The Experience Strategy Podcast

Historically, customers expected categories like hospitality and healthcare to support their wellbeing. Today, categories as wide-ranging as finance and electronics are expected to design for wellbeing. Don't think you're in the wellbeing industry? Think again. Cultural shifts and crises have changed the game. In this episode, we are joined by Sallie Fraenkel, the founder of Mind Body Spirit Network, and the former CMO & COO of SpaFinder and EVP for the Global Wellness Summit. Together we look at how changing customer expectations influence the perception of your experience and specific ways that you can meaningfully integrate wellbeing for your customers and company. KEY TAKEAWAYS A decade ago, customers sought pampering from experiences. With time, that has become less differentiating. In fact, it's become a functional job to be done. Now, customers demand a more systemic understanding of their needs. They want companies to deliver products that support their total wellbeing. To meet the wellbeing needs of customers, look at the role you play in their life systems. Understanding those intersections will help you better serve them as you synch, coordinate and align with their lives. Use moments of intention and reflection to understand what your customers value, and where they most need you to support their systems. GUEST BIO Sallie Fraenkel is the founder of Mind Body Spirit Network which was founded in 2014 to offer consulting services to wellness-oriented businesses and networking events for wellness-oriented individuals. Sallie's passion for wellness travel and tourism has led her to destination spas and resorts around the world where she has created numerous trips, tours and experiences for wellness industry-insiders and travelers. Between 2004 to 2014, Fraenkel served as CMO & COO of SpaFinder and EVP for the Global Wellness Summit. Her first career was in the entertainment industry where she ran the home entertainment division for Showtime. As a leader in the industry, Fraenkel serves on several boards including the Transformational Travel Council, GSN Planet, NYSPA, One Well World, Well Defined and Vacayou. Fraenkel draws upon the expertise of many professionals with whom she has collaborated during her career. She values creativity, ingenuity, authenticity, integrity, and connection in her work and that of others.

Experience Strategy has expanded over the past decade to include a wide range of disciplines: CX, UX, Patient Experience, Employee Experience, Service Design, and so many more. With all these exes running around, experience strategy can sometimes sound like a country & western song. Today we are joined by Gary David, a Professor of Sociology, and Professor of Information Design and Corporate Communication at Bentley University, and the voice of ProfessorEXP on Twitch. We look at how we can learn from cultural ethnography to tame the wild west of exes by learning shared languages and measuring what really matters. KEY TAKEAWAYS Disintegrated systems cost everyone: customers, companies, and employees It's tempting to rely on standardized metrics like NPS, but they often oversimplify and mislead paths in their understanding of customer needs. To measure what really matters, continue asking "why" and "to what end" to find metrics that matter for both the customer and the company. "Do you want to have measurable impact or real impact?" ~Gary David It's up to experience strategists to become multi-linguists who understand the intention behind different disciplines. Higher education is a prime example of disintegrated systems. To integrate, as with companies, employee and customer metrics must reward integration. BIO Gary David, a Professor of Sociology, and Professor of Information Design and Corporate Communication at Bentley University. He is the founder of ethno-analytics, LLC, a consultancy that focuses on integrated design and experience alignment. He has worked with major companies and small community organizations to help create better experiences for all stakeholders. He is a keynote speaker and organizational educator at garyconnects.com. He also is an educational livestreamer on Twitch under the moniker ProfessorEXP. He co-hosts Experience by Design podcast, where they explore 'experience designs of all kinds.'

Chip Conley, legendary hotelier, was dubbed the Modern Elder at Airbnb because he was twice the age of the average Airbnb employee and as curious as he was wise. As the internal mentor to the young Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, Chip got to see the value of intergenerational collaboration in a company that has now grown to be the most valuable hospitality company in the world. His bestselling book "Wisdom@Work: The Making of a Modern Elder" is a testament to rethinking the value of having 5 generations in the workplace and why more companies are doing their best to encourage their older workers to stay in the workplace longer. In this episode of The Experience Strategy Podcast we talk to Chip about his vision of the future, for experiences, our aging population, and our ways of working. Listen in to hear more about The transition from a #ExperienceEconomy into a #TransformationEconomy Transformational Travel Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs for customers and the intersection with @ClaytonChristenson's Jobs to be Done KEEP LEARNING: Experience Strategy Trend Report The Modern Elder Academy Wisdom @ Work by Chip Conley Peak by Chip Conley

Customer needs and expectations are constantly evolving. What can recent trends in customer expectations and context tell you about what's coming next? How can these inform your experience roadmap and prepare your business for what's next? Our goal is to provide data-driven trends for Experience Strategists that will help you with planning by identifying the major customer and cultural trends that should be informing your roadmaps and thinking for customer journeys, channels, and personas. Listen to our latest episode to hear the top trends influencing experience strategy and how they can move your company forward. Then, visit us at https://www.stonemantel.co/trendsreport to download our full report. What you'll learn: The top 6 meta trends influencing experience strategy in 2023 The research methodologies used to create the first-ever Experience Strategy Trends Report The cultural forces contributing to the experience strategy trends Examples of companies that are struggling or embracing trends Powerful ways to harness these trends for your business

In this episode you'll meet Jake Kahana, the co-founder of Caveday, a company helping you improve your relationship to work. Their global community has participated in over 50,000 hours of deep work "In The Cave." Learn how Jake and his co-founders started with a specific job to be done and then wrapped an experience around it to create a game-changing solution, how they use internal and external research to contextualize and inform their experience, and how they've adapted their product to current conditions. Be forewarned, you're going to ask yourself while listening if the way you're working is working. If not, Jake has some ideas for you. Key Takeaways Benefits of working in a flow state: generating more creative and novel ideas, faster learning, clearer communication, and higher quality work. Employee and Customer Experience Strategists need to focus on Modes (a mindset and a set of behaviors that people get into temporarily) No one taught us how to work so when we're doing work that feels really hard or really challenging, our brains want to bring in dopamine. It's like when we're having an awkward silence and we want to fill it with something comfortable we take our phones out. Top lesson learned: Identify an unmet need and then listen to your customers to find out if you're meeting it. Keep exploring Deep Work: Rules For Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport. Flow Research Collective by Steven Kotler and Huberman Lab in Stanford by Andrew Huberman. Parkinson's Law: the old adage that work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion. The term was first coined by Cyril Northcote Parkinson; The Economist talks about the essay he wrote for them here.

The Washington Post recently shared evidence that US employees have gotten dramatically less productive. The Wall Street Journal reported that companies like Ford are giving severance packages to underproductive employees. And pretty much every media outlet has told us that employees are "quiet quitting" in astounding numbers. Today we are joined by Corinne Murray, an employee experience thought leader who has worked at companies like WeWork, American Express, RXR, Gensler, and CBRE. We look at what's really driving our collective malaise, the influence and lasting impact of distributed and hybrid workforces, and how companies can create authentic and lasting employee engagement. Spoiler alert: they use the same strategies companies use to create lasting customer engagement. You don't want to miss this episode! Key takeaways: "Your people are your workplace" -Corinne Murray Engagement isn't about where we work, but how we work. The most successful employee experience strategies are powered by employee purpose. Instead of one size fits all, over-corrections that revert to familiar and comfortable formats, they talk to employees about what matters to them, and design balanced strategies to support those. Most companies are too focused on bringing employees back into the workplace rather than understanding what works best for the type of work the employee is doing. Check out this framework from Gartner for an example: https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/4-modes-of-collaboration-are-key-to-success-in-hybrid-work The best way to keep employees engaged and productive is to create policies that help them feel like the way they work is time well spent.

As we continue our exploration of Modes: the behaviors and mindsets people adopt to accomplish a goal, today we will reflect on prayer mode with Agapi Stassinopoulos the bestselling author of Wake Up to the Joy of You and Unbinding the Heart: A Dose of Greek Wisdom, Generosity, and Unconditional Love and most recently Speaking with Spirit 52 Prayers to Guide, Inspire, and Uplift You. If you're in the business of creating meaningful or transformative experiences, reflection is essential to your value proposition. History, and our research, have shown that people respond to having a higher purpose. Agapi shares the mindsets, behaviors and blocks that can stand in the way or create powerful impact. Be prepared for some delicious Greek wisdom. Key Takeaways Prayer is a technique that is found in many spiritual disciplines and serves to help people develop a higher purpose Understanding reflection and prayer mode can help us create more meaningful experiences Companies have more permission than they often think to support the spiritual wellbeing of individuals. To help people create routines, companies can reduce the expectation of special context, settings and props. By simplifying, you can overcome perceived barriers.

In this episode, we explore the difference between moments and modes with Justin Kirby and how they intersect with design, marketing, innovation, sustainability and technology. Tune in to discover how modes can trigger greater customer empathy and understanding about your jobs to be done. You'll also hear how this leads to greater self-awareness for customers, companies, and company culture- and how that can create more impact for your bottom line. Key takeaways For people who design for moments, thinking in terms of modes can be a powerful paradigm shift Modes fit into the design thinking tradition because they build empathy Companies can support customer purpose through modes Empowering employees to identify their optimal work modes, can improve cross-functional empathy and effectiveness

Today we dive into Turnaround mode with Lisa Gable, former US Ambassador, UN Delegate, and the bestselling author of Turnaround: How to Change Course When Things Are Going South. Lisa has turned around businesses, teams, nonprofits, political campaigns, and government projects, finding solutions to the hairiest problems. Since experience strategies must create economic value, losing sight of the Job to be Done is one of the costliest strategic errors a company can make. In this episode, Lisa teaches experience strategists how to find focus, listen to stakeholders, and lead from the heart and head in order to bring value for both companies and their customers. KEY TAKEAWAYS Companies can get off-track and when they do they need people like Lisa Gable to help them create a new map for getting where they want to go Turnaround mode has two parts: solving for the economic crisis and building the new opportunity To address the crisis, companies need to take a hard look at legacy investments that may be meaningful, but don't create value. To build a new opportunity, leaders need to move forward with speed, agility and heart. Steps for managing an experience strategy turnaround Assess your channels and experiences to figure out what you no longer need Determine the Job to be Done to figure out what's most important Move forward courageously, while being cognizant of the power of communication

In this episode of the Experience Strategy podcast we go deep into the lived experience of Play mode with our friend, Michelle Lee, Managing Director of IDEO's Play Lab. Tap into Michelle's vast knowledge of the experience of play to understand the mindsets and behaviors associated with this mode, and how we, as experience strategists, can tap into the power of play. Learn: Why play matters for consumers, employees, and brands The mindsets and behaviors that define play Ways to measure the ROI of Play Ideas for building Play into any experience BIO As Managing Director of IDEO's Play Lab, Michelle Lee leads an integrated research, design, and development team bringing engaging, interactive and playful experiences to market. Her Design for Play team builds upon 30+ years in toy invention, leveraging the principles of play to connect with people at a deeper emotional level that captivates, delights, and empowers. Beyond specializing in toys and kids, Michelle is passionate about using play to address difficult challenges and create meaningful change across industries, including driving responsible digital design, inspiring underrepresented students to pursue careers in STEM, and supporting organizations in adopting practices in line with a circular economy.