Immersive Learning Programs

“The desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world."

— John le Carré

Insights from the Outside

In life and work, the most obvious, ubiquitous, and important realities are often the hardest to see. Instead of focusing on extraordinary imagination, firms must focus on extraordinary realism. The only way to rethink, reframe, and recombine one’s offering while staying firmly on the ground is through non-customer insights. Non-customers may never purchase your product, but they are the hidden source of breakthrough insights.

Hidden in plain sight are the insights needed to address the challenges managers face, from business model redesign to customer service, distribution, finance, talent development, and sales. Opportunity is all around us if we look for it the right way. With our approach, participants learn to overcome the cognitive traps that blind us to creative solutions that are often right in front of our eyes.

No matter how hard firms try, customers will never be the source of blockbuster business strategies, whether through observation or interrogation. And no matter how innovative firms believe they are, we must recognize that our predictive powers are inherently flawed.No matter how hard firms try, customers will never be the source of blockbuster business strategies, whether through observation or interrogation. And no matter how innovative firms believe they are, we must recognize that our predictive powers are inherently faulty.

By shifting their focus from customer to non-customer interactions with their offering, managers gain the distance, perspective, and latitude needed to unlock market-creating insights.

Our Approach

THEME

Each team is provided with a "theme" - a utility factor their industry currently competes on, e.g., luxury, speed, security, etc.

Reflect

PLAN

The teams follow a walking route to explore the city

Plan
Exploration

OBSERVE

As the teams explore the local environs, they are tasked to find
how other businesses create the same utility as their "theme"

Value Creation

RECONSTRUCT

Teams capture insights into the alternative value propositions in drawings, photos, physical objects, etc

Results

In a fast-paced “learning journey” across an iconic city, participants learn how to conduct ethnographic research to uncover the 3 key insights noncustomers consistently reveal:

Value Proposition

Value Proposition

Noncustomer insights help us to connect and recombine seemingly disassociated insights across market boundaries to create breakthrough offerings
Core Competencies
Buyer Pain Points

Core Competencies

Buyer Pain Points

Observing how noncustomers interact with a firm's offering quickly illuminates where they are over-serving, under-performing and creating pain points that existing customers passively endure
Noncustomers provide the psychological distance to highlight a firm's often overlooked core competencies

Ready to learn from what’s hidden in plain sight?

Get Started..

Other Services

  • Strategy & Transformation

    CONSULTING

    Our approach is grounded in twenty years of observational strategy work and proven frameworks for market innovation.

  • AT Strategy & Transformation

    CONSULTING

    Intelligence just became abundant. That changes everything.

  • Capability Development

    EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

    Without the proper tools, methodologies, and analytics to successfully create and capture uncontested market space, managers cannot be expected to act on the call to break out of existing competition. Our educational workshops address this impasse by introducing the strategic logic and tools of Blue Ocean Strategy.

  • Keynote Speaker

    HEADLINE PERFORMER

    Our keynotes introduce participants to the concepts, tools and methodologies behind artificial intelligence and strategy, Blue Ocean Strategy, Jobs to be Done, Design Thinking and leadership.

  • Ethnographic Research

    EXECUTIVE EDUCATION/CONSULTING

    Over the last fifteen years we have worked with companies worldwide in the pursuit of breakthrough growth. Central to each and every successful strategy has been a shift from customers to non-customers as our reference point of value creation.