Defining Experience as Interactions Creating Emotion

Charissa defines experience as interactions that generate emotion and outlines cross-functional levers shaping it.

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Charissa Riddle, Senior Director of Experience Design and Customer Experience Strategy and former EA executive, brings over two decades of experience spanning Electronic Arts, PayPal, and eBay. Known for operating at the intersection of design, operations, and strategy, Charissa has led global teams serving tens of millions of customers and players, tackling challenges like toxic behavior, self-service at scale, and embedding customer insight into decision-making.

In this conversation with TheyDo’s Jochem van der Veer, Charissa reframes customer experience as a system rather than a department. They explore why CX loses power when it becomes too broad, how experience should be defined through actionable containers, and why stewardship of customer truth is the one responsibility CX leaders should never give away. Together, they unpack how governance, storytelling, and decision-making rituals determine whether CX drives real business impact or remains a reporting function.

Guest Bio

Charissa Riddle is a senior experience design and customer experience strategy leader with more than 20 years of experience across gaming, fintech, and marketplaces. Formerly at Electronic Arts, PayPal, and eBay, she has led global teams focused on experience design, service strategy, and operational transformation at scale. Charissa is known for her systems-level thinking, her ability to align cross-functional stakeholders, and her focus on turning customer insight into measurable business outcomes.

Key Takeaways

Customer experience loses effectiveness when it is defined too broadly and without clear ownership or scope.
CX works best as a system that connects interactions, emotions, and business outcomes across teams.
Experiences should be defined in clear containers with entry points, exit points, and measurable impact.
Metrics should be built from the experience outward, not imposed top-down as abstract efficiency measures.
Stewardship of customer truth, journeys, and decision-making governance is a non-negotiable CX responsibility.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and framing CX beyond customer service

03:30 Why CX originated in service and why that still matters

06:16 CX as a mindset, function, or system

08:22 Defining experience as interactions that create emotion

11:32 Connecting emotion, loyalty, and business outcomes

18:06 Why CX definitions fail when they get too big

21:15 Accountability, containers, and governance

25:12 Making journeys tangible for leaders

29:30 Storytelling that drives decisions

31:47 Building a journey atlas at scale

35:36 Moving from metric-driven to experience-driven measurement