The Experience Edge

Gene Hong, Design Leader at Target and founder of Aperture North, brings over 25 years of experience shaping how brands translate creativity into commercial success. Leading a $770M portfolio, Gene operates at the intersection of design, business strategy, and innovation, with a focus on creating culturally relevant, high-impact consumer experiences.In this conversation, Gene explores why the future of design lies beyond optimization and into “designing for the moment.” From triangulation and imperfect creativity to the rising importance of judgment in an AI-driven world, he challenges leaders to rethink how experience, business acumen, and creative risk come together to drive meaningful growth.TakeawaysGreat design leaders balance creative output with intentional input to sustain originality and perspective.“Triangulation” - combining insights from different contexts - is key to creating unexpected, differentiated outcomes.AI increases the volume of ideas, but judgment, experience, and imperfection remain uniquely human advantages.Business acumen is essential for designers to gain influence and move ideas from concept to execution.Innovation requires organizational space for risk - often a dedicated structure separate from core operations.LinkedInGene Hong: https://www.linkedin.com/in/genehong/Jochem van der Veer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvdveer/

They unpack how neat CX metrics can hide a fractured customer journey and create misleading “local truths.” They contrast measuring outcomes with measuring system integrity and show how repeated handoffs and hidden friction accumulate. They warn that optimizing tidy dashboards and automating with AI can amplify these blind spots. They argue for defining where signals live and measuring system health, not just satisfaction.

Ashana Singhania, VP Product Management at Goldman Sachs and former product leader at American Express, operates at the intersection of product, trust, and regulation. Having led zero-to-one launches and large-scale platform consolidations across payments, lending, and digital banking, she brings a clear-eyed view of building customer experience inside highly regulated financial institutions.In this episode, Ashana introduces the concept of “experience debt” - the invisible friction that accumulates when speed, compliance, or legacy systems outweigh intuition and clarity. She explains why dashboards often lag trust signals, how product leaders can quantify qualitative friction, and why empathy, alignment, and narrative-building are essential to protect customer trust at scale.Guest BioAshana Singhania is a product and innovation leader in fintech and banking, currently serving as VP Product Management at Goldman Sachs. Prior to this, she spent nearly a decade at American Express building and scaling products across payments, lending, risk, and digital banking.She specializes in zero-to-one product launches, platform transformations, and navigating trade-offs between speed, regulatory compliance, and customer experience in complex enterprise environments.TakeawaysCustomer experience is “everybody’s KPI, but nobody’s operating mandate” - and that’s where friction begins.Experience debt is more dangerous than technical debt because it erodes trust silently and spreads across teams.Dashboards lag trust signals - qualitative feedback, repeat contacts, and hesitation often reveal issues before metrics do.Quantifying friction requires translating customer pain into revenue delay, cost-to-serve increases, and operational inefficiencies.In regulated environments, trust and consent must take priority over speed - especially as AI and agentic commerce evolve.Chapters00:00 Introduction to Ashana Singhania02:18 Is experience part of product or vice versa?05:04 Aligning silos around a North Star08:10 Roadmaps, customer feedback, and evolving priorities11:49 AI, agentic commerce, and trust in finance16:01 When dashboards are green but trust is red18:55 What is experience debt?21:17 When experience debt becomes an organizational problem24:50 Preventing friction through testing and metrics31:17 Building cross-functional bridges in large institutions35:44 Platform consolidation and hidden complexity39:49 Technical debt vs experience debt43:07 Making experience debt visible and actionable47:54 Quantifying qualitative friction52:44 Advice for product leaders in feature factoriesLinkedInAshana SinghaniaJochem van der Veer

Anne-Kathrine Nissen, UX and journey leader shaping omnichannel experiences at H&M across 79 markets. She explains why there is no single customer journey and how journeys work best as an organizing principle. She covers translating vocabulary to bridge silos, using templates for coherence, balancing global direction with local freedom, and keeping insights alive across large organizations.

Adam Towne, Director of Product for Skilled Analytics and Funds at LSEG, began his career on an 11-hour help desk shift before moving into account management and ultimately product leadership. Now building analytics and API products for asset managers, banks, and hedge funds, he brings a rare perspective: customer support is not a cost center, it is a growth engine.In this conversation, Adam reframes customer experience for sophisticated power users. Instead of chasing “aha” moments, he argues for monotony, reliability, and invisible excellence. From role-based access control pitfalls to the “tiny dot” reality of product in a larger ecosystem, he explores how product leaders can own CX without creating more silos.Guest BioAdam Towne is Director of Product for Skilled Analytics and Funds at LSEG, where he leads data analytics and API products serving institutional clients including asset managers, banks, and hedge funds.He previously spent seven years in fixed income analytics at Citi, transitioning from help desk to account management and product management. Adam is a CFA charter holder and holds an engineering degree from Cornell University. His expertise spans power-user product design, financial analytics, and building reliable systems for high-stakes environments.TakeawaysCustomer experience is not a department, it is a product in itself and a shared responsibility across the organization.Power users do not want “aha” moments. They want reliability, monotony, and infrastructure they never have to think about.Good friction can exist in setup and onboarding for sophisticated users, but integration friction must be minimized.Feature creep for power users should be managed through primitive building blocks, not endless configuration options.Product leaders should own customer experience by aligning product decisions with support, sales, and operational metrics, not just revenue.Chapters00:00 Introduction to Adam Towne and LSEG02:09 Lessons from starting on the help desk03:55 Why customer experience is a product06:18 What real customer centricity looks like10:23 Designing for power users vs classic CX13:34 Good friction vs bad friction15:10 Trade-offs of focusing on power users19:32 Enabling the broader organization around product changes23:48 Visualizing cross-user journeys inside a customer33:55 The “tiny dot” reality of product in a larger ecosystem39:27 Who should own customer experience?44:33 Product culture vs additional management layers50:54 The measurement gap between product and CXLinkedInAdam TowneJochem van der Veer

Steve Cleff, product design leader and founder of Prismatic Vision, has led product and design at Comcast, Barclays, and Siemens, helping global enterprises move beyond feature factories toward experience-led growth. In this episode, he shares how his background in UX, engineering, and fine arts shapes his belief that customer experience starts long before someone touches your product.In conversation with Johan, Steve unpacks the tension between product and CX, why shared goals matter more than ownership, and how AI can accelerate - but not replace - human judgment. From RICE frameworks to agentic workflows, he challenges leaders to protect creativity and empathy while offloading structure and repetition.Guest BioSteve Cleff is a product design leader with over 15 years of experience building software that improves people’s lives and strengthens how companies engage customers. He has led product and design initiatives across organizations including Comcast, Barclays, and Siemens, and has partnered with brands such as JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Target, and Vanguard.Now the founder of Prismatic Vision, Steve helps organizations gain a competitive edge through experience-led strategy, multi-agent AI workflows, and cross-functional collaboration between product and customer experience teams.TakeawaysCustomer experience begins before someone becomes a customer - from the first problem or “sniffle” to post-purchase advocacy.Product teams often drift into “feature farms” when roadmaps aren’t anchored in real customer journeys.CX and product don’t need strict ownership boundaries - they need shared goals and mutual reinforcement.AI should accelerate structure, synthesis, and distribution, but creativity, empathy, and strategic leaps must remain human-led.The future of roles may shift from titles like “PM” or “CX manager” to value-driven specialties like adoption and engagement.Chapters00:00 Introduction to Steve Cleff and Prismatic Vision02:25 What product gets wrong about customer experience05:39 How CX and product can work better together10:42 Where CX should sit in an organization13:41 Making product more experience-forward16:25 Marketing, value perception, and product failure18:06 Who owns the customer journey?22:49 Why journeys rarely exist before you build them24:20 What AI changes - and what stays human33:00 What to offload to AI vs. keep human40:01 From AI skeptic to AI advocate47:40 Preventing AI from amplifying bad CX decisions50:01 The future of product and CX rolesLinkedInSteve CleffJochem van der Veer

What if 2026 isn’t the year of the agentic enterprise?Most predictions paint 2026 as the moment AI suddenly takes over customer experience end to end. Autonomous agents. Self-driving journeys. Overnight transformation. In this Insights video, Jochem challenges that narrative - and argues the real shift is quieter, slower, and far more operational than the hype suggests. The risk for leaders isn’t moving too slowly - it’s aiming their CX strategy at a future that hasn’t arrived yet.In this video:Why 2026 is about agent adoption - not agentic transformationHow narrow agents quietly reshape CX work at the edges of journeysWhy data validation becomes the real bottleneck for AI in CXHow CX teams shift from insight production to stewarding trustWhen asynchronous AI work changes the pace and depth of decision-makingIf speed is no longer the advantage, what does it mean to scale trust instead?Follow Jochem on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveerLearn more about Journey Management with TheyDo:https://www.theydo.com#CustomerExperience #JourneyManagement #ServiceDesign #ExperienceDesign #CXLeadership #AIinCX #DecisionMaking #OrganizationalDesign #SystemsThinking #ProductStrategy #ExperienceStrategy

Why executives nod at journey management - and then do nothingLeaders rarely push back on customer centricity - it sounds sensible, even obvious - yet that agreement is often exactly where journey management quietly stalls. In this Insights video, Jochem reflects on why the issue isn’t resistance but misunderstanding: journey management is still framed as a belief or a set of maps, when in reality it represents an operating model shift that changes prioritisation, coordination, ownership, and metrics. The moment those implications become clear, the nodding stops, and that gap between agreement and impact is where most journey work dies. By reframing journey management as a coordination system rather than a CX deliverable, this reflection shows why a single pitch never works - and why connecting the language to what different leaders actually care about is the only way to move from concept to practice.In this video:Why customer centricity is easy to agree with but hard to operationaliseHow journey management shifts decision-making, not just documentationWhy functional leaders and P&L owners need fundamentally different translationsHow journey management reduces chaos for teams - and reveals growth constraints for the businessWhat “executive empathy” really means when pitching customer journeysIf journey management keeps getting polite agreement but little traction, what are leaders actually hearing when you explain it?Follow Jochem on LinkedInLearn more about Journey Management with TheyDo:https://www.theydo.com

Suchi Parikh, creative director and Director of Storytelling at PayPal who previously led global sales content at Apple, discusses clear persuasion in business communication. She covers why presentations fail, the power of a single-word anchor, structuring stories around purpose-problem-solution, designing for emotional shifts in journeys, and practical checks like anchoring, empathy, and rehearsal.

What if friction in customer experiences isn't always a bad thing? Discover how intentional friction can enhance memory and decision-making. Real-world examples like IKEA and Enterprise Rent-A-Car show that moments of pause can boost satisfaction. Learn about the ethical line between helpful and manipulative friction. Jochem explores how to design journeys that create meaningful moments rather than just removing effort. This thought-provoking discussion challenges the notion that speed is everything in customer experience.