Category Archives: Customer Experience

Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of June 2025

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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of June 2025Drum roll please…

At the beginning of each month, we will profile the ten articles from the previous month that generated the most traffic to Human-Centered Change & Innovation. Did your favorite make the cut?

But enough delay, here are June’s ten most popular innovation posts:

  1. Why Business Transformations Fail — by Robyn Bolton
  2. Three Ways Strategic Idleness Accelerates Innovation and Growth — by Robyn Bolton
  3. Overcoming the Fear of Innovation Failure — by Stefan Lindegaard
  4. Making People Matter in AI Era — by Janet Sernack
  5. Yes the Comfort Zone Can Be Your Best Friend — by Stefan Lindegaard
  6. Your Digital Transformation Starting Point — by Braden Kelley
  7. Learn More About the Problem Before Trying to Solve It — by Mike Shipulski
  8. Putting Human Agency at the Center of Decision-Making — by Greg Satell
  9. Innovation or Not – SpinLaunch — by Art Inteligencia
  10. Team Motivation Does Not Have to be Hard — by David Burkus

BONUS – Here are five more strong articles published in May that continue to resonate with people:

If you’re not familiar with Human-Centered Change & Innovation, we publish 4-7 new articles every week built around innovation and transformation insights from our roster of contributing authors and ad hoc submissions from community members. Get the articles right in your Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin feeds too!

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Have something to contribute?

Human-Centered Change & Innovation is open to contributions from any and all innovation and transformation professionals out there (practitioners, professors, researchers, consultants, authors, etc.) who have valuable human-centered change and innovation insights to share with everyone for the greater good. If you’d like to contribute, please contact me.

P.S. Here are our Top 40 Innovation Bloggers lists from the last four years:

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Partner Advisory Boards

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The Linchpin of Experience Management

Partner Advisory Boards

by Braden Kelley and Art Inteligencia

We live in an experience economy. Customers no longer just buy products or services; they invest in the complete journey a brand offers. While the spotlight often shines brightest on direct customer interactions, a profound truth remains obscured for many organizations: the customer experience is profoundly shaped, and often defined, by the performance and satisfaction of your entire partner ecosystem. This is where the strategic power of an Experience Management Office (XMO) becomes paramount, and critically, why Partner Advisory Boards (PABs) are not merely beneficial, but an absolutely integral component for building truly exceptional customer and partner experiences.

An XMO is the organizational engine designed to systematically understand, design, and optimize every critical interaction an individual has with your brand – be they customer, employee, or, pivotally, partner. It’s about breaking down silos and orchestrating a cohesive, positive narrative across all touchpoints. When your partners – be they resellers, integrators, service providers, or distributors – are often the direct face of your brand, their experience with you, and their subsequent ability to deliver your offerings, directly correlates to your end-customers’ perception and loyalty.

The Strategic Imperative: Why Your XMO Needs PABs

Consider a PAB not just a meeting, but a vital strategic intelligence and co-creation hub. It’s a structured, periodic gathering of your most strategic and forward-thinking partners, convened not just to absorb your latest corporate announcements, but to actively contribute to your strategic direction. These partners are your eyes and ears on the ground; they navigate the nuanced realities of your market daily, understand customer pain points intimately, and are often the first to sense shifts in demand or competitive landscapes. Their insights are invaluable, actionable intelligence that no internal team can fully replicate.

Embedding PABs within your XMO framework transforms them into indispensable feedback loops for continuous improvement and radical innovation. Here’s why their integration is a non-negotiable:

  • Unvarnished, Ground-Level Feedback: PABs cultivate a trusted environment for partners to deliver candid feedback on everything from product roadmaps and support processes to channel programs. This feedback is often more practical and contextually rich than direct customer surveys, as partners bridge the gap between your offerings and customer realities. For instance, a partner might highlight a subtle software bug consistently encountered by users in a specific industry, something your internal QA might miss.
  • Co-creation and Agile Innovation: PABs are fertile ground for true co-creation. Partners can help validate nascent product ideas, refine service methodologies, and even pinpoint entirely new market segments or unmet needs. This collaborative approach fosters a deep sense of ownership and accelerates the development of market-fit solutions.
  • Early Warning System for Market Shifts: Partners are your frontline sensors. They are typically the first to identify emerging market trends, competitive pressures, or evolving customer expectations. A well-managed PAB acts as a critical early warning system, empowering your XMO to proactively adapt strategies, offerings, and go-to-market approaches.
  • Deepening Strategic Relationships: By investing in and actively listening to a PAB, you unequivocally demonstrate that you value your partners beyond mere transactional revenue. This builds profound trust, fosters stronger loyalty, and transforms your partner network into a strategic asset.
  • Enhanced Alignment and Advocacy: PABs are instrumental in aligning your partners with your overarching strategic vision and operational goals. When partners feel genuinely heard and involved in shaping the future, they become exponentially more effective advocates for your brand, translating directly into stronger sales, faster market penetration, and higher customer satisfaction.

Case Study 1: Acme Software’s Partner-Led Customer Experience Revolution

From Partner Frustration to Exponential Growth

Acme Software, a leading B2B SaaS provider, faced a dual challenge: persistent channel partner churn and inconsistent customer satisfaction scores within segments served by these very partners. Their nascent XMO quickly identified a critical blind spot in their understanding of the partner experience. Their solution? The establishment of a global Partner Advisory Board, comprising 15 of their most impactful partners, representing diverse geographies and business models.

The inaugural PAB meeting was transformative. Partners articulated significant frustrations: a convoluted deal registration process that lost them deals, slow-to-respond technical support for their end-users, and a dearth of localized, customizable marketing collateral. The XMO, collaborating closely with product, sales, and marketing leadership, meticulously absorbed this feedback.

XMO Action & Outcome: Within six months, Acme streamlined their deal registration to an intuitive, two-step process. They launched a dedicated, accelerated partner support tier with guaranteed SLAs. Concurrently, a new self-service portal was rolled out, empowering partners with easily customizable, localized marketing assets. The results were dramatic: partner satisfaction (measured by a bespoke Partner Net Promoter Score – P-NPS) surged by 35 points in 18 months. Crucially, customer satisfaction scores in partner-served segments climbed by 15%, directly correlated with partners’ enhanced ability to deliver seamless experiences. Channel-sourced revenue growth accelerated to 25% year-over-year, validating the PAB’s profound impact.

“Finally, a company that genuinely listens! The changes Acme made based on our feedback have not only made our lives easier but also helped us close more deals and keep our clients happier.” – Senior Partner, Acme Software PAB.

Case Study 2: MediCorp Elevates Patient Care Through Collaborative Innovation

Co-Developing Solutions for Clinical Excellence

MediCorp, a global innovator in specialized medical devices, relies heavily on independent distributors and clinical consultants for product adoption and critical post-sale support. Their XMO recognized that the ultimate end-user experience (for doctors, nurses, and most importantly, patients) was intricately tied to the expertise and satisfaction of these vital partners. They proactively formed a Clinical Partner Advisory Board (CPAB).

A pivotal insight emerged from the CPAB: the significant friction experienced in integrating MediCorp’s cutting-edge devices with diverse, existing hospital IT systems. Partners highlighted specific, time-consuming challenges in data transfer, interoperability, and workflow disruption. This directly impacted clinician efficiency and the accuracy of patient data.

XMO Action & Outcome: Based on the CPAB’s detailed feedback, MediCorp’s R&D team, working in agile sprints and conducting regular validation sessions with CPAB members, co-developed a robust new API and a comprehensive suite of integration guides. This iterative co-creation process ensured the solutions were practical and immediately deployable. This breakthrough reduced implementation times for new device installations by an astonishing 40% and drastically improved data accuracy, directly enhancing patient safety and clinician satisfaction. MediCorp observed a 20% increase in new hospital system adoptions within a year, largely driven by the improved partner experience and their enhanced capability to deliver truly seamless, integrated solutions.

“You can’t manage what you don’t measure, and you can’t truly understand an experience if you’re not listening to those who deliver it. Your partners are delivering a significant part of that experience.” – Braden Kelley

Cultivating a High-Impact Partner Advisory Board

To maximize the strategic value of your PAB within your XMO, rigorous planning and commitment are essential. Consider these best practices:

  • Define a Clear, Shared Charter: Beyond just gathering feedback, what specific problems are you trying to solve? Is it product refinement, market expansion, program optimization, or a blend? Define clear, measurable objectives.
  • Curate Diverse Representation: Select partners strategically. Ensure your PAB includes members from different segments, business sizes, geographical regions, and even partners who excel in different aspects of your ecosystem. This prevents echo chambers and ensures comprehensive insights.
  • Secure Executive Sponsorship: A PAB must have visible, consistent executive-level commitment. This signals its importance, ensures resources are allocated, and guarantees that insights lead to tangible action.
  • Structure for Engagement, Not Just Presentation: Design agendas that prioritize interactive discussions, brainstorming sessions, and working groups over one-way presentations. Provide pre-reads to ensure productive dialogue.
  • Commit to Actionable Outcomes & Communication: This is arguably the most critical element. Document every actionable insight. Communicate clearly and regularly how partner feedback is being utilized, the decisions made, and the impact achieved. A lack of follow-through is the quickest way to disengage a PAB.
  • Maintain a Regular Cadence: Quarterly or semi-annual meetings strike a good balance, maintaining momentum and relevance without unduly burdening partners. Between meetings, consider lightweight touchpoints or surveys.
  • Acknowledge Challenges: Be prepared for differing opinions and potentially uncomfortable truths. The value of a PAB lies in its authenticity. Manage expectations regarding what can and cannot be actioned, and why.

Conclusion

In today’s experience-driven marketplace, an XMO provides the strategic blueprint for enduring success. Yet, its full potential remains untapped without a profound, empathetic understanding of the partner experience. Partner Advisory Boards are the indispensable conduit for this understanding – transforming what could be mere transactional relationships into dynamic, strategic collaborations. By proactively engaging your partners, authentically listening to their insights, and courageously co-creating solutions, you not only dramatically elevate their experience but fundamentally enhance the entire customer journey. Embrace your PABs; they are the unsung heroes, the vital feedback loop, poised to help you build better, more resilient, and truly exceptional experiences for everyone connected to your brand.

Contact me if you’re interested in working together to build or enhance your Experience Management Office (XMO).


Accelerate your change and transformation success
Content Authenticity Statement: The ideas are those of Braden Kelley, with a little help from Google Gemini to shape the article and create the illustrative case studies.

Image credit: Gemini

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How Customer Advisory Boards Fuel World-Class Experiences

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The Unbreakable Bond with the XMO

How Customer Advisory Boards Fuel World-Class Experiences

by Braden Kelley and Art Inteligencia

I’ve long championed the idea that truly transformative experiences don’t happen by accident. They are meticulously designed, continually optimized, and deeply rooted in a profound understanding of the human beings they serve. In this quest for world-class experiences, two powerful entities emerge as indispensable partners: the Customer Advisory Board (CAB) and the Experience Management Office (XMO).

Too often, companies operate under the illusion that they know what their customers want. They develop products, services, and processes based on internal assumptions, market research that’s broad but lacks depth, or perhaps feedback that’s too late to be truly impactful. This is where the Customer Advisory Board steps in as a game-changer.

The Indispensable Role of Customer Advisory Boards

A Customer Advisory Board is far more than a focus group or a complaint department. It’s a carefully curated group of your most strategic customers, brought together to serve as trusted advisors. These aren’t just your biggest spenders; they are customers who represent diverse segments, who are forward-thinking, and who are willing to provide candid, strategic input on your company’s direction, product roadmap, service offerings, and overall customer experience.

The power of a well-run CAB lies in its ability to:

  • Provide Authentic, Proactive Insights: Unlike reactive feedback channels, CABs offer a direct, unfiltered line to the strategic challenges and opportunities your customers face. They help you anticipate needs, identify emerging trends, and validate ideas *before* significant investment.
  • Validate and Refine Strategy: Before launching a new product, entering a new market, or implementing a major policy change, a CAB can provide invaluable feedback, helping you refine your approach and identify potential pitfalls.
  • Foster Deeper Relationships and Loyalty: By inviting customers into your strategic discussions, you demonstrate that their opinions truly matter. This elevates them from transactional customers to genuine partners, fostering unparalleled loyalty and advocacy.
  • Identify Blind Spots: Internal teams, no matter how customer-centric, often develop blind spots. CAB members bring external perspectives, challenging assumptions and revealing areas for improvement that might otherwise go unnoticed.
  • Generate Co-Creation Opportunities: The collaborative environment of a CAB can spark ideas for new solutions, features, or service models, co-created with the very people who will benefit most from them.

Case Study: Adobe’s Global CABs

Adobe, a leader in creative software, effectively leverages global Customer Advisory Boards to shape its product strategy, roadmap, and go-to-market approach. These boards provide a continuous stream of customer-driven ideas for Adobe’s solutions, informing development and even serving as a source for beta testers. This direct engagement ensures that Adobe’s offerings remain highly relevant and user-centric, directly addressing the evolving needs of its diverse customer base and fostering ongoing innovation.

The XMO: Orchestrating the Experience Ecosystem

While CABs provide invaluable strategic insights, the challenge then becomes: how do these insights translate into tangible, consistent, and continuously improving experiences across the entire organization? This is precisely the mandate of the Experience Management Office (XMO).

An XMO is a dedicated, cross-functional entity responsible for orchestrating, governing, and continuously improving all facets of an organization’s experiences – be it customer experience (CX), employee experience (EX), or partner experience (PX). It acts as the strategic hub, connecting disparate efforts and ensuring a cohesive, compelling narrative across every interaction. The XMO moves beyond simply collecting feedback to proactively designing, measuring, and optimizing experiences with a strategic lens.

Key functions of a robust XMO include:

  • Defining a Unified Experience Vision: Establishing a clear, organization-wide understanding of what “great experience” looks like and how it aligns with strategic business objectives.
  • Establishing Experience Governance: Setting standards, processes, and guidelines for experience design, delivery, and measurement across all functions and touchpoints.
  • Fostering a Culture of Empathy: Championing a mindset where every employee understands their role in delivering exceptional experiences.
  • Driving Cross-Functional Collaboration: Breaking down silos to ensure seamless handoffs and consistent experiences across departments.
  • Leveraging Technology for Experience Management: Identifying and implementing tools for feedback collection, journey mapping, analytics, and personalization.
  • Measuring and Monitoring Performance: Defining key metrics and establishing robust reporting mechanisms to track progress and identify areas for improvement.
  • Strategically Managing the Experience Improvement Backlog: Prioritizing and sequencing experience enhancement initiatives based on impact, feasibility, and strategic alignment.

The Synergy: CAB and XMO in Concert

The true magic happens when Customer Advisory Boards and the Experience Management Office work hand-in-hand. They form a powerful feedback loop and execution engine that propels organizations toward experience excellence.

Here’s how they collaborate:

  1. CAB Informs XMO Strategy: The strategic insights and forward-looking perspectives gathered from the CAB directly inform the XMO’s overarching experience vision and strategic priorities. For example, if a CAB identifies a critical unmet need in a specific customer journey, the XMO can prioritize a cross-functional initiative to address it.
  2. XMO Translates Insights into Action: The XMO takes the qualitative feedback from the CAB and translates it into actionable initiatives. This involves:
    • Journey Mapping: Incorporating CAB feedback into detailed customer journey maps to pinpoint pain points and moments of truth.
    • Prioritization: Using CAB insights to prioritize items in the experience improvement backlog, ensuring that efforts are focused on what truly matters to customers.
    • Pilot Programs and Beta Testing: Leveraging CAB members as ideal participants for pilot programs or beta tests of new features or services, garnering early, critical feedback before a wider rollout.
  3. CAB Validates XMO Initiatives: As the XMO designs and implements new experiences, they can loop back to the CAB for validation. This iterative process ensures that the solutions being developed truly resonate with customer needs and preferences, minimizing risk and maximizing impact.
  4. XMO Demonstrates Impact to CAB: It’s crucial for the XMO to regularly report back to the CAB on how their feedback has been actioned and the positive impact it has had. This demonstrates respect for their time and contribution, reinforces their value, and strengthens their commitment to the partnership.

Case Study: Ryder’s Customer-Centric Transformation

Ryder, a logistics and transportation company, leveraged its Customer Advisory Board to promote its supply chain business. The insights gained directly informed a successful ad campaign that boosted leads by 21% in just one month. More broadly, Ryder’s CMO stated that their CAB helped break down internal silos by providing leadership with customer insights they might not otherwise have received. This led to the development of several successful products and even the acquisition of a company, directly resulting from CAB input. This demonstrates how CABs, when integrated into a strategic framework like that of an XMO, can drive significant business outcomes and cultivate a truly customer-obsessed organization.

In essence, the CAB provides the critical “voice of the customer” at a strategic level, while the XMO provides the operational structure and governance to act on that voice effectively and systematically. Without the CAB, the XMO might design experiences in a vacuum, missing crucial customer nuances. Without the XMO, the powerful insights from a CAB might remain just that – insights, without a clear path to widespread implementation and measurable improvement.

Building world-class experiences in today’s hyper-competitive landscape is not a luxury; it’s a strategic imperative. The combined power of a well-orchestrated Customer Advisory Board and a disciplined Experience Management Office creates an unbreakable bond, ensuring that your organization not only listens to its customers but actively co-creates a future where every interaction is a delight. It’s time to stop treating experience as an afterthought and elevate it to the strategic imperative it truly is, with the CAB and XMO leading the charge.

Contact me if you’re interested in working together to build or enhance your Experience Management Office (XMO).


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Content Authenticity Statement: The ideas are those of Braden Kelley, shaped into an article introducing the topic with a little help from Google Gemini.

You’ll find more Customer Advisory Board (CAB) case studies here.

Image credit: Gemini

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Why Customers Pay More for Brands with Purpose

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Why Customers Pay More For Brands With Purpose

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

How important is a social cause to your customers? More than half of the customers (62%) we surveyed for our 2025 annual customer service and customer service (CX) study said they prefer to do business with a brand that supports a social cause that is important to them. Fifty-two percent of customers said they would be willing to pay more to do business with a brand that gives back.

Patagonia is one of the most recognizable brands in business known for “giving back” to the world. Sustainability is a big part of its brand promise, and it is a model of how to practice commitment to the planet. For the customers who care about sustainability—and many of the brand’s customers do—this is an important reason they spend more money for a Patagonia product and remain loyal to the brand.

Money

Let’s start with money. Its 1% for the Planet program pledged 1% of sales to the “preservation and restoration of the natural environment,” and since starting the program in 1985, it has given back more than $140 million in cash and in-kind donations to environmental groups around the world.

Buying Back Used Merchandise

If you own used Patagonia or gear that’s in good shape, the company will pay you to send it back, provided it’s still usable. Patagonia’s Worn Wear program pays customers 25% of the MSRP in the form of credit that can be redeemed in-store or online.

Recycling

If you have worn-out Patagonia merchandise that is not usable, the company will take it back and recycle or repurpose it for you at no charge. All you do is send it back to its service center or drop the items off at a Patagonia store, and they will make sure it doesn’t end up in a landfill.

Repair Could Be a Better Option than Replacement

Imagine a company that would rather keep you using its merchandise and repair it for you or give you what you need to repair it yourself, even if it means you might not replace it for years. That would be Patagonia, which will do most of the repairs on its items at no charge. The company will also send free patch kits to repair tears and small holes in its apparel.

While Patagonia is a case study for sustainability, you don’t have to be an international brand to make an impact. Small, local companies give back to their communities. Regional chains support various charities and causes that are important to their customers. The size of your business doesn’t matter. A significant percentage of your customers care that you care.

Here are additional facts from our annual research that could compel you to start, continue or grow your cause and philanthropic efforts:

Trust

In the U.S., 52% of customers say a company’s involvement in a social cause increases their trust in that company. If you want customer loyalty, you must create trust. Without it, there’s no confidence. Caring for something more than the bottom line increases trust.

Customer Experiences Improves

Almost six in 10 customers (57%) in the U.S. believe that companies and brands that support social causes are more likely to treat customers better. When the customer has a great experience and the company gives back, you have a winning combination.

Know Your Customers

Some customers appreciate a company supporting a social cause more than others. Specifically, 53% of Gen-Z customers rate companies giving back as “important” compared to 29% of Baby Boomers. And price becomes less sensitive to Gen-Z’s as 60% of them say they would pay more, versus 27% of Baby Boomers. While there is a big difference between the generations, that doesn’t mean a company that caters to older customers shouldn’t be philanthropic. Twenty-nine percent of Boomers is almost one-third of the generation.

Conclusion: A Social Cause Is a Good Marketing Strategy

Social causes can be part of a company’s marketing strategy. There’s nothing wrong with that. More companies should “give back” if the result attracts and retains more customers. While the business benefits of supporting social causes are clear—increased trust, stronger loyalty and potentially higher sales—the most powerful social and charitable programs come from authentic commitment to the supported causes.

We can learn from companies like Patagonia. They make their cause part of their mission and core values, and customers feel their authenticity. Regardless of the type of business or industry you are in or how large or small your company is, when a social cause or charity matters to a company’s leadership, customers sense it and respond with their wallets. Yes, the financial returns are a natural byproduct, but not the primary goal. In today’s world, doing good is good business. It’s that simple.

Image Credit: Unsplash

This article was originally published on Forbes.com.

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Fueling Competitive Advantage Through Continuous Experience Improvement

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Rise of the Experience Management Office (XMO)

Fueling Competitive Advantage Through Continuous Experience Improvement

by Braden Kelley and Art Inteligencia

In today’s hyper-competitive landscape, the battle for market share is no longer waged solely on product features or price points. It’s fought and won on the battleground of experience. From the first touchpoint to ongoing engagement, every interaction a customer, employee, or partner has with your organization shapes their perception and ultimately, their loyalty. As a human-centered change and innovation author, I’ve seen firsthand how organizations that prioritize experience improvement don’t just survive – they thrive. But how does an organization systematically achieve this? The answer, increasingly, lies in the strategic establishment and effective operation of an Experience Management Office (XMO).

For too long, experience initiatives have been fragmented, siloed within individual departments, or relegated to one-off projects. This piecemeal approach might deliver incremental gains in specific areas, but it rarely translates into a holistic, differentiating experience across the entire organizational ecosystem. This is precisely where the XMO steps in, acting as the central nervous system for all things experience-related.

What is an Experience Management Office (XMO)?

At its core, an XMO is a dedicated, cross-functional entity responsible for orchestrating, governing, and continuously improving all facets of an organization’s experiences. Think of it as the strategic hub that connects the dots between customer experience (CX), employee experience (EX), partner experience (PX), and even product experience (PX), ensuring a cohesive and compelling narrative across every interaction. It moves beyond simply collecting feedback to proactively designing, measuring, and optimizing experiences with a strategic lens.

The XMO isn’t just another committee; it’s a strategic imperative. Its mandate extends to:

  • Defining a Unified Experience Vision: Establishing a clear, organization-wide understanding of what “great experience” looks like and how it aligns with strategic business objectives.
  • Establishing Experience Governance: Setting standards, processes, and guidelines for experience design, delivery, and measurement across all functions and touchpoints.
  • Fostering a Culture of Empathy and Experience-Centricity: Championing a mindset where every employee understands their role in delivering exceptional experiences.
  • Driving Cross-Functional Collaboration: Breaking down silos to ensure seamless handoffs and consistent experiences across departments.
  • Leveraging Technology for Experience Management: Identifying and implementing tools for feedback collection, journey mapping, analytics, and personalization.
  • Measuring and Monitoring Experience Performance: Defining key metrics and establishing robust reporting mechanisms to track progress and identify areas for improvement.
  • Strategically Managing the Experience Improvement Backlog: Prioritizing and sequencing experience enhancement initiatives based on impact, feasibility, and strategic alignment.

Defining and Monitoring Experience Metrics: The XMO’s Data-Driven Approach

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. This timeless adage holds particularly true for experience. A mature XMO moves beyond vanity metrics to establish a comprehensive suite of experience metrics that provide actionable insights. These typically include a mix of:

  • Lagging Indicators: These reflect past performance and often include traditional metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), Customer Effort Score (CES), and employee engagement scores.
  • Leading Indicators: These provide foresight into future performance and can include metrics related to website navigation ease, call resolution rates, time-to-onboard new employees, or speed of partner response.
  • Operational Metrics: These track the efficiency and effectiveness of processes that impact experience, such as average handle time in customer service or employee training completion rates.
  • Financial Impact Metrics: Ultimately, experience must link back to business outcomes. The XMO tracks how experience improvements contribute to revenue growth, cost reduction, customer retention, and employee productivity.

The XMO is responsible for the systematic collection, analysis, and dissemination of these metrics. They establish dashboards, conduct regular reviews, and translate data into compelling narratives that drive action at all levels of the organization. This data-driven approach allows the XMO to identify pain points, celebrate successes, and most importantly, make informed decisions about where to focus improvement efforts.

Strategic Management of an Experience Improvement Backlog: Prioritization for Impact

One of the most critical functions of an XMO is the strategic management of the experience improvement backlog. In any large organization, there will be a seemingly endless list of ideas, suggestions, and identified issues related to improving experience. Without a centralized, strategic approach, these can become overwhelming and lead to a reactive, rather than proactive, improvement cycle.

The XMO brings discipline to this process by:

  1. Centralizing Experience Feedback and Insights: Gathering input from all sources – customer surveys, employee feedback, market research, competitive analysis, operational data, and frontline observations.
  2. Structuring and Categorizing Backlog Items: Organizing identified improvement opportunities by experience type (CX, EX, PX), impact area, customer journey stage, or strategic alignment.
  3. Quantifying Impact and Feasibility: Working with relevant stakeholders to assess the potential impact of each improvement on key metrics and the feasibility of implementation (cost, resources, technical complexity).
  4. Prioritizing Based on Strategic Value: Applying a strategic framework (e.g., Weighted Shortest Job First – WSJF, Kano Model, RICE scoring) to prioritize backlog items based on their potential to drive competitive advantage, address critical pain points, or capitalize on emerging opportunities.
  5. Translating into Actionable Initiatives: Working with product teams, IT, HR, marketing, and other departments to translate prioritized backlog items into concrete projects and initiatives with clear owners and timelines.
  6. Monitoring Progress and Measuring Outcomes: Tracking the progress of improvement initiatives and, critically, measuring the actual impact on the defined experience metrics to ensure the desired outcomes are achieved.

“An XMO transforms experience from a reactive afterthought into a proactive, strategic differentiator. It’s about building a muscle for continuous improvement, not just a one-time fix.”

Building and Maintaining Competitive Advantage Through Continuous Experience Improvement

In a world where products and services are increasingly commoditized, the truly sustainable competitive advantage lies in the experience you deliver. Organizations with a mature XMO don’t just react to market changes; they proactively shape customer expectations and employee capabilities. They build a culture of continuous learning and adaptation, where experience is not just a buzzword, but a measurable, managed asset.

By systematically defining and monitoring experience metrics, and strategically managing an experience improvement backlog, the XMO enables organizations to:

  • Increase Customer Loyalty and Retention: Delighted customers stay longer and refer more.
  • Improve Employee Engagement and Productivity: Empowered and positive employees deliver better experiences.
  • Enhance Brand Reputation and Equity: A consistently positive experience builds trust and a strong brand.
  • Drive Operational Efficiencies: Streamlined, user-friendly experiences often reduce costs and rework.
  • Accelerate Innovation: A deep understanding of experience pain points and desires fuels meaningful new solutions.

The journey to becoming an experience-led organization is not a sprint; it’s a marathon. But with an XMO leading the charge, equipped with the right metrics and a disciplined approach to improvement, organizations can systematically build and maintain a formidable competitive advantage. It’s time to stop treating experience as an afterthought and elevate it to the strategic imperative it truly is.

Contact me if you’re interested in working together to build or enhance your Experience Management Office (XMO).


Accelerate your change and transformation success
Content Authenticity Statement: The ideas are those of Braden Kelley, shaped into an article introducing the topic with a little help from Google Gemini.

Image credit: Gemini

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Employees Are Calling BS on Customer-First Leadership

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Employees Are Calling BS on Customer-First Leadership

GUEST POST from Robyn Bolton

The data speaks for itself: Your employees don’t believe you practice customer-first leadership.

According to Gallup’s research, only one in five of your people think you make decisions with customers in mind. That means four out of five watch you say one thing and do another. Every. Single. Day.

And it’s getting worse. Fewer than three in ten of your employees feel proud of what they’re building for your customers. As a result, employee pride in what they create and deliver is at an all-time low.

You know what this means, don’t you? Your customer-first messaging isn’t inspiring anyone—it’s insulting them. Because they see the truth behind your town hall speeches, and the truth is that customers aren’t first.

How Are We Still Screwing This Up?

Customer-centricity has been business gospel for decades. We’ve got libraries full of case studies, armies of consultants, and enough “customer first” wall art to wallpaper the Apple HQ. So, how the hell are we getting worse at this?

Because most leaders treat customer focus like a box to check. They say the right words in town halls and analyst calls but make decisions that prioritize quarterly numbers, internal politics, and whatever shiny new idea they come up with.

Leaders say customers come first, then cut support staff to hit margins. They preach customer obsession, then ignore feedback that requires real change. They commission expensive customer journey maps, then never look at them again.

Employees see it all.

And when employees stop believing in what they deliver, customers know it immediately. Every burned-out support call, every half-hearted sales pitch, every policy that punishes the customer to boost the company’s profit.

You CAN do better

You only need to look as far as the telecom industry (?!?!?!) for an $800 million example.

In 2005, Arlene Harris co-founded GreatCall (now Lively) and did something radical: she built a company based on the Jobs to be Done of senior citizens.  While everyone else chased flashy features for younger markets, she recognized that older Americans didn’t want a smartphone—they wanted a lifeline.

Harris delivered with the Jitterbug, a simple flip phone with giant buttons.  But that was just the beginning.  Focusing more on helping customers stay safe and connected than cool features for the tech geeks, she quickly built an ecosystem offering emergency response, health monitoring, 24/7 human support, and caregiver connectivity.

When Best Buy acquired GreatCall for $800 million in 2018, they weren’t buying a phone company. They were buying something rare: a trusted, high-value services company with intensely loyal customers.

Harris succeeded by doing precisely what the data shows most leaders aren’t doing: genuinely understanding and serving real customer needs.

WILL you do better?

Customer-first leadership isn’t a box to check.  It’s basic leadership integrity. It’s the difference between meaning what you say and just saying what sounds good.

When four out of five of your employees don’t trust your customer commitment, the problem isn’t your strategy deck, digital transformation, or tariffs. The problem is you.

So here’s your moment of truth: When was the last time you listened to customer service calls? Not the sanitized highlights your team shows you—the raw, unfiltered frustration of someone who can’t get help. When did you last sit in a waiting room and watch how people navigate your system? Or stock a shelf and see what customers actually do?

If you can’t remember, that’s your answer. If you’ve never done it, that’s worse.

The question is: Will you keep performing customer-centricity, or start practicing it?

Image credit: Pixabay

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Don’t Do These Things When Giving Gifts to Customers and Employees

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Don't Do These Things When Giving Gifts to Customers and Employees

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

It feels like Valentine’s Day was just yesterday. It is a time when you acknowledge the people you love and care about, often with a gift. I’ve written a number of articles about customer and employee gifts on Valentine’s Day and other obvious gift-giving holidays. It seems that the traditional holidays toward the end of the year are when companies or employees typically send or exchange gifts and cards.

Valentine’s Day is interesting. For personal relationships, it’s almost an obligation to give a gift. While it’s not directed toward professional or corporate relationships, some companies have found a way to have fun and send a card or gift to customers and employees. Unlike personal relationships, the choice to do so is optional. The same goes for other holidays throughout the year. How many companies send their customers or employees gifts for Independence Day or Thanksgiving? Depending on your country, there are plenty of holidays to give gifts outside of the traditional celebrations.

Just before Valentine’s Day, I was interviewed for an article by Bored Panda about corporate gifts that are “tacky, cheap, and insulting.” This made me reflect on my mentor of gift giving, the late John Ruhlin, author of Giftology, and his latest book, Beyond Giftology (released posthumously), who taught me the dos and don’ts of corporate gifting.

Shep Hyken cartoon on gifts

The point of gifting to customers and employees is to be remembered. However, not everyone does it right. So, for this article, I’ll share a few ideas on what NOT to do.

For Customers:

  • Don’t turn your gift into a marketing promotion with logos branded all over the gift.

For Customers and Employees:

  • Be careful about sending food. First, once they eat it, it’s gone and will soon become a distant memory. Second, if the customer or employee is on a specific diet, they may not appreciate or enjoy the gift.

  • Be careful about sending alcohol. Unless you know what they will enjoy (such as a favorite bottle of scotch or a special bottle of wine), avoid alcohol. Some choose to abstain from alcohol. Whatever their reason for doing so, you don’t want to appear to be insensitive.

For Employees:

  • Money is nice and a pleasant surprise, but it may be quickly forgotten and considered part of their compensation and not a true gift. Instead, consider giving employees a bonus day (or two) off or an experience, such as tickets to a sporting event or concert. Those are memorable.

  • Swag in the form of clothing is nice, and employees are proud to wear a logo on their sleeve but don’t turn your employees into walking billboards of your products and services. Subtle logos are the classy way to go.

So, those are some of the “don’ts” of corporate gift giving. There are many ways to do it right, and for an over-arching gifting strategy, consider that the gift should be unexpected, appreciated and memorable.

I’d like to close by mentioning my friend John Ruhlin once more. He left us on August 15, 2024, at the young age of 44. He was the greatest relationship builder I’ve ever met. Everyone who knew him felt a connection. He had many “best friends.” While he was a master at gift-giving for corporate relationships, every gift he ever gave, including his love for his friends, was genuine. John will be missed, but his legacy lives on. Thank you, John, for your gifts, which include knowledge, friendship, and love for all.

Image Credit: Shep Hyken, Unsplash

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Aiming for Zero Complaints

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Finding Excellence in the Pursuit

Aiming for Zero Complaints

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Vince Lombardi, the legendary football coach who won the very first (and second) Super Bowl, said to his team, the Green Bay Packers:

“Gentlemen, we will chase perfection, and we will chase it relentlessly, knowing all the while we can never attain it. But along the way, we shall catch excellence.”

That’s what I thought of when I started my interview with Bill Price, Amazon’s first vice president of global customer service, president of Driva Solutions and co-author (with Gautam Mahajan and Moshe Davidow) of Zero Complaints: The Path to Continuous Value Creation.

The concept of zero complaints intrigues me, and it should intrigue you as well. At times you may create a perfect experience for your customer, and it may happen often, but it won’t happen every time. In our interview, we talked about Price’s latest book and the importance of a relentless focus on perfection. Below are my interpretations of six of the most important takeaways from our interview:

  1. An Aspirational Goal: Like Lombardi’s pursuit of perfection, zero complaints is not attainable, but a lofty goal that will have the byproduct of an excellent customer experience. Price says, “Achieving zero complaints isn’t just an aspirational goal. It’s a practical pathway to sustainable business success.”

  2. The Cost of Customer Complaints: Price emphasized that the financial impact of not addressing complaints is costly. Research by Moshe Davidow, one of the book’s co-authors, found that unresolved complaints could account for 16-20% potential revenue loss through lost business, reputational harm and lower lifetime value of existing customers. It’s imperative to adopt a proactive approach to complaint management.

  3. Service Recovery: The good news about customer complaints is that when they are managed the right way, you can turn complaining customers into loyal customers. Customers don’t want to complain, but if they have to, they will feel confidence when they realize the company will take care of them. Be sure your customer support—both self-service and with live agents—is consistently meeting and exceeding your customers’ expectations.

  4. Proactive Complaint Management: As important as service recovery is, a better solution is to eliminate or reduce the times you have to recover. Study the “journey” your customers take when doing business with you and find ways to eliminate the friction and pain points that they might experience. Focus on delivering an excellent experience, rather than just excellent complaint resolution. This dual approach helps to ensure positive interactions, whether complaints happen or not.

  5. Executive Buy-In: Leadership (and that includes the C-suite) should engage with front-line employees and experience the day-to-day operations firsthand. By working in customer-facing roles or performing normal tasks, leaders can gain valuable insights into existing challenges and improve processes. When decision-makers see the business through a customer’s eyes, they are more likely to implement and support meaningful improvements. Price shared that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos would spend time handling complaint calls. “He strapped on a headset (in the support center) or sat at the computer and answered emails. … Back then, his email address was jeff@amazon.com, and he actually shared that email address publicly.”

  6. The ROI of Zero Complaints: There is a significant return on investment (ROI) that can be realized by minimizing customer complaints. First, reducing complaints leads to better customer retention. When customers have fewer issues, they are more likely to remain loyal and advocate for the brand, thereby attracting new business through word-of-mouth. Second, fewer complaints translates to lower operational costs. A reduction in customer issues means less reliance on customer support managing complaints, freeing up agents to help customers solve problems (not complaints) and free up resources that can be better utilized elsewhere.

Customer expectations are continually rising. Customers are smarter than ever and know from their own experiences what great service is. It is essential for businesses to adapt to a higher standard and expectation. Price says, “We must always maintain that what was good last year isn’t good anymore.”

Image Credit: Shep Hyken

This article was originally published on Forbes.com.

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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of May 2025

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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of May 2025Drum roll please…

At the beginning of each month, we will profile the ten articles from the previous month that generated the most traffic to Human-Centered Change & Innovation. Did your favorite make the cut?

But enough delay, here are May’s ten most popular innovation posts:

  1. What Innovation is Really About — by Stefan Lindegaard
  2. ‘Stealing’ from Artists to Make Innovations Both Novel and Familiar — by Pete Foley
  3. Benchmarking Innovation Performance — by Noel Sobelman
  4. Transform Your Innovation Approach with One Word — by Robyn Bolton
  5. Building Innovation Momentum Without the Struggle — Five Questions for Tendayi Viki
  6. Change Behavior to Change Culture — by Mike Shipulski
  7. The Real Reason Your Team Isn’t Speaking to You — by David Burkus
  8. The Enemy of Customer Service is … — by Shep Hyken
  9. Three Real Business Threats (and How to Solve Them) — by Robyn Bolton
  10. Better Customer Experiences Without Customer Feedback — by Shep Hyken

BONUS – Here are five more strong articles published in April that continue to resonate with people:

If you’re not familiar with Human-Centered Change & Innovation, we publish 4-7 new articles every week built around innovation and transformation insights from our roster of contributing authors and ad hoc submissions from community members. Get the articles right in your Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin feeds too!

Build a Common Language of Innovation on your team

Have something to contribute?

Human-Centered Change & Innovation is open to contributions from any and all innovation and transformation professionals out there (practitioners, professors, researchers, consultants, authors, etc.) who have valuable human-centered change and innovation insights to share with everyone for the greater good. If you’d like to contribute, please contact me.

P.S. Here are our Top 40 Innovation Bloggers lists from the last four years:

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Nothing and Everything Has Changed in Customer Service

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Nothing and Everything Has Changed in Customer Service

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

With all the talk of AI, ChatGPT and more, I’m often asked when interviewed, “What’s changed in customer service?”

My answer is accurate: Nothing!

For thousands of years – actually about 3,775 years – when customers have had a problem or question, they have contacted the company they are doing business with and hoped that it would be resolved to their satisfaction. That’s the way it’s been and will continue to be for thousands of years to come.

But there’s also another answer to the same question about what’s changed: Everything!

By everything, I’m referring to the latest methods of responding to customers’ questions and handling their problems and complaints. I mentioned that for 3,775 years, customers have been contacting companies when they have problems or questions. About 10 years ago, I wrote a Forbes.com article when I learned that tucked away in the British Museum is an ancient complaint that dates back to 1750 B.C.

Nanni, the customer, bought copper ore from a supplier, Ea-Nasir. Unhappy with his purchase, Nanni sent a letter in the form of a stone tablet with the engraved complaint. Loosely translated, the “letter” opens with these words, “What do you take me for that you treat somebody like me with such contempt?” The rest of the letter was a demand that he receive what he thought was right.

Ancient Customer Service Shep Hyken

Customers still complain, and companies – at least the good ones – respond and properly take care of their customers. But how they do so has radically changed.

What may have started as an engraved complaint on a stone tablet eventually turned into handwritten letters, then phone calls, emails, chat, and more modern-day ways of communicating. AI has become the topic of the day, and the strides made in automation and self-service have come a long way.

While many companies are still improving and trying to keep up with the technology, customers who take advantage of the new ways to get questions answered and complaints resolved are very happy with the companies that have kept up with the latest ways to manage the customer experience.

At its core, customer service hasn’t changed. Customers still want to be heard, understood and valued. Sometimes, they even want a little empathy. However, what has changed is the way we deliver that experience. The tools may have evolved from stone tablets to AI chatbots, but the goal remains the same: take care of the customer.

Companies that embrace new technologies while staying true to the timeless principles of great service – listening, responding quickly, and meeting or exceeding expectations – are the ones that will keep their customers coming back. The best companies know that while everything seems to change, the most important thing never changes: a relentless focus on the customer!

Image Credit: Pixabay

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