More than a decade ago, I created this trailer for my book, X: The Experience When Business Meets Design. For reasons I can no longer remember, I never released it. It became a lost trailer from the digital era. Yet the idea behind it may be even more important in the AI era. At the time, customers were changing faster than the experiences companies designed for them. Digital, mobile, and social technologies were reshaping how people communicated, discovered, purchased, shared,…
In the Era of AI, Human Experience is the Killer App
I had the privilege of keynoting UserTesting conferences in San Francisco and New York. It was my third and fourth UserTesting event respectively, which I guess makes this a situationship now. 😍 The theme was experience innovation in an era of AI. The real message wasn’t really about AI. It was about people. It was about how human beings are changing faster than the experiences designed for them. It was about why, in this new era of increasingly ‘intelligent’ machines,…
From Art to Innovation: The Hidden Connection Between Picasso, Steve Jobs, and Apple
In December 1945 — January 1946, Picasso created “Le Taureau” or “The Bull”, a series of 11 stone prints that painstakingly explored the purest essence of a bull. With each successive print, a bull is simplified and abstracted. It is considered as an iconic representation of absolute simplicity. In 2008, Steve Jobs set out to teach employees at Apple this philosophy. “You have to deeply understand the essence of a product in order to be able to get rid of…
Customers are the Ultimate Influencers; The Value of a Shared Experiences and How To Measure Them
After releasing, What’s the Future of Business: Changing the Way Businesses Create Experiences, I also published a secret “bonus” chapter for those who finished the book and found the Easter egg at the end. Now, I’m making the bonus chapter available for everyone. Why? Because the four moments of truth explored in WTF not only define the modern customer journey, the link between the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) and what I call the Ultimate Moment of Truth (UMOT) is…
Brian Solis to Deliver Visionary Keynote at HIMSS22
HIMSS will feature Brian Solis as a visionary keynote speaker at HIMSS22 Re-Imagine Health event in Orlando. Brian will share a reimagined view of patient and caregiver experience through the lens of design and experience innovation. Visionary Keynote: The Future of Patient Experience & Innovative Experience Design in Healthcare Monday, March 14 at 3:50 PM – 4:15 PM EDT Human beings crave special experiences. Yet, as patients, we tolerate mediocrity. In a world disrupted by a global pandemic, the one…
What is the purpose of a logo? It’s more than design…it’s about purpose and experience
My friend Spencer Chen, CMO of BRD and Blockset, blew up Twitter a while back by observing that many hot tech companies have apparently borrowed their logos from previous designs. While there is a finite set of possibilities specifically for logos based on a single character, the resemblances are striking and uncanny nonetheless. Furthermore, the logos of Airbnb, Beats, Flipboard and Medium all seem to be based on designs featured in a 1989 design book, “Trademarks & Symbols of the World:…
X: The Experience When Business Meets Design – GetAbstract Summary
Digital customer experience has never been more important. The pandemic accelerated e-commerce, AI and automation, and digital transformation by 10 years. What most businesses still aren’t prepared for however, is how to think beyond digital tools and platforms to design intuitive digital experiences that inspire human engagement in every touch point across the CX journey. That’s what X: The Experience When Business Meets Design set out to do. It was designed to help “imagineers” image a unified customer journey that…
Dear Retailers, Architects, and Commercial Realtors, Here’s What Digital-First Consumers Want in Shopping Center Design
On December 2nd, 2020, I was presented with an incredible opportunity to keynote CenterBuild, organized by the International Counsel of Shopping Centers (ICSC). My session, “The Future of Retail and Real Estate Isn’t What It Used to Be,” focused on the cultural roots of shopping centers and the role they can play as society evolves in a new trajectory due to COVID-19. Brannon Boswell, Executive Editor/SCT, wrote a wonderful article summarizing the presentation that I wanted to share with you…
X Ranked Number 6 Best Mobile Marketing Books of All Time by Bookauthority
“X: The Experience When Business Meets Design“, made it to BookAuthority’s Best Mobile Marketing Books of All Time list, ranked at #6! BookAuthority collects and ranks the best books in the world, and it is a great honor to get this kind of recognition. The book is available for purchase on Amazon. p.s. Thank you Lee Odden!
Humanizing CX: Shifting from Customer Experience to the Customer’s Experience
Customer experience is powerful because it consists of two important ingredients, 1) people and 2) emotions. When we talk about CX as a matter of purpose and strategy, this is exactly where the phrases “put customers at the center of our business” and becoming “customer-centric” can and should come to life. But honestly, we don’t really design for people or emotions today. We design for what we think of as customer intent and in turn, invest in touchpoints, conversions, transactions…









