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The Disney Page

I am a former Disney Imagineering researcher and a behavioral science PhD who uses a scientific mind, artistic heart approach to help people learn and make amazing things

 

This page collects my ideas most related to Disney that I use to in my design, science, marketing, storytelling, and teaching

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List 1 illuminates great Disney design, List 2 makes suggestions

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These ideas can help everyone, including Disney leaders, creatives, professors, scientists, and students to see design principles in original, powerful, and colorful new ways

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Explore these ideas on my podcast

 

Each short episode deeply defines and broadly applies one big idea with high production value and usually at least one Disney example

List 1

Ideas that Disney does well — defined and broadly applied with a distinct scientific mind, artistic heart approach 

Portals

A model for beginning and ending everything, from theme park rides to work meetings.

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Portals are a special type of transition that create a positive anticipation of the event to come, facilitate the correct mindset shift, and complete the narrative metaphor of going somewhere new or magical.

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​This technique is how the best Disney Parks' rides, lands, and shows begin and end, not immediately starting or ending, but creating portals that transition you in and out of different stories, worlds.​

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When I was working at Walt Disney Imagineering, I used the science of mindset and emotion to audit existing portals and identify missing portals in Disney experiences. 

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​White Paper| Summary Slides | Podcast Episode

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List 1

Ideas that Disney does well, but Disney and everyone can always more deeply understand. 

The Destiny Narrative

The unparalleled power of a story in which a character changes into more of who they already are.

 

It powerfully resolves the psychological conflict between the desire to positively change and the desire to authentically stay the same.

 

This narrative form is the near universal power behind Disney's most successful stories, from the magical Destiny Narratives in hero’s journeys like Moana to the personal Destiny Narratives of self-discovery in character studies like Inside Out.

 

More generally, it combines two values Disney brand widely encourages: be great and be your true self.

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When I was working with Disney leaders on making changes at Disney, many found using the Destiny Narrative for Disney, re-discovering what it was always meant to be, quite clarifying and motivating. â€‹â€‹

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​White Paper| Summary SlidesPodcast Episode

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List 1

Ideas that Disney does well, but Disney and everyone can always more deeply understand. 

Welcome to Team Hero

A model for reaching new and resistant audiences through the act of welcoming and managing the solution, self, and social forces.

 

​The act of welcoming people as “guests” is one of the Disney Parks' most iconic, yet often misunderstood, qualities and is more expansive and psychologically precise than just a dinner "host" metaphor.​

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In my work with activists, this Disney analogy, as well as my original research on "solution aversion," "self view," and "social concerns," has been especially useful.

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Activism Tactics with Disney Examples | Summary Slides

List 1

Ideas that Disney does well, but Disney and everyone can always more deeply understand. 

Moral Temperature

The moral feeling and norms that drive people to deeply connect with and want to return to an experience.

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​The way that the Disney Parks "morally" feel is a core component to their success, with their emphasis on positivity, kindness, honesty, greatness, and wonder.​

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On my podcast OPI, I talked to Disney Historian Dr. Todd J. Pierce, who uses this term to describe this often overlooked reason for why many people really love the Disney Parks.

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Podcast Episode with Disney Focus​

List 1

Ideas that Disney does well, but Disney and everyone can always more deeply understand. 

Big Identity Net

A definition that is big enough that many people can feel a meaningful part of it. 

 

This technique has been used by Disney in many ways, including the very successful campaign that used the phrase, “We all have a Disney side.”

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In my wider work, the Big Identity Net remains one of the most useful ideas I've ever labeled to help marketers, activists, and leaders. (I also believe that, today, the Disney Parks might consider returning to more Big Identity Net marketing as part of plans to win back larger theme park audiences.)

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​White Paper| Summary SlidesPodcast Episode

List 1

Ideas that Disney does well, but Disney and everyone can always more deeply understand. 

Every Shade of Blue

A way of seeing all the different shades of an idea, inspired by how Vincent van Gogh could paint with every shade of blue.

 

​The act of seeing every shade of an idea is often how Disney has done ideation and research, and the approach has deep roots in how the creators of Disneyland intentionally researched so many different ideas about theme parks and entertainment experiences.​

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When I worked at Walt Disney Imagineering, I thoroughly enjoyed our "every shade" like training experiences, such as spending hours just observing hundreds of different shades of what a theme park ride could be. Today, when I train leaders and creatives at Disney, I bring a similar approach and advocacy.

 

White PaperSummary Slides | Podcast Episode​

List 1

Ideas that Disney does well, but Disney and everyone can always more deeply understand. 

List 2

Suggested ideas for Disney and everyone — related to modern changes and challenges

Entertainment Psychology Research

Entertainment companies need to focus on psychology as much as on artistry and technology.

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Here are three important psychology-focused ideas for what Disney should do "scientific mind, artistic heart" research on to meet new challenges and succeed in future markets. 

 

Each idea builds on a classic existing Disney strength (immersion, portals, stories) that Disney will need to better understand from a psychological stand point in the future. â€‹
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The Immersion Investigation - Define and align around the types of immersion guests enjoy and know how to deliver these to them

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The Portal Project - Understand to how create amazing transitions between parts of the ever-expanding parks

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The Story Study - Study how to tell Disney’s iconic positive storytelling in a complex modern world

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​Three Short Research Proposals for Disney​

Metamondernism

A cultural shift defined by people's comfort and desire for "mixed" and "meta" things that are simultaneously ironic and sincere, sad and happy, optimistic and realistic, self aware and earnest, and are generally mixed in media.

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This is a challenge for Disney. Disney has to figure out how to tell stories that feel like classic Disney but are also new. In the Summer of 2024, Disney went metamodern and won at the box office with Inside Out 2 (an earnest but complicated take on identity where emotions are self aware and which visually presents mixed animation styles) and Deadpool & Wolverine (a literal meta movie that is also quite earnest), but many other Disney stories have not swung to the same success on the metamodern pendulum.

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​White Paper| Summary Slides 

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Multi-Narrative Storytelling

How to tell a big story through multiple, complementary narratives.

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This is important for Disney as Disney will need to use this method in at least two ways in the future: first, with characters, by telling many narratives across platforms about the core story of one character, and, second, with guests, telling a core story (e.g., experience at a new Disney Park) that fits with many different narratives (different audiences). Notably, they have done it quite well before.

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White Paper | Summary SlidesPodcast Episode

The Science of Cool

A literal scientific definition for breaking norms and making things that feel cool and exciting -- that can serve as a springboard to creativity or way to double check new ideas. 

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This is important for Disney as the Disney needs to create stories and especially park experiences that break the norm in the near future, such as how in the past Space Mountain broke the norm of what a rollercoaster could be or Snow White broke the norm of what an animated movie could be. Only now, Disney has massive competition in spaces like "awesome themed experiences" and "amazing animation."

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White PaperSummary Slides

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Solution Averison

The tendency to deny the value of something when the solution is aversive. 

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This is a challenge for Disney because if going to Disney Parks is too hard, complicated, or expensive, some people may end up denying that Disney Parks' are amazing, thus degrading the perceived value of the parks and the larger brand. 

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​White Paper| Summary Slides

Competence-Enjoyment Link

The tendency to enjoy and engage with things we feel enough competence with.​

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This is important for Disney. Disney super fans love easter eggs and planning long days at Disney Parks, and casual Disney fans feel overwhelmed by complicated stories and complicated decision-making at Disney Parks. 

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​White Paper | Summary Slides​​

Invisible Fruit

Invisible Fruit is the value you already have but cannot see, especially in your data.

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As Disney's data gets bigger it becomes more powerful, but also complicated. With this data it can be ever more important to look at it with precision. This can involve using precise "academic" and "lab science" methods that can see things that are invisible to most big data models. 

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​White Paper | Summary Slides​​

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