Role & Responsibilities

Head of Experience Strategy & Design

As part of NEOM’s visionary project in the Gulf of Aqaba, I led a consulting team tasked with establishing a digital and innovation strategy – combining sustainability, technology, and luxury experiences into a seamless, next-generation digital ecosystem, and position NEOM as a global leader in smart, future-ready urban development.

Activities

  • RFP response and pitch delivery
  • Stakeholder and Audience research
  • Workshop planning & facilitation
  • Experience vision setting
  • Strategic roadmapping
  • Multi-agency collaboration
  • Journey mapping
  • Executive presentations

Approach

Research

Our approach started with a thorough immersion into the business landscape of NEOM resorts and strategies that were already under development.

We then undertook in-depth market research, conducting interviews with key stakeholders, then the target audience of ultra-high-net-worth individuals (focusing on tourist and investor profiles).

Using these interview observations and insights, we produced a research report and created some initial journey maps in preparation for client workshops.

Approach

Collaborative workshopping

A two-day innovation workshop was held in Riyadh with representatives from multiple areas of the organisation including: NEOM exec leadership, infrastructure
& development, marketing, residential, tourism & hotels, as well as several partner agencies.

Following some initial context setting, playback and discussion of the research report, we undertook various group exercises to: align on a vision for GoA digital, validate journey maps, and identify potential frontstage/backstage opportunities that could support that vision and address key user needs.

The outputs provided a backbone for further technical explorartion, as well as further rounds of research & validation of ideas with users.

Approach

Bringing the vision to life

Following the workshop, key experiential opportunities were identified and brought to life in an inspirational video, aimed at communicating the vision and engage and exciting stakeholders.

Working with our inhouse offshore motion production, we briefed, storyboarded and art directed the video using brand assets combined with stock imagery and bespoke data visualisations, animations, and an AI-generated voiceover.