Orchestrating Experiences. Chris Risdon

a bank’s products and operations in proper context.

      An experience ecosystem complements other models, such as personas and customer journeys, which provide insights into your customers and their experiences. In fact, it’s a best practice to gather qualitative and quantitative data to synthesize into multiple frameworks. The next section covers what entities and relationships you will need to identify in order to understand and document an experience ecosystem.

Unpacking an Experience Ecosystem

      Unpacking an ecosystem is not unlike peeling an onion: there are many layers, and at some point in the process, you might start to cry. From our research, we have found varying approaches to breaking down the elements of an ecosystem. The same terms have different or overlapping meanings, depending on the methodology. Based on our experience, the following components can help produce good insights while keeping the focus on the customer:

      • Actors

      • Roles

      • Artifacts

      • Factors

      • Places

      • Interactions

      • Relationships

      • Boundaries

       Actors

      Ecosystem actors can come in different shapes and sizes. Most are simply people who participate (or could participate) in your product or service experience. Others are companies or institutions that compete, partner, regulate, or otherwise affect ecosystem dynamics. Overall, actors fall into one of four categories.³

      • Customers and external stakeholders: It’s common for organizations to focus myopically on customers (or users) of their products or services without considering the broader group of people who affect customer needs and behaviors. These people can be friends and family, professionals (such as realtors, financial advisors, or life coaches), or others directly or indirectly involved in the experience. Getting your arms around all of these external stakeholders is critical for understanding the human dimensions of an ecosystem.

      • Internal stakeholders and agents: Organizations are not people, but they are made of many people. Internal stakeholders include all of the different employees who play one or more roles in and gain value through the delivery of products and services. In a hospital, internal stakeholders might include doctors, nurses, technicians, administrators, marketers, and the board of trustees. Some of these actors interact with customers directly; others may be behind the scenes (see the section, “Current-State Service Blueprints”). Actors in this category may also be third parties, or agents, who act on behalf of your organization. For example, it is common in the cable industry for companies to contract third-party installers and technicians to deliver in-home service. Well-orchestrated experiences tightly integrate these agents to ensure consistency and efficiency.

      • Organizations and government: Zooming out a bit, other organizations and institutions vie for your customers, influence product or service requirements, or provide capabilities for you to leverage. These actors include competitors, partners, suppliers, activist groups, government agencies, and other third parties. These relationships can be complex and constantly in flux.

      • Products and services: It is useful to also think of individual products and services as unique actors in an ecosystem. For example, Apple may view Samsung as a competitor, but this level of granularity is not very useful if you are looking at the ecosystem around business communication and collaboration. Understanding these companies’ phones, tablets, computers, and other products and services and their relation to the ecosystem provides greater insight.

       Roles

      It is sometimes helpful to distinguish actors from the roles that they play in an ecosystem. In a couple, one spouse may take on the role of handling paying the bills, while her partner handles the budget and investments. Different actors (a child, nurse, or hospice staff) may play the role of caretaker, each supporting an elderly patient in different ways. Roles (and how actors relate to them) give you a better handle on how other people provide value in an ecosystem. These insights can spark new ideas for supporting, replacing, or augmenting actors through new products, services, or artifacts.

       Artifacts

      The term artifact often trips people up, sometimes being confused with customer touchpoints. Broadly, artifacts are digital or analog things with varying dynamic or intelligent capabilities. Some of these may be product or service touchpoints; others may exist outside of your product or service, yet impact an actor’s attitudes, expectations, and experiences. Within a healthcare ecosystem, artifacts could include cigarettes, warning labels on cigarette packages, a movie in which the hero constantly smokes, a lung cancer pamphlet, or a lung machine.