WE'RE ALL ABOUT
Creating positive impact that grows over time.
Diverse expertise with a common thread.
Customers are always changing, as is the world around us. It would be great if impactful positive change could be accomplished by focusing on just one point in time, one single challenge, or one area of an organization. But opportunities, people, and systems are more complex and interconnected than ever before. It takes a hybrid set of skills and expertise to illuminate the best path forward.
Our areas of expertise are broad yet compatible, focusing on what matters most — the people whose experiences define successful innovation. Our writings below show how we think.
Scansion discusses the concept of “regenerative resilience” for business based on the patterns and common themes we found in how organizations perceive and are reacting to the COVID-19 crisis that may lead to more stable and regenerative business models.
A Model For Regenerative Resilience
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How Resilient
Are We?
Meaningful experiences go beyond functional and emotional.
Some experiences are more functional, like paying for a cup of coffee. While effective, functional experiences don't create value beyond the product or service cost.
Other experiences, like catching up with your favorite barista, are emotional. While people perceive greater value with these, it decreases shortly after the experience is over.
Now, say your fair trade purchase will help coffee farmers. You feel a deeper sense of community by going to your coffee shop every day now. These meaningful experiences are what makes life worth living.
People are more loyal to companies that provide meaningful experiences and will pay more for them. The result is premium value that can last a lifetime.
Check out the book
Tapping into
culture reveals opportunity spaces.
Culture can play a strong role in determining the kinds of experiences we seek out and the ones we find most meaningful. For example, traditions and rituals guide us to seek more of our most-cherished experiences (like Thanksgiving), which are rooted in the cultural values we hold dear.
Since customer attitudes can change in ways that are extremely difficult to predict, we look to the evolution of culture to illuminate what people will find most meaningful now and next.
Using a unique combination of cultural analysis, trends research, and strategic foresight, we help companies understand how customer attitudes are evolving and deliver experiences that are culturally-resonant.
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By focusing on how culture shapes the kind of experiences people are looking for, we are able to provide a clear direction on how to evoke those experiences. Check out our LatinXperience Project for inspiration on how we worked with arts administrators across California.
Designing digital places that benefit humanity.
The way organizations architect their digital environments reflects intentionally or unintentionally, the culture and internal structures of the company.
Analyzing and working through how organizations structure their information environments can highlight systemic issues. By modeling and reframing systems, we help organizations make better decisions, avoid unintended consequences, and generate greater value for the organization, its customers, and society.
Living in Information draws upon architecture as a way to design information environments that serve our humanity.
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An Experience Waveline is a visual tool for strategically building and improving customer experiences.
An Experience Waveline™ is different from a Customer Journey Map.
Experience Wavelines help clients see the experiences and value they’re providing their customers, mapped against what customers actually want. They identify areas for improvement and highlight (often surprising) new innovation spaces.
AN EXPERIENCE WAVELINE...
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Is strategic and experiential
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Highlights areas of opportunity
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Maps emotional intensity
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Outlines the effect of an interaction on the customer’s state of mind
A CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP...
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Is tactical
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Lists every touchpoint
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Identifies what a customer thinks or needs at that point
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Is geared towards providing info or task completion
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Exploring the landscape of people-centered innovation.
When early in 2018 we looked around and couldn’t find definitive data on customer-centered innovation we figured we weren’t alone and that others would likely have the same questions.
To investigate what is truly happening in this space, we surveyed and interviewed innovation leaders from over one hundred organizations. We asked them about that catalysts and success factors for innovation at their organizations. Where innovation takes place most frequently. Whether it’s kept in-house or conducted with the help of consultancies, how it’s measured, how much is spent on it, and whether the “innovation” business is booming or busting.
Our People-Centered Innovation Report outlines differences, commonalities, and emerging patterns — from approaches to measurement and metrics — in this diverse and expanding practice.
“Managing the innovation process is a lot like managing a stock portfolio. It needs diversification of classes to be sustainable - incremental, substantial, and transformational.”
JONATHON HENSLEY, EMERGE INTERACTIVE