E V E N T R E C A P
Crafted Experiences:
Where Design Thinking Meets Luxury
1. Presentation of Luxury Experience Principles
The entire workshop was crafted around Jadepoint's 5 luxury experience principles:
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Attention to Detail
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Welcoming Presence
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Effortless Ease
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Thoughtful Personalization
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Reestablishing Trust
To provide a robust understanding of these principles, the workshop started with a virtual session a few days earlier, where Diego shared story after story, weaving a vivid picture of how these principles are connected and how they come to life.
Takeaways:
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"Delivering a true luxury experience doesn’t happen by chance, it is choreographed—seamless, yet deeply intentional."
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"Details send a constant, quiet signal to guests about the standard that they are going to experience in that place."
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"Luxury is about how someone makes you feel when you arrive."
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"Reestablishing trust is turning an inconvenience into an opportunity. Solving the issue swiftly, with elegance, with empathy, and with a touch of the unexpected."
2. Warmup
The day started off with a rock-paper-scissors tournament full of handshakes, high-fives, and laughs. It was a great way to get people acquainted and comfortable with one another.
3. Seeing Luxury at the Waldorf Astoria, DC
The Waldorf Astoria, DC generously provided an all-access tour various parts of the hotel. Attendees made lists of where they saw the 5 luxury experience principles in action.
The hotel staff truly went above and beyond, including refreshments, a simulated demonstration of how they handle customer complaints, and a special gift at the end.
Takeaways from attendees:
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"There is a LOT that goes into crafting luxury—a lot of the experience is felt and not seen."
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"Luxury = Intentionality"
4. Service Safari at Coffee Shops
Primed by being immersed in luxury, the workshop shifted abruptly to bring attendees back to reality. In teams, attendees split up to nearly coffee shops to identify moments where the luxury experience principles were absent.
Takeaways:
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Upon returning from their service safaris, attendees reported being disappointed in their coffee shop experiences, while seeing ample opportunities to apply the principles to improve the experience.
5. Reimagining the Experience
Armed with numerous observations from their coffee shop visit, each team went through a series of ideation exercises to reimagine the experience, using the luxury experience principles. These exercises included practice with:
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How Might We statements
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"What they would do"
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"Off the ground"
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Dot voting
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Concept posters
The workshop culminated with each team presenting their concept, pinning them onto a shared journey map to collectively craft a new coffee shop experience.
Takeaways from attendees:
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"Luxury experience principles can be applied to every experience!"
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"I took away new frameworks for ideation that I aspire to incorporate into my work."
This workshop was great! I took away that there are many opportunities to make everyday experiences special.
I loved the 5 principles and how they overlap in real life! This was a great reference point for my work.
I left this workshop with much more awareness of luxury + service design aspects and a renewed appreciation of observation.