Author of “Ends” Author Speaks to Why Service Endings Matter and How to Design for Them

We are excited to welcome Joe Macleod to New York from Stockholm! He has generously offered to come speak to us about his most recent book “Ends: Why we overlook endings for humans, products, services and digital. And why we shouldn’t.”

We design rich, emotional and meaningful experiences to on-board the consumer through advertising and marketing. In contrast the off-boarding of a consumer experience is barren of emotion and meaning. This sacrifices consumer action, holding back engagement, limiting reflection and responsibility. Long term side effects of this can be seen in the product, service and digital landscapes. Consequences seen as changing climate, industries fined billions for mis-selling and individuals eroding their online reputations.

Services have enormous opportunities improving endings for their customers. With more collaborative off-boarding experiences business gain richer communication with their customers, improve the accuracy of reclaiming or removing materials, improve the brand perception through loyalty and increase re-engagement. In a new streamlined world, with consumers moving between multiple relationships, endings will be a competitive differentiator.

The talk will provide a historic baseline for endings in consumer experiences. It will reveal how shards of the consumer experience break lacking a coherent ending. It will provide examples of how this can be avoided and the improvements people can make. Techniques and approaches will be shared that help discussion, design and delivery of endings for consumers in your own projects and products.