I define an experience as a series of decisions that achieve a goal. When you hike on a trail, you experience that hike by deciding which trail to take, to turn right or left. You are making decisions along the entire path.

A simplified view of a decision could be described as a 3-step process:

-- We get educated/informed about our options

-- We communicate with others about these options

-- We take action on an option.

For example, before turning right on a trail, you may reference the map to see how long the trail is, ask people on the trail what it’s like, and then act. Or before you go you research the trail, you may go to a forum to read about the trail, or ask questions about it. Either way, you are informing your decisions to go on that hike to begin with, including taking a right.

As an experience designer and strategist, I collaborate with teams to create experiences (or rather, a series of decisions) for a company’s customers, users, prospects, advocates, employees, etc.

These experiences could be online, on the phone, through online chat, or even in person. They could be capturing leads, part of a product experience, or to get people to purchase something. Sometimes the experience includes working with employees to help them deliver the experience.

But these experiences all share:

-- Leveraging 3-step process - inform/educate, communicate, act.

-- Being efficient, effective, and memorable.

I’ll lead workshops and create visualizations to help the team find the right solution. I’ll also facilitate collecting customer and user feedback in workshops, testing, surveys, Innovation Games, etc.

2. I collaborate with teams to implement these experiences. Transparency and iterations throughout the process helps everyone contribute and ensures that we get the necessary solution. As an advocate of Agile, I try to include those approaches to the project, ensuring that we are producing something as close as possible to final product throughout the process.