Behind the visible lines of experience at Walt Disney World
One of the greatest moments of my 2019 was that I had the opportunity to take a backstage tour at Walt Disney World where I’ve learned from them what makes their experience so magical for Guests and Cast Members (aka employees).
My first idea for this blog post was to describe the highlights of the tour and what they represent in service design terms, but the more I thought about this post, the more I realized that I had to investigate a little further and think about what I actually saw and what it means to me as a Service Designer. So, I decided to take a step back and dig deeper into what I’ve experienced. I’ve compiled my learnings into four key lessons.
The intent of this post is to represent my own point of view of things and do not represent Disney's opinions in any shape or form.
Lesson 1: Spatial Strategy is all about efficiency and purpose
“The backstage is not pretty, it’s all about efficiency”
— Tour Guide
Walt Disney World (WDW) was built from the ground up. It was planned, designed, prototyped and executed with attention to its tiniest details. This implies that each area of each theme park can be monitored, measured, and improved.
For example, during the tour I’ve noticed that when you are onstage (Disney's term for front stage) it takes longer for Guests to get to the attractions while the backstage was built “shorter” so that Cast Members can flow quicker, faster, easier to prepare for what it needs to happen onstage. With that, the experience for Guests feel seamless, and smooth.
As a result, having a spatial strategy, Disney (or an organization) provides physical conditions for experiences to be designed effectively and efficiently.
Lesson 2: Operation efficiency requires hard work and commitment
“Service to others is highly disciplined work.”
— WDW Training Manual (1973)
Being a Cast Member at WDW according to their four key basics of Walt Disney’s vision means that yourself and your responsible area are show-ready at all times. As a Cast Member, you are committed to stay in character and project a positive image and energy to all Guests. This is also true if your responsible area is on the backstage, from this perspective, their commitment is to safety and efficiency, even after park hours…
For example, I’ve learned that at night is when everything else happens, they use artificial sunlight in the parks so that they can work on repairs and decorations.
To build experiences that exceed expectations you must go above and beyond and commit to deliver them as if you were building it for your own family.
Lessons 3: “Being in motion” means to deliver a magical experience, especially if you can do it "underground"
Once I’ve understood that space and operations are intrinsically connected and well designed, another element came to mind, and I call it, magic movement. Movement in this context, is a constant reminder that the park is always changing and transforming, just like magic!
One of the greatest examples of this magical movement during my tour was the “utilidor”. The “utilidor”, as the word implies, is a utility corridor, with a sewage and trash system built underneath the Magic Kingdom park area. According to my tour guide, this project was an essential element to Walt’s vision of his dreamland. His intention was to use it to effectively clean up and supply the park but also, bring to life magical experiences across different lands in the park (Tomorrowland, AdventureLand, FantasyLand). Characters use this tunnel in order not to be seen and they magically appear in the land that they belong to. Furthermore, this corridor allows for constant movement of Cast Members, emergency vehicles and security to be as fast as possible where they need to be.
For me, this movement of people, artifacts, policy/process, technology is the ultimate goal on how to deliver a service experience. If you are able to make organizations move, change, transform and evolve with intent, you are going to be able to deliver a magical experience.
Lesson 4: Values are the base of an extraordinary service experience
It is not a mystery that storytelling is an important thread of everything you see and experience when involves Walt and WDW. And it is certainly not new that storytelling is a powerful way to keep people engaged, but what WDW was able to achieve in building this magical exciting world goes beyond creating a live show that goes on every single day.
Guests and Cast Members share family-oriented values that are brought to life with intent and tremendous rigor.
From Guests’ perspectives, they are invited to be part of the show by interacting with every single touchpoint that was purposefully designed for them to create memories with their family/friends/loved ones. From Cast Members’ perspectives, they are empowered to take care of their responsible areas, use their best judgments and are constantly reminded that whatever they do, they act as part of a larger team (or family).
This may not do justice to this world of operations that is WDW but my biggest takeaway is that:
WDW is a giant outdoor show and it takes a lot of coordination between spaces, operations, touchpoints, technology but, what keeps the organization together is a sense of belonging to something that is shared and it is bigger than themselves.
