My Company Turns Twenty Soon

Reminiscing About Stone Mantel

Dear Friends,

I continue to write away at the Experience Strategy book. I hope to have another post for you on Monday.

Today I’m feeling a bit reflective. In June of 2005, I started Stone Mantel and this time of year I often find myself thinking back to my personal journey.

My foray into the Experience Economy began in 1997 when Royal Caribbean International hired the company I worked for, Yamamoto Moss, to redesign its travel brochures. That’s right. People use to use brochures to book cruises. Old school.

We were very successful because we employed research techniques borrowed from what is now called design thinking. So, Royal Caribbean gave us (me) another task: rethink the private island experience of Coco Cay. I was asked to lead research on what people want from a private island experience and make recommendations about the design. I was introduced to Joe Pine through a co-worker and became, like so many people, completely transfixed by the ideas he and his partner, Jim Gilmore, laid out in their book, The Experience Economy.

In 1999, I created the first research methodology to employ the principles of the Experience Economy and with help from Joe set off to study what people wanted from Coco Cay. From then on I was completely focused on the experiences that customers had with things and acolyte of Pine & Gilmore. (The private island took 8 years to redesign but I think they did a pretty good job.)

In 2005, living in Colorado Springs, and working for Yamamoto Moss, in Minneapolis, I gave notice, bought my clients from YM, and launched Stone Mantel. There were other firms that focused on experiences. Some were big, like IDEO and the Doblin Group, others weren’t. Stone Mantel was the first firm that focused on experience strategy and research exclusively.

Over the last two decades, I’ve seen a lot change, mostly because of technology. I like to think about the different phases of what we now call experience strategy.

Phase 1(1999 - 2004): Themed and Thinking

Pine & Gilmore not only presented to the world what was happening in the economy, but they gave the world a point of view on what makes a great experience. They pointed to themed environments like Hard Rock Cafe as the precursor to a larger movement where all companies would have a theme that drove their experience.

Other great thinkers had other points of view on experiences. Some of which would shape the industry.

Phase 2 (2004 - 2010): Brand Experiences

We at Stone Mantel focused on brand experience as a concept that could help companies create both a great brand and a meaningful experience. Many agencies jumped on the brand experience bandwagon. It was also a time period when innovation began to play a major role in experience methodology. I became heavily influenced by Clayton Christensen’s work.

At Stone Mantel we worked with incredible brands helping them to ‘find the experiences that matter.’ That was our tagline back then. We did (and still do) exceptional ethnographic research that identified the jobs that customers wanted to get done and then turned those opportunities into brand experience platforms.

Phase 3 (2011-2017): The Digital Consumer

The great challenge of this six year period was understanding the implications of smart phones, iPads, and the Internet of Things on experiences. It was also a period of time when the standardization of customer service was in full effect. Net Promoter Score, CX, and service design took off.

But next to the dramatic changes to business models that apps presented, CX wasn’t nearly as important. We spent a lot of time helping companies with their omnichannel strategies, even as we knew that it was just a precursor to digital context.

Phase 4 (2018 - Today): Meaningful Experiences and AI

Around 2018 the technology in people’s lives stabilized. They understood it. They liked it. And companies knew how to deploy it. What people wanted from digital and real experiences was meaning. They valued the little things over the big experiences. They thought about being present. The wellness movement took off. And being locked down during COVID reinforced the need for meaningful experiences.

But that wasn’t all, AI had started to impact experience design. Chat became smarter. Phones could talk to you, on their own. Alexa took off. And now we have ChatGPT and a wide array of other tools. These are the forces that are shaping experience strategy today.

When I started Stone Mantel, I didn’t know where we’d be 20 years later. Many of my competitors at the time closed up shop in 2008. I had no idea that a small firm in Utah would someday be the powerhouse CX solution provider, worth billions (Qualtrics). But what an exciting ride it has been. And continues to be.

I’ve been doing experience strategy work since 1999. Next year, my company turns 20. I can’t wait to see what the next 20 years bring.