Experiential
Safe, repeated practice with feedback.
- Use it when
- People need a skill often, and confidence grows with reps.
- It looks like
- Practice labs, role-play with an AI partner, short scenarios with instant feedback.
03 · Experience Studio
Experience Studio.
Built for the experience economy. Experiences people step into, for the moments that matter in their work.
The approach
Three moments worth designing.
Experiences work best when they're built around a real moment in the work, at the point people need them.
- 01
Before it's real.
Practise something people haven't faced yet, safely, with room to get it wrong.
- 02
When it's unclear.
Explore a situation with no single right answer, and make the trade-offs visible.
- 03
After it's over.
Carry the story back into the work, so the learning shows up on Monday.
Draws on Pine & Gilmore, The Experience Economy
Choosing the right kind of experience
The art of designing experience.
Human skills develop through experience. Through navigating uncertainty, making decisions, connecting with others and learning from what happens.
Experiential design is the art of bringing those moments to life. Blending human-centred design, storytelling, simulation and meaningful practice to create experiences that challenge how people think, feel and act.
Here are three ways to bring that practice to life.
Immersive
The real context of the work, recreated.
- Use it when
- The situation is complex or unfamiliar, and context changes the right answer.
- It looks like
- Day-in-the-life scenarios, branching simulations, multi-stage challenges with real artefacts.
Crisis immersion
Rare, high-stakes decisions under pressure.
- Use it when
- The moment is too important, or too rare, to practise on the job.
- It looks like
- Live-run scenarios with new information arriving mid-stream, time pressure and a structured debrief.
What makes an experience work
Design for the doing.
You design the artefact. People live the experience. Five decisions shape whether it changes anything in the work.
- 01Locate the moment.
Where in the work do people need to think, decide or act differently?
- 02Understand the human.
What do they think, feel and do in that moment? What worries them?
- 03Shape the interaction.
What should they encounter, practise, use or receive?
- 04Remove the friction.
Fewer steps, the right time, light on the mind, open to everyone.
- 05Test it in the wild.
A rough version, real conditions, five people. Watch what they do.
The test
Useful. Does it meet a genuine need?
Usable. Can people use it in real conditions, first time?
Impactful. Does it change a decision, action or outcome?
Five design levers
Tune it to the moment.
Once you've chosen the type, five levers set the intensity. Choose the lowest setting that still closes the gap.
RealismHow close it looks to the real work.
PressureTime, stakes and pushback.
ComplexityHow many moving parts at once.
ConsequenceWhat happens when it goes wrong.
ReflectionTime to replay, rethink and try again.
Illustrative example · Partnering under pressure
Same crop, different needs.
Two teams each need a scarce harvest to save their own project. Each team holds only part of the picture, and both assume they're competing for the same thing. The deal only appears when someone stops arguing price and starts asking why. Illustrative, inspired by classic negotiation formats.
Before it's real
Hold your half.
Each team gets a private brief: what they need, what's at stake, and a deadline. Neither sees the other's brief.
In the moment
Find the deal.
A timed negotiation with limited budget and rising pressure. The breakthrough only comes from asking what the other side actually needs.
After it's over
Unpack the partnership.
A debrief on assumptions made, questions asked, and the moment competition turned into partnership.
Human skills in playCritical thinkingInfluencePartneringCuriosity under pressure
How we'd know it worked
Interests surfaced before positions, deals that met both teams' needs, and people using the same questions in their next real negotiation. Move 004 · Human skills are the new currency ↗
How I'd evaluate an experience
Did it change the work?
An experience can be memorable and still change nothing. I look for evidence at four levels, and plan how to collect it before anything is built.
01
The experience.
Did it feel real? Did the debrief land? Quick signals from participants and facilitators.
02
The capability.
Could people do it during the experience? Observed decisions, questions asked, choices made.
03
The work.
Are they doing it on the job? Manager observation and real examples, a few weeks later.
04
The result.
Did something that matters move? A business signal agreed at the start, against a baseline.
More on showing what changed in Consulting Moves 008 · 100% complete. So what? ↗
Coming soon
More experiences, in the studio.
New experiences are in development. Got a moment worth designing for? I'd love to hear about it.