Five Core Roles of the Chief Experience Officer

It's been over a decade since the book The Experience Economy by Joseph Pine and James Gilmore, was written.

To this date, I haven't found a better definition for the Chief Experience Officer and the multiple roles they must perform:

(1) THE CATALYST

In chemistry, catalysts cause or accelerate reactions among two or more substances, releasing energy as a result. In a similar manner, chief experience officers must spark energy, excitement, and action among people throughout the company.

Tools of the trade: Storytelling, Voice of the Customer Research

(2) THE DESIGNER

In fields as diverse as art and fabrication, designers take raw materials and shape them, artistically and skillfully, into a form that fulfills their intention. Likewise, chief experience officers need to take the raw material of company capabilities and work with the organization to shape them into experience offerings.

Tools of the Trade: Customer Journey Mapping, Design Sprints

(3) THE ORCHESTRATOR

In music, orchestrators compose or arrange notes, motifs, and themes and align them with instruments, parts, and players to form an audience-pleasing whole. So too must chief experience officers align the various elements of operations to fit into a cohesive whole through a customer-pleasing theme.

Tools of the Trade: Storyboarding, Experience Blueprinting

(4) THE CHAMPION

In the social and political arenas, champions fight for a cause they believe in or on behalf of people they believe in. In the arena of today’s Experience Economy, chief experience officers must fight for the needs, wants, and desires of customers and make sure that the company’s offerings create value on behalf of each individual guest.

Tools of the Trade: Brand Promise and Values, Customer Value, Customer Jobs-to-be-done

(5) THE GUIDE

In mountain climbing and other outdoor endeavors, guides equip, accompany, and propel a party to its destination. In the same way, CXOs have to propel their enterprises into becoming premier experience stagers with the ongoing ability to regenerate new and wondrous economic offerings—which include the goods and services atop which experiences must be staged.

Tools of the Trade: Facilitations, Value Proposition, Experience and Service Design

It takes an entire toolbox to orchestrate and transform experiences. As a Chief Experience Officers you embrace this challenge!.