Becoming a customer-centric, experience-led organization with Jehad Affoneh | Toast

In this episode of The Optimal Path, Jehad Affoneh joins host Ash Oliver to discuss what it means to be customer-centric at Toast, the difference between being design-led and experience-led, and the role of UX research in shaping customer-centric cultures and experiences.


The conversation covers cultural shifts towards empathy and curiosity, mechanisms to foster a customer-centric culture, and how Toast integrates research into everyday operations. Discover how Toast encourages everyone across the company to consistently engage with customers and empowers them with easy-to-use methods to make these interactions more effective—ultimately driving better outcomes for customers, the business, and the team.


About Jehad:


Jehad is a design and product leader who's led design, product, and engineering teams most recently at VMware and Splunk. He is currently Chief Design Officer at Toast where he leads the product, customer, and end-to-end experience that empowers tens of thousands of restaurants to delight their guests, do what they love, and thrive. He lives with his wife and one year old son in Redwood City, California.


Connect with Jehad:


You can connect with Jehad on LinkedIn (  / jaffoneh  ) , Twitter (https://x.com/jaffoneh) , or check out his articles here (https://www.mynameisjehad.com/) .


Resources:

• Google’s HEART Framework for Measuring UX (https://www.interaction-design.org/li...)
• Principles: Life and Work (  / principles  ) by Ray Dalio
• Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard (  / switch  ) by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

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See you next time!