Lived experience is data too

Organizations have amassed an abundance of data, capable of pinpointing customer behavior with great precision throughout the customer journey. While data excels at explaining the "what," it often falls short in elucidating the "why." The "why" frequently resides in lived experience, encompassing personal insights into what matters, the emotions evoked, and the aspects that conventional measures may overlook.

This realization came to me through years spent as an investment banker and strategic advisor to prominent luxury goods firms and through my current role as the CEO of a social impact startup.

Luxury brands have demonstrated a remarkable ability to comprehend and market to lived experience. They recognize that a purchase extends beyond mere product attributes; it's also about the brand's representation and the emotions it evokes. By studying thousands of transactions, these companies can identify patterns with noteworthy accuracy. However, these data points alone cannot fully capture the essence of why a particular brand resonates with a customer.

With the establishment of AbleFly, a company addressing accessibility in air travel for adults with reduced mobility, I sought to apply my insights into customers, brands, and value creation to a domain where enhancing the customer experience could yield direct social benefits. Lived experience is now a crucial component of our approach, focusing on understanding the challenges faced by individuals, their emotional responses, and the critical aspects that conventional metrics may not capture.

Data about accessible air travel exists in ample supply, such as passenger counts, complaints, and damaged mobility equipment. Yet, these figures fail to encapsulate the feelings of a wheelchair user transitioning from a customized system to a standard aircraft seat, the erosion of safety, support, dignity, and control that often ensues.

To leverage both data and lived experience, AbleFly's development of the Personal Accessibility System featured a collaborative effort. We engaged frequent travelers with reduced mobility, healthcare professionals, industrial designers, and aviation teams to shape our product development process. By incorporating lived experience alongside clinical, engineering, and operational data, we aimed to create a solution that addressed both the practical and emotional aspects of air travel for those with reduced mobility.

Upon encountering initial setbacks during quantitative testing, where the prototype required significant refinement, we encountered an unexpected revelation. Participants expressed feelings of safety, stability, and support within the prototype, surpassing their experience in conventional aircraft seats. This divergence between the objective measurements and subjective experiences underscored the importance of considering both data types.

Our clinician on the team emphasized the need to weigh these findings equally, as each provided distinct insights into the prototype's strengths and weaknesses. This combination of data sources guided the next generation of the design, incorporating improvements not evident through quantitative analysis alone.

Similar synergies emerged when evaluating the system among airline and airport teams. Practical concerns related to ergonomics and cabin operations, which might not be evident through passenger testing or quantitative metrics, were brought to light by their firsthand experiences. Their input helped us determine whether a design could function effectively not just in theory, but in the practical context of an air travel journey.

The crux of the matter lies in acknowledging that data is not solely confined to numerical values. While quantitative testing and market research offer invaluable insights, observation, lived experience, emotions, and human judgment provide a complementary perspective. To make the best decisions, we must broaden our understanding of what constitutes data.

Quantitative methods, while powerful, are merely one piece of the puzzle. By integrating diverse sources of information, we can arrive at more informed and holistic decisions that account for both the tangible and intangible aspects of customer experience.