What is XD?
XD (Experience Design) is the process of ensuring everyone involved can get what they want as easily as possible, because when people get more of what they want, they’re happier to give you more of what you want.
Where this applies
Everything that people see and hear (and everything they don’t) contributes to their experience. This means when people are interacting with you as a business, event organizer, salesperson, or anything else, you have the chance to design an experience that creates even more value for both you and them in…
Business
Marketing & sales
Client & customer retention
Employee & partner performance
Leadership
Shared vision & purpose
Openness & collaboration
Engagement & performance
Events
Promotion & ticket sales
Attendee engagement & outcomes
Testimonials & evangelism
What is involved?
Often, there can be many complex parts to consider when designing experiences, but at the highest-level, what matters the most is…
Persona identification
Identifying who & what is involved in and affected by your product or service, both intentionally and unintentionally, and what each of their situations and goals includes.
Goal aligning
Finding or creating the ways to connect all the personas’ goals, to remove conflicts of interest, and ensure everyone’s goals are compatible and mutually-beneficial.
Journey mapping
Creating or adapting a high-level process of steps that personas go through to get what they want, to ensure clarity on how each persona gets value, and that this is realistic.
Implementation planning
Brainstorming applications & actionable steps that can be taken to implement these personas & journeys, and drive results.
How we get started
1. Getting to know each other as people
We’ll have an open conversation, sharing and learning about each other, to know if we’re aligned and would be comfortable and happy working together. With enough alignment, we may even jump into step 2 right away.
2. Understanding your situation and goals
We’ll talk about the current state of your business or events, to know exactly where you are and where you want to be.
3. Exploring pathways to your goal
We’ll brainstorm possible ways to achieve your goal that create real value for you and your business, events, and relationships.
4. Deciding how to work together
Depending on the pathway, you might want to do some parts yourself, work together in some areas, or have some parts done for you, because at the end of the day, what matters is accomplishing your goal.