You Don't Know Me — Because I'm Always Becoming

Your customers don't exist anymore

»AI is the core nervous system of experience strategy

»The Systems of Experience

» Relevance as a Strategic Operating Principle

»Actionable Takeaways

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Consumorphosis isn't just changing how people buy. It's revolutionising everything about identity, loyalty, and experience.

Your customers don't exist anymore.

The person who bought from you yesterday isn't the same person encountering your brand today.

We’ve spent years chasing ghosts. Building experiences for static personas that died the moment smartphones became extensions of our consciousness. Traditional identity markers? Dead. Fixed preferences? Irrelevant. Brand loyalty as we knew it? A nostalgic fantasy. We just didn’t recognise it, even as we saw the gap between consumer vs. brand wants and expectations widen.

What I call consumorphosis—the continuous transformation of consumer identity through choices, interfaces, culture, and AI—isn't some trendy marketing buzzword. It's the fundamental rewiring of human self-expression in real-time. We're witnessing the death of the demographic and the birth of the modal self.

The UNCX Reality: Modes Over Micro-Moments

Everyone talks about "micro-moments"—those fleeting seconds when someone reaches for their phone.

But here's what I think the marketing industrial complex gets wrong: micro-moments aren't mode shifts. They're just the surface tremors.

Signals of something far deeper.

In my UNCX framework, I distinguish between the superficial (a quick Google search) and the profound (fundamental shifts in how someone approaches value, aesthetics, decision-making, and identity expression).

Real mode shifts happen when someone moves between distinct states of being:

Optimise Mode: I need speed, control, efficiency. Strip away the noise. Show me the data. Get me there faster.

Escape Mode: I want stimulation, surprise, novelty. Break me out of my routine. Make me feel something.

Build Mode: I'm investing, learning, transforming. I'm open to complexity. Guide me.

Connect Mode: I need a sense of belonging, community, and shared meaning. Help me.

These aren't demographic categories.

They're not personality types.

They're fluid, contextual states that the same person cycles through, sometimes multiple times per day.

I think Google's "I-want-to-know" moments miss the point. The question isn't what someone wants to know. It's who they're becoming in that moment and what kind of experience will serve their current mode of transformation.

The Individualisation Revolution

Forget personalisation. That's still rooted in the fantasy of fixed identity, the idea that if we collect enough data about someone's past, we can predict their future behaviour.

Individualisation is different. It's about recognising that every interaction is an opportunity for someone to become a slightly different version of themselves.

When someone opens your app in optimise mode at 7 AM, rushing to work, they need different visual cues, interaction patterns, and value propositions than when they open it in escape mode at 9 PM on a Friday night. Same person. Same day. Completely different identity requirements.

This isn't about changing your logo colour based on time of day. It's about building experiences that flex with human complexity:

• Context-aware interfaces that adapt not just to device or location, but to behavioural signals indicating current mode

• Value proposition fluidity that shifts based on what kind of transformation someone is seeking

• Aesthetic responsiveness that matches the visual language to the emotional state

• Interaction pattern adaptation that adjusts pace, complexity, and cognitive load to current capacity

AI: The Engine of Real-Time Identity Recognition

Here's why many of us fumble. We think AI is about recommendation engines and chatbots.

But AI in the age of consumorphosis is about real-time identity interpretation.

The most sophisticated systems can detect mode signals across multiple data streams:

Behavioural Pattern Analysis: How fast someone scrolls, how long they pause, whether they're browsing or hunting —these microbehaviours reveal the current cognitive and emotional state more accurately than any survey.

Contextual Signal Processing: Time of day, location, device, previous session patterns, social media activity: AI can triangulate mode from environmental cues.

Language Pattern Recognition: The words someone uses, sentence structure, emoji choices, and even typing rhythm reveal whether they're in explore mode or execute mode.

Visual Attention Mapping: Eye tracking and engagement patterns show whether someone needs high-stimulation visuals (escape mode) or clean, minimal interfaces (optimise mode).

But here's the crucial bit: this isn't about surveillance.

It's about service. To deliver experiences that align with who someone is choosing to be in this moment.

Advanced AI systems can now process these signals in under 100 milliseconds, adapting everything from content hierarchy to interaction flows to visual aesthetics in real-time. We're talking about experiences that evolve with you as you evolve.

The Death of Category Thinking

Traditional business thinks vertically: We're a fitness company. We serve fitness customers. We compete with other fitness companies.

Consumorphosis forces horizontal thinking. Your "fitness customer" in build mode might want meditation apps, productivity tools, or learning platforms. In escape mode, they might want music, travel, or entertainment. In connect mode, they're looking for community, events, or social experiences.

The brands I’ve worked with have stopped asking "What business are we in?" and started asking "What modes do we serve across what contexts?"

Nike doesn't just sell athletic wear. They serve motivation across optimise mode (performance gear), escape mode (lifestyle products), build mode (training programs), and connect mode (community platforms).

Spotify isn't a music company. They're a mood and mode amplification service that happens to use audio as the primary medium.

This horizontal movement grows you because it’s where opportunity lies. Instead of fighting for share within a category, you expand into serving the full spectrum of human modes your brand can authentically address.

Building Mode-Aware Experience Systems

My UNCX methodology isn't about creating more touchpoints. It's about creating responsive ecosystems that flex with identity fluidity.

1. Mode Signal Architecture

Build systems that detect and respond to real-time mode indicators:

• Interaction velocity and pattern analysis

• Content engagement depth vs. breadth

• Interface preferences and customisation choices

• Cross-platform behaviour synthesis

2. Dynamic Value Proposition Framework

Your core value remains constant, but how you express it must flex:

• Optimise Mode Expression: Speed, efficiency, results

• Escape Mode Expression: Novelty, surprise, adventure

• Build Mode Expression: Growth, learning, transformation

• Connect Mode Expression: Community, belonging, shared purpose

3. Contextual Interface Adaptation

Design systems that morph based on mode detection:

• Visual complexity that scales with cognitive capacity

• Information hierarchy that matches current decision-making style

• Interaction patterns optimised for current state

4. Mode-Appropriate Content Strategy

Different modes require different content approaches:

• Optimise: Data-driven, streamlined, actionable

• Escape: Immersive, surprising, emotionally engaging

• Build: Educational, challenging, progress-oriented

• Connect: Community-focused, story-driven, participatory

The End of Loyalty, The Birth of Relevance

Stop trying to make people loyal to your brand.

Start being relevant to them.

Loyalty assumes stasis. It assumes that the person who chose you will keep choosing you for the same reasons.

But they won’t.

But in a world of constant identity evolution, yesterday's reasons are tomorrow's friction points.

Relevance is responsive. It's mode-aware. It acknowledges that the same person might need wildly different things from you at different times—and that's not a bug, it's a feature.

The companies winning in this new landscape don't try to lock customers in. They try to stay useful as customers evolve. They build experiences that grow with people instead of trying to keep people the same.

Implementation: The UNCX Playbook

Phase 1: Mode Mapping Audit your current experience against the four primary modes. Where are you strong? Where do you completely miss the mark?

Phase 2: Signal Development
Build data collection and interpretation systems that can detect mode indicators in real-time.

Phase 3: Response Architecture Design experience systems that can adapt interface, content, and value proposition based on detected mode.

Phase 4: AI Integration Implement machine learning systems that improve mode detection and response accuracy over time.

Phase 5: Horizontal Expansion Identify adjacent modes and contexts where your core value proposition could be relevant.

The Transformation Imperative

We're not in the business of serving customers.

We're in the business of serving human becoming.

If we can understand this shift from being to becoming, from fixed to fluid, from loyalty to relevance, we can own the next decade.

The rest will keep building experiences for people who no longer exist, wondering why their perfectly crafted customer journeys lead nowhere.

Consumorphosis isn't coming. It's here. The question isn't whether to adapt, but whether you'll lead the transformation or be consumed by it.

Your move.

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Next drops: Saturday/Sunday - The Weekender

Mid-week: Intelligent Interfaces Issue #2 and another UNCX deep-dive.

Thanks for reading me.