Infinite Possibility

World-renowned business strategist and bestselling author of The Experience Economy (Harvard Business Press, 2009), Joe Pine teams up with Kim Korn to take the next step after The Experience Economy. They offer a revolutionary new model to help businesses understand and develop a strategy for harnessing the limitless potential of digital technology to create memorable, enriching customer experiences.

We are now deeply into an Experience Economy, where memorable events that engage people in inherently personal ways have become the predominant economic offering. These offerings can create tremendous value for customers, have longer life-spans than new products as they’re more difficult for competitors to imitate, and let companies capture more economic value. Digital technology is a unparalleled tool for creating such experiences, but what is the best way for your business to use it? The possibilities seem infinite. What kinds of experiences can you create? Which ones should you create?

Joe Pine and Kim Korn provide a profound new model to help readers conceptualize and combine various aspects of the virtual and the real to create breakthrough customer experiences. Some of the most powerful experiences incorporate both worlds—like the Wii, which combines a physical experience with a virtual one. Pine and Korn delineate eight different realms of digital/real experience and, using dozens of actual examples, show how innovative companies are operating within—and across—each to create extraordinary customer value.

Concrete Examples to Describe the Realms of the Multiverse

Reality (Time, Space, Matter): A walk in the woods, a dinner out, a visit to the beach. (Do not interpret Infinite Possibility as a plea to abandon such wonderfully sensory experiences!)

Augmented Reality (Time, Space, No-Matter): Using the camera in your iPhone to explore the world in front of you, such as to find the nearest restaurant that appeals to you.

Alternate Reality (No-Time, Space, No-Matter): Kids using the SmartUs playground equipment from Finland's Lappset to play digital games outdoors.

Warped Reality (No-Time, Space, Matter): Visiting a living history museum, such as Plimoth Plantation or Colonial Williamsburg, or any other way you play with time.

Virtuality (No-Time, No-Space, No-Matter): PlayStation games, social media, virtual worlds, or any such experience you have on a screen.

Augmented Virtuality (No-Time, No-Space, Matter): Enhancing your Virtuality experience with a Wii or with a Kinect, where the body itself is the material substance augmenting the screen-based experience.

Physical Virtuality (Time, No-Space, Matter): Designing some physical object virtually, and then using a 3D printer to make it real, such as enabled by Netherlands-based Shapeways.

Mirrored Virtuality (Time, No-Space, No-Matter): Experiencing a Major League Baseball game play out in real time on MLB Gameday.