Last week Stone Mantel announced our newest Collaborative: The Transformation Economy Collaborative (TEC). This is a big deal and we are extremely excited about the program. When we launch a new Collaborative, we intend for that program to build and grow over seven to eight years. So we are making a seven year commitment to new content, lots of new research, assistance, and insights.

Which is exactly what we do with all of our Collaboratives. This year we will have three Collaborative programs: The Digital Healthcare Collaborative, which is in its 6th year. The Meaningful Experiences Collaborative, which is in its 4th year. And the TEC.

Experiences, like umami flavors, can be difficult to pin down. Both ideas transcend words, so how do you define them? How do you measure them? How do you help leaders and customers understand the value? In this episode, we are joined by Aga Szóstek, Ph.D. a strategic experience designer and author of "The Umami Strategy” as we discuss how to create experiences that are not just memorable, but powerfully impactful.

It’s almost universal. When we ask people about behavior change, personal transformation, nudges, encouragement, and other aspects of transformations where they know they need to change, they say they like support and guidance but they also want control of their change. Of course, it would just be so much easier if our customers, patients, employees, and audiences would just be compliant. After all, they hire us to know what we are doing. Shouldn’t they want to follow our process?

Michael Stanton

Clayton Homes

Director of CX for Retail

What does experience strategy mean to you?

To me, Experience Strategy is intuitive. It lines up with my experience as a consumer, and it has explanatory power for the behaviors of others. It shows us not only why people buy what they buy, but even deeper, why people seek out experiences to become who they desire to be, and how a company can position itself to help people better themselves. I think old school strategies just don’t jive in today’s world. More and more people will no longer accept a company that is seeking to simply make a profit to enhance the wellbeing of shareholders, because that will conflict with their own wellbeing in the long run. It won’t be the result of any single decision the company makes, but if they consistently prioritize the shareholders needs over the customer’s needs, they will degrade the trust of the consumer. However, when a company focuses on Experience Strategy for the wellbeing of its customers and employees, it ends up being even more profitable. It’s like working an orchard too hard. If you’re focused on extracting as much fruit as possible year after year at the expense of the health of the ecosystem, it will eventually die out. But if you focus on the health of the system, fruit abounds.

For most experience strategists who want to do aspirational jobs for their customers, one of the biggest challenges is understanding their goals. Goal definition is complicated. Sometimes people don’t want to open up. Sometimes they don’t really know what they want. And other times they may not have really thought things through. Then, of course, people’s goals change--or better yet--evolve, as they progress through an experience. Goals can be hard to capture and utilize.

For people, the challenge is just as real. When you ask someone what they want to accomplish, they often assume that you want to support their functional needs. And that’s mostly because they think that’s about all you can really do for them. Help them, functionally, to get healthy, wealthy, or wise. That’s about as far as they assume you can go.

When you reframe the nature of the need that they have, you can get amazing results. And one way to reframe their needs is by focusing on ‘superpowers.’

The pandemic has influenced every aspect of how we deliver customer experiences. We are joined today by experience strategy pioneers Colin Shaw and Joseph D. Pine to make predictions about what the new normal will look like… and recommendations about what it should look like. Will 2022 be the year today’s companies step forward into the future or will they stay stuck in the past?

Experience strategists often live and die by journey maps. Right?! What they may not realize is that anyone who is seeking a transformative experience wants a journey map too. That is, if you plan to create a transformative experience for your customer you are likely going to be sharing--in some form--your map of their experience with them. This is how things should be every time. There should be a rule that says that people are entitled to read the journey maps the companies who sell to them create. A kind of disclosure.

And every customer who seeks transformation should search those journey maps for the word “milestone.” A company who promises a transformative experience but doesn’t have milestones is a company that hasn’t put much effort into the experience. So overlooked by companies as to hardly be considered, the milestone is completely underutilized.

In our Harvard Business Review article, The New You Business: How to Compete on Personal Transformations Jan/Feb 2022, we identify four categories of jobs to be done. Functional jobs help you accomplish a task or solve a problem; emotional jobs help you increase or decrease the feelings you have toward a certain situation; social jobs help to change the way you are perceived or relate to others; and aspirational jobs help people to become a better version of themselves.

Identifying a solution for aspirational jobs (along with the other three categories) has been a key element of Stone Mantel’s research and consulting for over 10 years. Here are some lessons we’ve learned about how to create value from doing aspirational jobs to be done.

What will it take for in-person retailers to remain successful in a world increasingly dominated by Amazon? In two words: Transformative Experiences! In this episode we offer predictions and guidance for retailers who are ready to earn the economic power of guiding their customers on meaningful and impactful transformational journeys.

Veteran researcher and pharmacist Kevin Asher knows the pharmaceutical industry inside out. Today he joins us to discuss innovative digital solutions that were born during the pandemic, industry breakthroughs, and the patient data powering the most valuable patient experiences.

Intentionality is defined as being deliberate or purposeful. When applied to Motivation, it is the act of making our efforts about something that matters to us. In psychology, this is referred to as self-determination, a concept that refers to a person's ability to make choices and manage their own life. It has an impact on motivation—people feel more motivated to take action when they feel that what they do will have an effect on the outcome.

Our homes are getting smarter! The more technology understands our unique needs and modes, the more it can make our lives easier and more meaningful. Today we are joined by Tanseela Molani, the Senior Manager of Experience Research at the Chamberlain Group, to discuss how experience insights are shaping the future of smart home technology.

A transformation is, by definition, a flip. But, as tantalizing as that may be, transformations rarely, if ever, happen full tilt. Rather they happen by degrees, through tiny shifts that ultimately lead to larger, lasting change. Past articles in this series have explored how to reinforce those tiny changes. In this edition, we’ll look at how to design for subtle shifts that influence the ways people think, feel and behave.

In today’s world, providing a streamlined and positive experience is not only preferred by patients, but expected. When someone checks into a hospital or physician office, seeking help for a chronic or acute condition, there are feelings of stress, anxiety, uncertainty, and fear.

There is an undeniable increase in demand for more convenient healthcare. In today’s episode, we are joined by thought leader and Chief Scientist for the Health and Human-Machine Systems Group at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Michael McShea, to talk about the why and how of making healthcare more convenient and helpful for patients. Join us for Part 2 of our series on Digital Innovation in Healthcare as we discuss how technology is helping healthcare providers work better, and patients heal better.

In part 1 of our series on Digital Innovation in Healthcare In today’s episode, we’re discussing why now is the moment for healthcare to look at patient journeys through fresh eyes. Joined by Tom Donnelly, Ph.D., who has a background in psychology and leads the MedTech group at Branding Science, we look at how digital interventions can lead to better health outcomes and other ways technology can improve the patient experience.

Transformation is a journey, and usually a challenging one. Your job as the facilitator of change is to help your clients and customers shift their sense of belief from “I can’t do it” to “I am doing it.”

Transformational journeys are usually inspired by the pot of gold at the end of the proverbial change rainbow. But, deep and lasting change doesn’t happen by snapping our fingers and landing at our destination transformed. (Voila!) Instead, it happens over time, through a continuous process of shifting the way we think, feel and behave, and our understanding of ourselves. Transformers who don’t receive steady reinforcement of this process are likely to lose heart. When hired to support Meaningful Motivation, one key way to add value to your product or service is through helping your clients deepen their belief in themselves and the process of change. In this article we unpack some key ways that you can help your clients and customers boost their sense of accomplishment at every stage of the journey.

In today’s episode, we imagine a world in which consumers have the knowledge and power to comprehend the impact of our garments throughout their life cycles. We are joined by Amy Lee, the Senior Trends and Insights Manager at Avery Dennison to learn the research, applications, and benefits of smart fashion technology like RFID. Listen in to learn how a little bit of data in just the right place can impact society as a whole. You don’t want to miss this one!

There’s nothing better than a human to understand other humans. In today’s episode, we’re joined by Jess Lynch, Founder and CEO of Wishroute, to discuss the #1 thing most digital wellness companies are missing: human-powered accountability supported by technology. If it’s your job to help people achieve their goals, don’t miss this episode.

Meaningful Motivation comes from believing that we are in the driver’s seat of both our journey and our successes. However, one of the biggest mistakes companies make when developing motivational support systems is putting themselves in the role of savior. This is usually driven by an underlying belief that their product or experience will have more value by doing everything for the customer. I’ve sat in on some of these conversations with companies and they usually sound something like, “Our customer is struggling. If we help them, they’ll value our services enough to pay us.” There’s some truth to the thinking, but unfortunately, it is an unsustainable business model. Self-efficacy research shows us that, while saviorism may work as a short-term strategy, it actually increases likelihood of early lapsing since it lowers change resilience and active engagement in the change process. In this article, we outline the principles for a more sustainable and intrinsically motivating approach.