About Us
SharedAim is an international boutique customer experience consultancy that specialises in helping organisations design services and experiences that engage on a human level. What sets us apart is our unique ALWAYS HUMAN® philosophy and CXonFire® methodology. You can learn more about the inspiration behind these below.
David Wales MSc CCXP FRSA
David is a multi-award-winning professional whose innovative thinking and work is internationally influential. He is known for his ability to find new perspectives and inspire human centred approaches, acknowledging the role of risk, complexity, and uncertainty.
David is a recognised Influencer, sought-after author, experienced presenter, and creative facilitator. And an occasional awards judge, quiz show host and conference moderator.
His passion for understanding human factors and the human experience accelerated in 2009 when he led a pioneering research project to find out why customers were not behaving as they were predicted to. The answer was not what he or the Board members expected. He has continued to develop the insights gained during this study, leading to a focus on finding more authentic ways to understand and engage with customers or service users.
Prior to founding SharedAim, David had a distinguished career in the fire and rescue service (FRS) with roles including operational fire fighter, investigation and research lead, emergency incident command and developing national policy. His broad experience means he understands what it takes to translate strategies and operational plans into beneficial outcomes, often against a challenging and dynamic backdrop of complexity, uncertainty, and risk.
He concluded his time with the FRS as its first ever customer experience manager, introducing the customer-focussed concepts and methodologies that were the catalyst for an ongoing transformation within the sector.
He retains an active interest in the international humanitarian and emergency field through various advisory roles and projects.
And as Founder of SharedAim he is proud to help brands create and implement authentic human experience strategies.
SharedAim – the story behind the name
SharedAim was established by David when he recognised the need for organisations to understand and engage with customers on a human level. He had seen how failing to do so led to poor experiences and outcomes, both of which were avoidable and often very costly. He had also noted how influential, and yet rarely acknowledged or discussed, the human factors present in any initiative were. As a result, he believed he could use his research and experience to help organisations excel by seeing themselves and their customers through a human lens.
The name SharedAim has its origin in the many stories that David heard during the years he spent researching human behaviour in fires. These consistently reinforced that the same incident could be experienced very differently by all involved, in turn influencing their needs and outcomes. For example, organisations often think in terms of cost, efficiency, and standardised process. However, customers are usually more mindful of their emotional experience and the influence of their personal circumstances which could change quickly and frequently. This in turn can mean they behave in ways that had not been expected by the product or service provider. This problem was in fact the catalyst for the pioneering research that David instigated and led.
His employer, like many other organisations, anticipated that by learning what its customers did, it could educate and inform, or by other means change their behaviours to the ones they deemed appropriate. This strategy very rarely works for many reasons and yet it is still widely adopted.
What David recognised was that the two needs were not incompatible and could be mutually achievable if they were built around their shared interests. However, that meant finding new ways to understand the customer and the adoption of new ways of designing services and experiences. That was the inspiration for SharedAim, through which David has realised his vision of:
- Seeking diverse perspectives
- Identifying common interests
- Purposefully exploring areas of difference, and
- Designing simple and human-centred solutions