Experience by Design

What does chips and salsa, Meowoulf, and Burning Man have in common? What they all share is they are part of what our guest calls the Experiential Palate. They involve trying to connect with a person’s experiential aptitude to take in and appreciate what is being created for them. If you have salsa that is too spicy, no matter how good it might taste that is going to be overpowered by how overwhel...

The experience of being a parent of a developmentally disabled, or neurologically atypical child, can be highly varied. Kids can have a range of functioning, challenges, abilities, and barriers. Regardless of our different experiences based on the unique situations we face, one thing is the same: all of us frequently need some form of help. This is where the folks from Jeb’s Game come in. Inspired...

Despite being summer, it is a fallacy that academics get summers off. Especially in a pandemic year, it can feel like the pressures and stresses of academic work have been compounded. Making the transition to remote teaching provided its own unique challenges. On top of that are all of the requirements of the academic life. Committee work. Advising students, Doing research. Writing papers. Dealing...

Our guest today Josh Linkner has had a pretty varied set of experiences that led to to writing his latest book, Big Little Breakthroughs. In fact, he describes himself as being a “strange mix of things.” From an early age he picked up guitar. That’s not necessarily notable, as lots of young kids pick up guitar. However, his interest led him to focus on jazz guitar, resulting in him even attending...

In the area of ethnomethodology and workplace studies, Jack’s work always served as a case study in how to apply academic research and industry impact. From his earlier days at the University of Oregon, to his move to the Institute for Research on Learning at Stanford, and then to the XEROX Palo Alto Research Center, and even today with the sustainable fisheries partnership, Jack has used ethnogra...

Dr. Jacqueline Copeland grew up in Philadelphia, which she describes as a city of neighborhoods. But, just because you have neighborhoods doesn’t mean that everyone is neighborly. From those early experiences of people watching and trying to understand the dynamics of Philly, she became interested in exploring new worlds and understanding different cultures. Anthropology and philanthropy then beca...

Oscar Barrera is a Business Anthropologist based out of Veracruz, Mexico who brings a global mindset to helping businesses turn hurdles into opportunities for positive change. He is an expert in innovation, change management, and strategy. In this episode in partnership with This Anthro Life and Experience by Design, podcast cohosts Adam Gamwell and Gary David dig into Oscar's story to learn the s...

Punk is more than songs; it is an ethos, as well as an aesthetic. The punk lifestyle and its music is all about attitude, and fighting against norms, traditional dogma, social injustice, and intolerance. It strives to move outside of how things have always been done, as well as being cautious of authority. The more society tells you that you should be doing something, the more likely you are to se...

The Experience by Design mothership is being boarded by pirates! On today’s episode, we welcome the Learning Pirate Lauren Waldman. Lauren long has been interested in education and learning, a passion that saw her take on the Head of Learning and Development in Canada for Tata Consulting Services, as well as being Training and Development Manager for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, which seems like...

Designer and entrepreneur Paul Bulencea, who is the co-creator of the college of extraordinary experiences, visits the Experience by Design studios. Paul’s personal journey started with a Masters degree in recreation while in Salzburg. Blending gamification and experience design, Paul and his advisor created new ground in the space of tourism experiences in the book Gamification in Tourism. A chan...

Many companies want to use customer experience, but are they really embracing its essence?  Businesses often think it is about customers being happy in terms of ‘customer satisfaction.’  The point is really customer experience is about much more than satisfaction. To be a company that embraces customer experience is to embrace cultural change. We all know that change can be difficult, and it can b...

Medicine, like it seems everything else, is undergoing an experiential transformation. The movement toward redefining healthcare in terms of patient experiences is not necessarily new. While it might not ebe new, it still is evolving. Not only our understanding of patient experiences, but the broadening out of that into provider experiences as well. As we have turned our attention to frontline her...

Running a professional association ain’t easy. There are a lot of elements that go into creating and delivering a quality member experience. Living during a pandemic has only made that more challenging as conferences go online, member information needs change, and organizations try to find ways to provide meaningful experiences and value to their membership.  To help explore this issue, we welcome...

Pandemic life means for many of us that we have had to become audio-visual professionals. Along with all the stress of kids at home, COVID tests, and trips to the grocery store is the worry about what happens when technology goes wrong. And not just our computer systems, but what about binge watching Netflix and Hulu when your streaming no longer works. What about when technology rebels? Who is th...

The good news and bad news of a connected world is that we are more connected. In that lies the question of how we create and maintain meaningful connections that feel real. Given the ‘flame wars’, tribalism and trolling of Twitter and Facebook, it can be difficult to find threads of humanism in the digital age.  To explore these questions, we have on today’s show Ken Gordon, Principal Communicati...

As the saying goes, the only constant in life is change. Or as the song goes, The Times They are a’Changing. But if so much of life is change, why are we so bad at handling it? Why do people, and organizations resist change so much? And how can we not only implement change, but better manage and embrace it? To answer some of these questions, we talk with Sue Harvey of New Direction Strategy. If th...

Issues of racial equity, and institutionalized discrimination, have long been at the center of customer experience, and the right of people to be seen as customers. Today’s podcast is a recording of an event from the end of July on ‘Inspiring Racial Equity: How CX Professionals Can Guide Their Organizations to Tackle This Urgent Issue.” The event was a joint effort of the Boston and Atlanta chapte...

Higher education’s imminent demise has been long forecast, with a number of factors contributing to this terminal condition. The cost of higher education in the United States is unparalleled in the world, with the average in-state cost of even public universities increasing 63% since 2008. This growth has outpaced all other price indices by far. The fundamental model of higher education has also b...

Looking at the Life Celebration website, you might be surprised to discover that their business is funeral memorial services. But with the bright colors and designs comes a philosophy of elevating memorial experiences to another level. The realization that funerals had become too routine (and, well, lifeless) led our guest Jim Cummings on a quest to not only provide unique experiences, but also le...

During the pandemic, people have been trying to find ways to fill their time, often by pursuing hobbies they always wanted to pursue. One such hobby is learning how to play guitar. Who better to talk about teaching guitar online, as well as designing online learning experiences, than Justin Sandercoe, also known as JustinGuitar. Justin is one of the top 10 YouTubers in the United Kingdom through h...

Megan Burns has been involved in analyzing organizational efforts to create better customer experiences for over 20 years. From her early days at Forrester, to now with her own consultancy called Experience Enterprises, Megan knows how to approach an experience ecosystem, and importantly how to help organizations change to reach their experience goals. In 2014, she developed the Customer Experienc...

We live in an experience economy, where experience channels abound in business. Whether customer, user, patient, employee, or something else, we are facing expanded opportunities to create and design experiences. Given this emergent reality, why are not more colleges and universities developing programs in experience design? To explore this question, Neil Lundberg and Mat Duerden visit the Experie...

Durell Coleman has for a long time been interested in how to create inventions and entrepreneurial opportunities to create social change. With an early interest in engineering, sparked by working on cars and home improvement with his dad, Durell followed that passion to Stanford University. Connecting an engineering degree with sustainable design through the famed d.school, Durell has followed tha...

Given all the challenges we are dealing with as a society right now, talking about bikes might seem unimportant. However, in fact, the topic of cycling, exercise, and inclusive environments is exactly on topic for this moment. Today’s guest is Lindsay Goldman, who was a professional cyclist as well as Director of Marketing for USA Cycling. Since our conversation, she has moved on to become the Dir...

Friend and colleague Mike Goldberg comes by the Experience by Design studios to talk about his career in design. Mike’s career extends back a long way, with 27 years teaching graphic and web design at the college level, and 37 years of professional award winning graphic and web design experience. Some of his past clients include marketing and advertising campaigns for the Dana-Farber Cancer Instit...