EY wavespace: CX you practice, not attend

Challenge: CX capability that holds up under real client pressure

‍What we built: A 4-module playable program, 75% hands-on, run on Rondo

‍Scale: 6 cohorts, Denver to Hong Kong, now rolling out across the full network

‍Result: 8.86/10 across four cohorts, NPS +65 - applied on live client work mid-program

Forty seconds to respond. The client on the voice note is unhappy, won't quite say why, and senior enough that the wrong reply costs the account. The facilitator plays it once more. Around the room, senior EY professionals - people who advise on exactly this for a living - go quiet.

The challenge

EY wavespace teams were already strong on CX. The aim wasn't to fill a gap - it was to turn solid skills into a strategic edge: sharper in the big set-piece moments and the small ones alike, and able to connect a creative choice to a business outcome under real client pressure. The hard part is getting senior, capable people to keep practicing skills they've already got, and find the next level.

What we built

A four-module program where 75% of every session was hands-on: scenarios built like escape rooms for the mind, timed drills with live feedback, frameworks handed over as tools to use, not theory to absorb.

Two that stuck: Dial It to 11 (push a safe idea until it's genuinely memorable, then find where bold tips into too much) and Pitch Lab, the final scenario, built to call back every framework from earlier modules under one live brief.

The Four Modules

• Understanding Humans - Social Styles to adapt to a stakeholder, the 5 Whys to hear what a client isn't saying.
• CX Art & Science - the phases that make a moment land, drawn as much from hospitality as theory.
• CX in Action - subtlety and spectacle, and the Eventness framework for what makes a moment memorable.
• Above & Beyond - story and immersion: the seven story types, and levels of immersion from sensory to ontological.

From shared boards to our own platform

Cohorts 1 to 4 ran on shared whiteboards. By cohorts 5 and 6, the whole program ran on Rondo, our own experience-design platform: purpose-built interactive drills instead of adapted templates, every decision captured as data. The practice got sharper because the platform was built for it.

What shifted

Rated 8.86 out of 10, consistently across four cohorts. But the fastest signal was how quickly it reached real work - one participant, mid-program:

"The 6 elements of CX - I've already used it to justify the thinking behind a massive client deliverable."

And the value people named most often was each other:

"One highlight was connecting with global peers, learning from each other and collaborating, we should do this more often."

What's next

It didn't end with the last session. The Alumni Community now runs across all six cohorts, debriefing real client work together - and the program is now rolling out globally across the full EY network.

Rolling out a program across a global network and need it to outlast the launch? Book a demo →