory networks. These signals eventually drive phenotypic changes, typically by altering gene expression programmes in the cell. Reconstruction of transcriptional regulatory networks has given a compelling picture of bacterial physiology, but transcriptional network maps alone often fail to describe phenotypes. Cellular response dynamics are ultimately determined by interactions between transcriptional and non-transcriptional networks, with dramatic implications for physiology and evolution. Here, we provide an overview of non-transcriptional interactions that can affect the performance of natural and synthetic bacterial regulatory networks.