Hamutal Schieber — Keynote Speaker

Why Now

The Emotional Economy

Three converging forces have fundamentally transformed what people need from brands — and most organizations are responding with exactly the wrong playbook.

01 — STRESS

Stress Has Become Humanity's Baseline

According to Gallup, 37% of adults worldwide felt "a lot of stress" yesterday. Chronic stress has fundamentally transformed consumer values and expectations. After years of "more, faster, cheaper," people now prioritize ease, emotional relief, and simplicity. Brands that add complexity are losing to brands that lighten the load.

02 — LONELINESS

The Loneliness Epidemic Is a Brand Opportunity

The U.S. Surgeon General declared loneliness a public health crisis. 30% of adults feel lonely weekly. Time spent socializing in-person has plummeted nearly 70% in two decades. People aren't just craving connection — they're craving belonging. Brands that foster community and shared identity fulfill a need as fundamental as food or shelter.

03 — BRAND BLUR

75% of Consumers Say Brands Blur Together

A Grayling study found that 56% of consumers can't name a single brand they feel deeply connected to. 67% default to familiar brands just to avoid making decisions. When everything looks the same, people retreat into autopilot. The brands that break through are the ones that make people feel something different.

The Joy Dividend Framework

Four Strategic Levers

The Joy Dividend Framework offers a systematic approach: reduce stress and spark joy across every touchpoint. These four levers — pulled together — create lasting emotional advantage.

LEVER 01

🧘 Calm

Engineer stress-free experiences. Reduce cognitive load, eliminate friction, and design for effortlessness. When 94% of customers who have high-effort experiences show decreased loyalty, calm becomes a competitive moat — not a nice-to-have.

LEVER 02

🎨 Play

Create sensory and emotional delight through joyful design. From visceral appeal to nostalgic warmth, design that sparks positive emotion drives loyalty for 6–9 months after a single moment of delight. Joy through design converts customers into advocates.

LEVER 03

✨ Surprise

Engineer unexpected joy as a strategy, not a tactic. Surprise triggers an orienting response — the brain stops, pays attention, and encodes the moment into memory. Deliberate surprise transforms routine transactions into the stories people tell and share.

LEVER 04

🤝 Connection

Build belonging and recognition in a lonely world. The need to belong is as fundamental as food or shelter. Brands that create community and make people feel seen fulfill a profound emotional need — and build switching costs no competitor can replicate.

Speaking Menu

Talks tailored to your audience

Select your audience to see recommended keynotes, each with a clear "why book this" for your stakeholders.

TALK 01

The Joy–Stress Matrix: Where Does Your Brand Really Sit?

Using a simple 2×2 diagnostic, this talk reveals why many brands believe they are delighting customers — but are actually increasing stress. Leaders audit where friction hides and what it takes to move into the Joyful & Stress-Free quadrant.

Why CMOs book this: Creates a shared emotional language across teams and clarifies where experience investments actually pay off.

TALK 02

The Stress Tax: Why Your Customers Are Exhausted

We're living in a state of constant stimulation that creates craving without satisfaction. This talk explains decision fatigue, brand blur, and why "more engagement" often backfires. Reframes calm, clarity, and ease as competitive advantages.

Why CMOs book this: Explains underperforming campaigns without blaming creative or media and resets experience strategy around emotional reality.

TALK 03

From Frictionless to Memorable: Designing Emotional Peaks

Why ease alone creates indifference — and how emotional peaks (surprise, recognition, timing) shape memory, loyalty, and advocacy. People remember peaks and endings, not averages. This talk shows how to design for the moments that stick.

Why CMOs book this: Connects emotion directly to loyalty and word-of-mouth, moving teams beyond discount-driven growth.

TALK 04

Community, Belonging & the New Loyalty Equation

The loneliness epidemic is a business reality. This talk explores why loyalty programs don't create belonging — and how brands that foster identity, shared rituals, and community raise switching costs competitors can't copy.

Why CMOs book this: Explains retention beyond price and contracts, bridging brand strategy with customer experience.

TALK 01

Functional Is Just the Beginning: The Four-Layer Experience Framework

Most teams stop at functional needs — missing the consumption chain, related needs, and the emotional and social layers that drive preference, confidence, and identity. This talk shows how to design for the deeper dimensions that actually create switching costs.

Why product teams book this: Bridges functional design with emotional experience and helps teams escape feature-based competition.

TALK 02

The EASE Method: Friction Isn't Where You Think It Is

Customer Effort Score predicts loyalty better than CSAT or NPS. This talk introduces the EASE Method — Eliminate, Automate, Simplify, Empower — a systematic framework to reduce effort.

Why product teams book this: Reveals friction usability testing often misses and turns "ease" into a strategic discipline.

TALK 03

Digital Joy: Micro-Interactions, Easter Eggs & Emotional UX

How small moments of delight — micro-interactions, whimsical copy, hidden surprises — reduce mental load, improve adoption, and increase emotional attachment without creating addictive patterns.

Why product teams book this: Differentiates joy from dark patterns and is especially relevant for SaaS and digital platforms.

TALK 04

Designing for Calm in High-Stakes Products

When your product touches money, health, or major life decisions, anxiety is the default. This talk shows how to design for trust and confidence using the Transparency Trust Loop.

Why product teams book this: Perfect for fintech, insurtech, healthtech, and B2B2C infrastructure. Turns trust into a product strategy.

TALK 01

The Employee Joy Dividend: Why Experience Design Isn't Just for Customers

Applies the Joy Dividend internally — showing how friction, recognition, and emotional safety shape engagement, retention, and performance. The same frameworks that reduce customer stress work for employee experience.

Why HR leaders book this: Moves wellbeing beyond perks and connects employee experience to business outcomes.

TALK 02

The Service Recovery Paradox: Why Your Best Employees Fix Problems

Research shows customers whose problems are resolved quickly and empathetically often become more loyal than those who never had problems. This talk explores how empathy and efficiency can coexist.

Why HR leaders book this: Supports frontline empowerment and reduces burnout while improving outcomes.

TALK 03

Community, Belonging & Retention

The loneliness crisis affects workplaces too. This talk applies the Community Cultivation Model internally — showing why perks don't equal belonging and how identity and shared purpose raise retention.

Why HR leaders book this: Explains retention beyond compensation and creates shared language across the organization.

Clear Emotional Lens

ROI Frameworks

Cross-Team Alignment

Interactive Tool

The Joy–Stress Matrix

Click each quadrant to explore where your brand sits — and what it takes to move toward the upper right.

Low ← JOY → High

😐 Low Joy · Low Stress Forgettable

✨ High Joy · Low Stress The Joy Dividend Zone

😩 Low Joy · High Stress Danger zone

😤 High Joy · High Stress Thrilling but unsustainable

Low ← STRESS → High

Where does your brand sit?

Click on any quadrant to see what it means for your brand's relationship with customers — and the strategic moves to reach the Joy Dividend zone.

Joyful but Stressful

Your brand sparks pleasure — but at a cost. Think exciting or fun experiences marred by complexity, confusion, or friction. The rush is real, but the stress undercuts it. The move: keep the emotional peaks, strip the effort.

Joyful & Stress-Free — The Joy Dividend

The ideal. These brands make things easy AND enjoyable. They minimize effort, friction, and worry while consistently delivering moments of genuine delight. This is where loyalty, advocacy, and lifetime value peak — where fans are made for life.

Stressful & Joyless — The Danger Zone

The worst of both worlds. Neither relief nor delight. Customers quit at the first alternative — and they actively warn others. Urgent intervention needed on both dimensions.

Calm but Joyless — Forgettable

Smooth, easy, and reliable — but nothing to remember. These brands remove hassle but are vulnerable to commoditization. Customers appreciate them but feel no emotional loyalty. One cheaper alternative and they switch without a second thought.

Turning joy into a measurable business advantage

The Joy Dividend

Behavioral Science

Practical Strategy

The Emotional Economy

Stress Has Become Humanity's Baseline

The Loneliness Epidemic Is a Brand Opportunity

75% of Consumers Say Brands Blur Together

Four Strategic Levers

🧘 Calm

🎨 Play

✨ Surprise

🤝 Connection

Talks tailored to your audience

The Joy–Stress Matrix: Where Does Your Brand Really Sit?

The Stress Tax: Why Your Customers Are Exhausted

From Frictionless to Memorable: Designing Emotional Peaks

Community, Belonging & the New Loyalty Equation

Functional Is Just the Beginning: The Four-Layer Experience Framework

The EASE Method: Friction Isn't Where You Think It Is

Digital Joy: Micro-Interactions, Easter Eggs & Emotional UX

Designing for Calm in High-Stakes Products

The Employee Joy Dividend: Why Experience Design Isn't Just for Customers

The Service Recovery Paradox: Why Your Best Employees Fix Problems

Community, Belonging & Retention

The Joy–Stress Matrix

Where does your brand sit?

Joyful but Stressful

Joyful & Stress-Free — The Joy Dividend

Stressful & Joyless — The Danger Zone

Calm but Joyless — Forgettable

The Joy Dividend

A practical framework for leaders navigating commoditization, burnout, and declining loyalty

Flexible delivery, maximum impact

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Interactive Sessions

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