How do we create a seamless customer experience?
How do marketing, communications, sales, digital channels, service and other touchpoints work together to deliver the customer promise we have made?
Martina Steen
When the strategy is clear but execution does not hold together.
I help organizations develop digital customer strategies, design customer-centered operating models and make complex change work in practice.
I also step in as an interim leader when a team, function or critical initiative needs direction, structure and momentum.
Leadership challenges
Questions I help leaders solve
I work with CEOs, marketing and communications leaders, digital leaders, customer experience leaders, and executives responsible for strategy, transformation and business development.
I also bring the team perspective into every engagement. Customer experience and employee experience need to reinforce each other if change is to work in practice.
What operating model is required for the strategy to have an impact?
How do accountability, decision rights, governance, priorities and ways of working need to change for the strategy to be executed?
How do we turn customer insight into concrete decisions?
How do we translate customer journeys and identified needs into investments, initiatives, priorities and measurable outcomes?
How do we prioritize when functions have different goals?
How do we build a shared basis for decision-making when KPIs, budgets and incentives point in different directions?
How do we regain momentum in an initiative that has stalled?
Which root causes, decisions, resources and dependencies are preventing progress?
How do we ensure digital and AI-related investments create value?
Which problem are we solving, how must the work change and how will the value be measured?
Value proposition
I help you see the whole system behind the problem.
Most transformation problems do not belong to a single function. They emerge in the dependencies between strategy, customers, employees, processes, technology, organization, incentives and financial goals.
Together, we can
- Identify the true root causes behind a problem.
- Make dependencies between functions and KPIs visible.
- Understand who receives the value and who carries the cost or risk.
- Compare different courses of action.
- Clarify mandate, accountability and execution requirements.
- Define measures that show whether a decision creates the intended value.
Engagements
Five ways to work together.
Five clearly defined types of engagement, adapted to where the organization stands in its decision and change process.
A shared direction for how customer needs, digital channels, business goals, data, technology and organization should work together.
Relevant when the customer experience is shaped by several functions, but there is no shared vision, clear priorities or single point of accountability.
Examples of what the engagement may include:
- Current-state analysis and interviews.
- Mapping of customer journeys and touchpoints.
- Identification of customer problems and organizational barriers.
- Target vision, strategic principles and priorities.
- Goals, measures and a prioritized roadmap.
- Decision material and practical support for continued work.
Accountability, governance and ways of working that make it possible to execute the customer strategy across functional boundaries.
A clear strategy is not enough if the organization is still steered through separate goals, unclear mandates and decisions that lack an end-to-end perspective.
Examples of what the engagement may include:
- Mapping of roles, mandate and dependencies.
- Accountability for customer journeys and end-to-end outcomes.
- Governance, decision forums and decision rights.
- Shared goals and measures.
- A model for prioritizing initiatives.
- Structures for cross-functional work and execution.
Structure, priorities and mobilization that make an agreed strategy executable.
The engagement may be about mobilizing a new strategic initiative, or regaining momentum in work that has lost direction, mandate or pace.
Examples of what the engagement may include:
- Current-state diagnosis and a clear problem definition.
- Prioritization of initiatives and workstreams.
- Roles, accountability and decision paths.
- Plan, milestones and dependencies.
- Risk, decision and stakeholder-alignment plans.
- A concrete 90-day plan.
Experienced leadership when a team, function or critical initiative needs immediate direction and momentum.
I can step in during a recruitment process, after a reorganization, or when an important initiative needs to be stabilized and steered.
Example roles:
- Interim Digital Director.
- Interim Head of Digital Customer Experience.
- Interim Transformation Lead.
- Interim Program Director.
- Acting Marketing or Channel Director.
Among other things, I can take responsibility for stabilizing the team, prioritizing initiatives, clarifying goals and mandate, establishing governance, driving critical deliverables and ensuring a structured handover.
An experienced and independent perspective for a leader or team that needs to structure a complex question or prepare an important decision.
Sometimes a larger project is not what is needed. What is required may be a qualified thought partner who can challenge assumptions, surface dependencies and strengthen the basis for decisions.
I can contribute through:
- Recurring advisory conversations.
- Review of strategies and decision material.
- Preparation ahead of leadership and steering-committee meetings.
- Perspective on organization, governance and feasibility.
- Support in prioritization and stakeholder management.
- Support ahead of a new role or a major change assignment.
Approach
From a complex problem to a decision that can be executed.
A structured approach for turning systemic complexity into shared decisions that the organization can act on.
- 01
Define the decision
We clarify the decision that needs to be made and the outcome the organization is trying to create.
- 02
Listen broadly
I gather perspectives from relevant parts of the organization — across functions, roles and levels.
- 03
Map the system
We make root causes, dependencies, competing goals, information gaps and organizational barriers visible.
- 04
Quantify the impact
We connect options to customer outcomes, employee conditions, economic value, risk and time to impact.
- 05
Shape the decision
Leadership receives a shared decision basis with alternatives, assumptions, priorities and clear trade-offs.
- 06
Create the conditions for execution
The decision is linked to sponsorship, mandate, accountability, resources, measures and follow-up.
About me
I have always worked where customers, business, organization and technology meet.
For more than 25 years, I have worked with digital business development, customer experience, strategy, leadership and organizational change in international organizations.
Much of my career has been spent at the intersection of marketing, sales and IT — always starting from the customer, long before customer experience became an established discipline.
A recurring part of my work has been to build digital teams and new capabilities from the ground up. As a leader, I have also developed a deep understanding of how team maturity, mindset and ways of working affect customer relationships, change capability and profitability.
My experience includes global digital development across more than 30 markets and an AI pilot that reduced manual lead-handling work by two to three hours per day.
“A strong strategy has limited impact when people lack mandate, trust or a shared direction.”
Clarity rarely comes from more information — but from asking the right questions in the right order.
Insights & tools
Insights and digital tools for complex change.
Here I will gradually bring together articles, models and practical tools for leaders and teams working with digital customer experience, transformation, AI, decision-making and organizational change.
The content will be based on real questions and designed to be useful in situations where strategy, organization and execution need to work together.
Contact
Which change do you need to make work?
Perhaps you have a strategy that is not gaining the traction it needs.
Perhaps you are planning a digital or AI-related investment and need to understand the implications before moving ahead.
Or a team, a function or an initiative needs experienced leadership for a defined period.
Briefly describe the situation, what has already been tried and the type of support you are considering.