INTENTIONAL EXPERIENCES DRIVE EXCEPTIONAL OUTCOMES

Experience Thinking is our unique, collaborative approach that focuses on creating connected experiences across four key areas: Brand, Content, Product, and Service. As Tedde van Gelderen explains in the Experience Thinking book, it's a holistic view of how people interact with their surroundings, taking into account both tangible and intangible characteristics that make up an experience. The framework helps organizations design experiences that provide the most satisfying outcome possible for their audience while delivering strong business results.

Tip: Start by mapping your current experience touchpoints across all four quadrants to identify disconnects before diving into solutions.

While Design Thinking focuses primarily on the design process, Experience Thinking takes a broader strategic approach that connects business objectives to concrete product and service experiences. Our framework addresses the critical gap between high-level business goals and the actual experiences your audience expects and needs. Experience Thinking delays the technology-building piece and focuses first on the experience itself, ensuring early validation and reducing risk in your investments.

Tip: Use Experience Thinking when you need to translate business objectives into actionable experience strategies, not just design solutions.

The Experience Thinking framework consists of four connected areas: Brand Experience (how people feel your brand and core values), Content Experience (how information is packaged and consumed across platforms), Product Experience (the usability and feel of actual products), and Service Experience (all interaction touchpoints from onboarding to support). Each area influences the others to create a seamless, connected journey. Our work with clients demonstrates how aligning these four areas creates stronger customer relationships and business outcomes.

Tip: Start with the area that has the most immediate business impact, but remember that all four areas must eventually work together.

Starting with experience rather than technology features helps you avoid building solutions that nobody wants. As outlined in the Experience Thinking book, creating the experience first allows you to test with customers and users before investing in development. This approach helps companies validate concepts early and deliver products that truly resonate with their audiences. The experience becomes your blueprint for what technology and features actually need to accomplish.

Tip: Create non-technical prototypes of your experience first - paper sketches, role-playing, or simple mockups can validate concepts before any coding begins.

Experience Thinking bridges the gap between high-level business objectives and concrete execution by providing a structured framework for translating strategy into meaningful experiences. The approach ensures that both user needs and business goals are effectively met through targeted strategy development. Our experience with technology clients shows that when you understand the experience early with your audience, you develop higher quality standards from the outset and achieve more predictable outcomes at launch.

Tip: Always define clear success metrics for both user satisfaction and business outcomes before beginning experience design work.

Connected experiences happen when all four experience areas - Brand, Content, Product, and Service - work together seamlessly throughout the entire lifecycle. As described in the Experience Thinking book, each experience point should be intentionally linked in a coherent way so customers have no confusion about where to go or what to do next. Think of it as a red thread connecting every interaction with your organization. Our work with clients demonstrates how this connected approach transforms customer relationships and builds lasting loyalty.

Tip: Map your customer journey as a continuous red thread, identifying where experiences currently break down or feel disconnected.

We measure success through both qualitative and quantitative metrics across the experience lifecycle. This includes user satisfaction scores, task completion rates, customer retention, and business impact metrics like revenue growth and reduced support costs. Our approach with clients shows that well-designed experiences lead to measurable improvements in customer loyalty, reduced churn, and increased engagement. The key is establishing baseline metrics before implementation and tracking progress throughout the lifecycle.

Tip: Establish both leading indicators (user behavior patterns) and lagging indicators (business outcomes) to get a complete picture of experience success.

Experience Thinking naturally breaks down silos by requiring collaboration across traditional departments. The four-quadrant framework forces marketing, product, technology, and customer service functions to work together on shared experience goals. Our experience with large technology clients shows that when departments understand how their work contributes to the overall experience, they make better decisions and communicate more effectively. The shared framework provides common language and objectives.

Tip: Start cross-functional experience workshops to help different departments understand their roles in the overall user journey before reorganizing formal structures.

Begin with experience research to understand your current state across all four experience areas. We typically start by conducting experience audits, user interviews, and stakeholder workshops to identify gaps and opportunities. Our approach with technology clients involves mapping existing touchpoints, understanding user journeys, and prioritizing areas for improvement based on business impact. The Experience Thinking book emphasizes starting broadly with exploratory techniques, then converging into solution phases.

Tip: Start small with one critical user journey rather than trying to transform everything at once - success in one area builds momentum for broader adoption.

Our process follows both divergent and convergent thinking patterns. We start by understanding context - what's happening with users, products, content, and services. Then we apply techniques like personas, user profiles, task analysis, and usage scenarios to capture experience requirements meaningfully. As described in the book, this process is similar to swimming - moving in and out to identify what you're dealing with, then finding ways to improve it. The flow involves strategy, research, design, and testing at each stage.

Tip: Plan for multiple cycles of divergent exploration and convergent decision-making rather than expecting a linear progression through your experience design process.

Results vary depending on scope and implementation approach, but we typically see initial improvements within 3-6 months for focused initiatives. Our work with clients shows that early wins in user satisfaction and task completion often appear quickly, while broader business metrics like customer retention and revenue growth become evident over 6-12 months. The key is setting realistic expectations and celebrating incremental progress while building toward larger transformation goals.

Tip: Identify quick wins that can demonstrate value early while building the foundation for longer-term strategic improvements.

Resistance often comes from teams focused on technical features or tight deadlines. We address this by demonstrating early value through small pilots and showing how Experience Thinking actually reduces risk and accelerates development. Our experience with technology companies shows that when stakeholders see how experience research prevents costly rebuilds and increases user adoption, they become advocates. We also involve technical stakeholders in the research process so they understand user needs firsthand.

Tip: Start by identifying internal champions who understand the value of user-centered approaches and can help advocate for experience-first thinking with their peers.

Successful Experience Thinking requires commitment from leadership, dedicated time from cross-functional participants, and willingness to involve users in the process. You don't need a large internal team initially - we often work with existing product, marketing, and customer service staff who bring valuable market knowledge and strategic perspective. The most important resource is organizational commitment to putting user needs at the center of decision-making processes.

Tip: Designate an internal experience champion who can coordinate across departments and maintain momentum between external consulting engagements.

The framework scales effectively from startups to large enterprises, though implementation approaches vary. With smaller companies, we might focus on one experience area initially and expand over time. For larger organizations like those in our energy and utilities client base, we often run parallel workstreams across multiple experience areas. The core principles remain constant - understanding user needs, creating connected experiences, and measuring impact - but the scale and timeline adapt to organizational capacity and market pressures.

Tip: Tailor the scope to your organization's capacity for change while maintaining focus on the most critical user journeys that drive business results.

Competitive analysis helps identify experience gaps and opportunities in your market, but we focus more on understanding your users' needs than copying competitor features. The Experience Thinking book emphasizes creating experiences that provide the most satisfying outcome for your specific audience. Our work with technology clients shows that truly differentiated experiences come from deeper user understanding rather than feature comparison. We use competitive insights to validate experience strategies, not define them.

Tip: Study competitors to understand market expectations, but base your experience strategy on your users' unique needs and your organization's distinctive capabilities.

Brand experience in our framework goes beyond visual identity to encompass how people feel about your organization at every touchpoint. We conduct deep discovery processes to articulate your vision and craft the qualities you want to be associated with your brand. This ensures your brand promise reflects not only your aspirations but also the perceptions and emotions your audience develops over time. Our work with media clients like CBC and Global News shows how authentic brand experiences drive stronger audience connections.

Tip: Audit your current brand touchpoints to identify where your intended brand promise aligns or conflicts with actual user experiences.

Brand personality influences every aspect of the experience ecosystem - from content tone and product interactions to service delivery style. The Experience Thinking book emphasizes that brand characteristics should guide decision-making across all four experience areas. When working with technology clients, we help define personality traits that resonate with their audience and then ensure these traits are consistently expressed through all interactions, creating a cohesive experience that builds trust and loyalty.

Tip: Define 3-5 core brand personality traits and create guidelines for how these should be expressed in different experience contexts.

Internal alignment is crucial because employees deliver the brand experience through their interactions with customers. We work with organizations to ensure their culture, values, and employee experiences reflect the brand promise they make externally. Our experience with service-oriented clients shows that when internal teams understand and embody the brand personality, it naturally translates into more authentic customer experiences. This alignment creates consistency across all touchpoints.

Tip: Include employees in brand experience research and design so they understand how their role contributes to the overall brand promise.

Brand experience serves as the foundation that guides content strategy, product development, and service delivery. When you establish strong brand characteristics and connect them purposefully to the other areas, the brand makes content more effective, which improves product experiences, which enhances service delivery. Our work with clients like Rogers demonstrates how this integrated approach creates experiences that feel authentically connected rather than fragmented across different departments or touchpoints.

Tip: Use brand guidelines as decision-making criteria when designing content, product features, and service interactions to maintain consistency.

We conduct brand perception research through interviews, surveys, and observational studies across your key audience segments. This helps identify how different groups experience your brand personality and what drives their emotional connections. Our approach with media clients reveals that brand perception often varies significantly between audience segments, requiring nuanced brand expression strategies that resonate with each group while maintaining overall consistency.

Tip: Map brand perception research to your primary user personas to understand how brand experience needs vary across different audience segments.

Brand experience plays different but equally important roles in acquisition and retention. For acquisition, brand experience creates initial trust and differentiation that motivates trial. For retention, consistent brand experience builds loyalty and advocacy over time. The Experience Thinking book emphasizes that loyalty follows good experiences, not just communication. Our work with technology clients shows that strong brand experiences throughout the lifecycle create advocates who promote your organization to others.

Tip: Design brand experiences that evolve with customer relationships while maintaining core personality traits that initially attracted users to your organization.

Brand identity focuses on visual elements like logos, colors, and design systems, while brand experience encompasses the human traits and character your audience perceives through interactions. Brand experience is about how your brand behaves and feels to people, not just how it looks. The Experience Thinking approach ensures that visual identity supports and reinforces the desired experience rather than existing in isolation. Both elements must work together to create cohesive brand expressions.

Tip: Evaluate whether your visual brand identity accurately represents the personality and values you want users to experience in their interactions with your organization.

We measure brand experience through perception studies, brand attribute tracking, and emotional response analysis. Key metrics include brand recall, personality trait attribution, trust scores, and preference ratings compared to competitors. Our experience with technology clients shows that strong brand experiences correlate with increased customer lifetime value, referral rates, and market differentiation. We also track how consistently the brand is experienced across different touchpoints and channels.

Tip: Establish baseline brand perception metrics before implementing changes, then track progress through regular surveys and user feedback sessions.

Content experience focuses on how information, data, and functionality is packaged and consumed across different platforms and channels. As explained in the Experience Thinking book, the goal is making sure content is relevant, grabs attention, and is easy to access - creating a smooth flow of information that enhances the overall experience. For some experiences, content actually is the whole show, so designing it thoughtfully becomes critical to success.

Tip: Map how users currently discover and consume your content to identify gaps in their information journey before redesigning content strategy.

We research how people think about and categorize information in your domain, then structure content hierarchies to match these mental models. This involves understanding the terminologies people use repeatedly and organizing information in ways that feel intuitive to them. Our approach includes content audits, user journey mapping, and card sorting exercises to reveal natural information groupings. The result is content that users can browse and navigate in ways that make sense to them.

Tip: Conduct card sorting sessions with real users to understand how they naturally group and categorize your content areas.

Content strategy and interface design work together but serve different purposes. Content experience focuses on information architecture, messaging strategy, and how content flows across channels. Interface design handles the actual navigation and interaction mechanics. The Experience Thinking book notes that before users can navigate through information, you need to understand how information chunks relate to each other and ensure they're structured in ways that are easy to find and combine.

Tip: Solve content organization and messaging challenges before designing interface elements to avoid forcing poor content into beautiful designs.

Content consistency requires clear governance structures, style guides, and content creation processes that align with your brand experience goals. We develop content strategies that prioritize audience needs while maintaining voice and tone consistency across websites, mobile apps, social media, and customer service interactions. Our work with technology clients shows that consistent content experiences build trust and reduce confusion as users move between different touchpoints.

Tip: Create content templates and approval workflows that ensure quality and consistency while allowing teams to work efficiently across different channels.

Content experience enhances product and service experiences by providing the right information at the right time in user journeys. Well-designed content helps users understand features, complete tasks successfully, and get support when needed. Our experience with utility clients like FortisBC shows how strategic content placement reduces support calls and increases user confidence in self-service options. Content becomes an integral part of the product experience, not just marketing material.

Tip: Audit your current content against actual user tasks to identify where better information could improve product usability and reduce friction.

Content supports relationship building throughout the experience lifecycle by addressing different user needs as they evolve from prospects to customers to advocates. Early content focuses on education and trust-building, while ongoing content provides value, support, and opportunities for deeper engagement. Our work with non-profit clients like the National Ballet of Canada demonstrates how strategic content programming maintains audience connection and builds long-term loyalty through valuable, relevant information.

Tip: Map content needs to different stages of the customer lifecycle to ensure you're providing value throughout the relationship, not just during acquisition.

Product experience focuses on usability, functionality, and the overall feel of using your products. As outlined in the Experience Thinking book, the goal is creating products that solve people's problems quickly and effectively while being enjoyable to use. We use methods like prototyping, user testing, and journey mapping to inform product designs based on real user needs and feedback. Our work with technology clients like AMD shows how this approach leads to products that truly resonate with users.

Tip: Involve users early in product conceptualization through prototyping sessions rather than waiting until development is complete to get feedback.

We create early, non-technical working versions of the experience and involve business stakeholders, potential users, and customers in the learning process. This allows us to assess and adjust concepts before investing in full development. The Experience Thinking book emphasizes that you don't need a working product to evaluate potential for success - throwaway prototypes that answer key experience questions are often more valuable than polished demos that haven't been tested with real users.

Tip: Create multiple low-fidelity prototypes to test different approaches rather than perfecting one concept before user validation.

The Experience Thinking approach ensures that both user needs and business goals are effectively met through integrated design processes. We work with cross-functional stakeholders to understand business constraints while maintaining focus on user value. Our experience with technology companies shows that products succeeding in the market solve real user problems in ways that also support business objectives. The key is finding solutions that create value for both users and the organization.

Tip: Establish shared success criteria that include both user satisfaction metrics and business performance indicators from the beginning of product development.

Product experience integrates with brand, content, and service experiences to create cohesive user journeys. Your product should reflect brand personality through its interface design and interactions, work seamlessly with content strategy, and connect smoothly to service touchpoints. Our work with clients like Ecobee demonstrates how products that align with overall experience strategy create stronger customer relationships and better business outcomes than those developed in isolation.

Tip: Regularly evaluate how product decisions support or conflict with brand values and service delivery goals to maintain experience consistency.

Managing complexity requires understanding user mental models and progressive disclosure strategies. We research how users approach complex tasks and design interfaces that reveal information and functionality at appropriate moments. Our experience with enterprise technology clients shows that breaking complex workflows into logical steps and providing clear navigation paths helps users feel confident even when dealing with sophisticated functionality. The goal is making complex things feel simple to use.

Tip: Map user expertise levels and design different entry points for novice and expert users rather than forcing everyone through the same interface complexity.

We conduct user testing throughout development, not just at the end. This includes early concept testing, prototype validation, and post-launch performance analysis. The Experience Thinking book emphasizes that testing during the build phase ensures design adjustments can still be made before market release. Our approach includes both qualitative usability studies and quantitative performance metrics to understand how well products serve user needs and business goals.

Tip: Plan testing cycles into your development timeline rather than treating user feedback as an optional final step before launch.

Service experience covers all the ways people interact with your organization - from onboarding to support to ongoing relationship management. As described in the Experience Thinking book, service experience is the 'big picture' that links all interactions a person has with your organization. The goal is designing services that work smoothly and effectively, keeping customers happy and returning. This includes both human interactions and digital touchpoints that support service delivery.

Tip: Map all service touchpoints from the customer perspective to identify where experiences currently feel disjointed or unclear.

We use service blueprints, customer journey maps, and employee experience programs to improve service delivery, staff training, and customer support. These tools help visualize both front-stage interactions that customers see and back-stage operations that enable good service. Our work with utility clients like Nova Scotia Power shows how systematic service design reduces customer effort while improving satisfaction and operational efficiency across the organization.

Tip: Start with service blueprinting to understand current operations before redesigning customer-facing processes.

Modern service experiences blend digital self-service options with human support in ways that feel seamless to customers. We design service ecosystems where digital tools handle routine tasks efficiently while human interactions focus on complex problem-solving and relationship building. Our experience with technology clients shows that the best service experiences give customers choice and control over how they engage while maintaining consistent quality across all channels.

Tip: Design clear escalation paths between self-service and human support so customers never feel trapped in inappropriate service channels.

Service experience directly impacts customer loyalty because it's where brand promises are either fulfilled or broken through actual interactions. The Experience Thinking book emphasizes that loyalty follows good experiences, not communication. Building loyalty requires giving customers reasons to prefer you through better products and service experiences. Our work with clients across different industries shows that exceptional service experiences turn customers into advocates who promote your value to others.

Tip: Focus on exceeding expectations in service recovery situations - how you handle problems often matters more than preventing them entirely.

Service needs change as customers move from initial awareness through onboarding, regular use, and potential advocacy. We design service experiences that address different goals and contexts throughout this lifecycle. Early interactions focus on education and onboarding, while ongoing service emphasizes efficiency and relationship maintenance. Our experience with media clients shows how lifecycle-based service design increases both customer satisfaction and business efficiency.

Tip: Identify the key questions and concerns customers have at each lifecycle stage and design service interactions that proactively address these needs.

We measure service experience through customer satisfaction surveys, effort scores, resolution rates, and employee feedback. Key metrics include first-contact resolution, response times, and customer sentiment analysis. Our approach also includes mystery shopping and employee experience research to understand service delivery from multiple perspectives. Regular measurement allows for continuous improvement and helps identify service innovations that drive competitive advantage.

Tip: Track both efficiency metrics (speed, resolution rates) and emotional metrics (satisfaction, trust) to get a complete picture of service experience quality.

AI integration requires careful attention to emotional intelligence and user expectations. As highlighted in our blog research, AI can walk a strange line between technology and human-like interaction. Users often attribute human characteristics to AI, so we focus on designing AI experiences with appropriate personality and empathy. The key is determining how people will assess your AI's emotional intelligence - the higher the perceived EQ, the more successful the AI interaction will be.

Tip: Define your AI's personality traits intentionally as part of your brand experience, since AI interactions become brand touchpoints that shape user perceptions.

Technology enables connected experiences but shouldn't drive the strategy. The Experience Thinking book emphasizes delaying technology decisions until you understand the experience requirements. Technology works best when it seamlessly supports the four experience areas - brand, content, product, and service - rather than creating silos between them. Our work with technology clients shows that the most successful implementations start with experience design and then select technology that enables those experiences effectively.

Tip: Map your desired experience journey first, then evaluate which technologies can best support those interactions rather than starting with technology capabilities.

The best experiences combine automation for efficiency with human interaction for empathy and complex problem-solving. We design service ecosystems where automated systems handle routine tasks while preserving human connections for high-value interactions. Our research on healthcare appointment systems shows that simple automated solutions (like text reply to cancel) can be more effective than complex AI, while human support remains essential for emotional or complicated situations.

Tip: Start with simple automation for clear, routine tasks before implementing complex AI solutions that might frustrate users with unmet expectations.

Digital transformation succeeds when it improves actual user experiences rather than just implementing new technology. We help organizations understand how digital tools can enhance each of the four experience areas while maintaining brand consistency and user satisfaction. Our work with energy and utility clients demonstrates how thoughtful digital transformation reduces customer effort while improving operational efficiency. The focus remains on creating better experiences, not just digital processes.

Tip: Audit current user pain points before selecting digital solutions to ensure technology investments address real experience problems.

Accessibility is fundamental to inclusive experience design across all four experience areas. We consider diverse user capabilities from the beginning of projects rather than retrofitting accessibility features. This includes designing for different devices, connection speeds, cognitive abilities, and physical limitations. Our approach ensures that technology choices support accessibility goals while maintaining design quality and brand expression across all touchpoints.

Tip: Include accessibility requirements in your initial experience criteria rather than treating them as technical constraints to be solved later.

Emerging technologies like AI, voice interfaces, and IoT create new opportunities for connected experiences across the four framework areas. However, the core Experience Thinking principles remain constant - understanding user needs, creating seamless journeys, and measuring impact. Our research shows that successful technology adoption happens when new capabilities enhance existing experience goals rather than creating entirely new user behaviors that haven't been validated through research.

Tip: Evaluate new technologies based on how they support your existing experience strategy rather than implementing them simply because they're innovative.

Privacy considerations are integrated throughout the Experience Thinking framework, especially in digital product and service experiences. We help organizations balance personalization with privacy protection by designing transparent data practices and giving users meaningful control over their information. Our work with technology clients shows that trust-building through ethical data use becomes a competitive advantage, while privacy violations can destroy carefully built experience relationships.

Tip: Design privacy controls as positive user experiences rather than legal compliance obstacles that create friction in user journeys.