SERVICES
Brand experience direction for stores, venues and rollouts.
AK Works is brought in by retail and hospitality leaders when brand decisions have to hold across customer journey, service, space, standards and implementation.
The work can begin with diagnosis, continue through concept development or focus on the systems needed to scale.
FOUR ROUTES
Think. Shape. Build. Scale.
When this is useful
- Before committing investment to a new concept, refurbishment or rollout
- When the brand is clear in leadership discussions but uneven in the customer or guest experience
- When the brand is being interpreted differently across sites, teams or partners, and leadership needs to understand where the experience currently stands
What the work can cover
- On-site review of customer journey, service and space
- Product, Service and Culture assessment using the Sweet Spot Method™
- Audience and behaviour mapping
- Opportunity map and priorities
Typical outcome
A focused priorities readout showing what to protect, what to address first and what not to overwork before investment is committed.
When this is useful
- A store, venue or flagship needs direction before design starts
- The brand idea exists, but what it means on the floor is undefined
- Teams need shared principles so not every decision goes back to the top
What the work can cover
- Positioning and proposition
- Customer or guest journey principles
- Service and hosting principles
- Spatial direction
- Creative and operational brief
Typical outcome
A direction and brief that architects, designers, agencies and operators can all work from.
When this is useful
- A concept needs to connect offer, service, space and commercial logic
- A design team needs a strong client-side brief holder
- Cost, timing or value engineering is putting the original idea under pressure
What the work can cover
- Concept direction and format logic
- Design development review with architects and designers
- Specification, prototyping and value-engineering input
- Supplier and partner selection
- Decision support through to opening
Typical outcome
A concept that opens as the idea that was signed off, not a value-engineered version of it.
When this is useful
- A concept is moving beyond its first location
- The concept weakens as it passes through teams, franchise partners or rollout partners
- Internal teams need standards they will actually use
What the work can cover
- Playbooks
- Retail and hospitality standards
- Rollout principles and manuals
- Team and partner guidance
- Implementation support
Typical outcome
Standards and tools that hold up when the original team is no longer in the room.
WHERE AK WORKS FITS
Alongside the people shaping the experience.
Ales works directly with leadership and alongside internal teams, designers, architects, operators and external partners when decisions need to hold across more than one discipline.
Before design
Set the direction, customer journey and decision principles before creative development begins.
During development
Keep brand, service, space, operations and commercial decisions connected as the concept takes shape.
Before scale
Turn the experience into principles, standards and tools that teams and partners can use consistently.
THE SWEET SPOT METHOD™
Where Product, Service and Culture have to work together.
A new store format cannot be solved through space alone. A hospitality concept cannot be solved through service alone. And a strong brand idea means little if operations cannot deliver it.
The Sweet Spot Method™ brings Product, Service and Culture into the same frame, so decisions are made as one connected system rather than a series of separate initiatives.
- ProductWhat is offered, where the value sits and how the proposition comes to life.
- ServiceHow people move through the experience, how they are hosted and how they interact with the brand.
- CultureThe behaviours, principles and operational reality that let the experience be delivered consistently.
How it is used
The Sweet Spot Method™ is the method behind the Brand Experience Diagnostic. Depending on the project, it also informs customer journey, concept principles, service behaviours, spatial direction, briefs, standards and rollout decisions. It is a working tool, not a deliverable in its own right.
QUESTIONS
What clients often ask.
AK Works sits between direction and delivery. Ales can work with leadership to define what the experience needs to achieve, then help internal teams, designers, architects or agencies make decisions against that direction. AK Works does not replace a full delivery team, but Ales can step inside one for a defined period when a project needs senior leadership on the ground. Either way, the aim is the same: the work stays connected to brand, service, space and operations.
Yes. Many focused interventions happen once a project is already moving and the difficult decisions start to appear. AK Works can review what exists, identify what is working, what is being diluted and where the experience needs stronger direction before more time or money is committed.
It can also mean stepping in when a key brand or concept role is vacant and the work cannot wait for a permanent hire.
Yes. For a defined mandate, Ales can step in on site to lead brand development, brand and experience strategy, concept development or rollout: to bridge a gap in the team, steer a relaunch or flagship opening, or carry a concept through to multi-site rollout.
Ales is based in Munich and takes on interim mandates internationally.
Not always. Sometimes the right work is a focused diagnostic, a review of a concept already in motion or a short advisory role around a specific decision. AK Works can support a defined stage or question, as well as larger strategy and experience projects.
Yes, and often from the inside. Ales’s background covers store design, visual merchandising, service, operations, supplier networks, prototyping, standards and rollout.
He can stay involved through development, value engineering, partner handover and multi-site rollout, or take operational responsibility on site for a defined period.
GET IN TOUCH
Not sure where to start? That is what the first conversation is for.
Whether you are diagnosing an existing experience, shaping a new concept, preparing to scale or need senior support to lead it through delivery, that conversation will show which route fits.