Continuous Cycles of Learning and Making Can Transform Businesses

By Bill Kanarick, CEO at Material

The ever-present state of change, driven as much by cultural and social shifts as by technology, is reshaping consumer behaviors and expectations at an alarming rate. As you’d expect, the evolving dynamics present both opportunities and challenges, prompting businesses to rethink strategies and develop new ways to build meaningful, relevant and durable customer relationships.

So, what’s different now? Haven’t we been on this train for some time?

There is, in fact, one big difference; one big change. Customer insights and understanding have massively growing importance. Product and service experiences must now show real intimacy with customers. People expect that you know who they are, deeply, and that their needs and desires are anticipated. They expect the interactions to be more than great. They must be intuitive and contextualized.

In this high-expectation context, differentiation and growth have new dependencies. An integrated, cyclical approach to consumer insights and engagement combines continuous learning with the creation and continuous improvement of value-driven products and services. This is how we win today.

The cycle of learning and making uses technology to connect disparate elements, identify hidden customer desires, meanings and needs, and enable more adaptive strategies. It’s a virtuous cycle that powers forward-thinking brands and allows them to thrive in a dynamic market environment. Learning and making cycles are a core tenet of our approach at Material.

The Meaning of Meaning

One constant is the deep human need for meaning. People find meaning in their lives partly through the products, services and environments that reflect who they are and foster genuine relationships. If you’ve been paying attention, a fundamental shift in society and culture centers more broadly around people’s need – and demand – to be seen. To be heard. This fundamental need goes beyond mere functionality, because people also form emotional connections with the brands, products and services they choose. For companies everywhere, designing products, brands, experiences and services is about creating and strengthening these functional and emotional connections, not occasionally but continuously.

Recent advances in technology have accelerated companies’ ability to develop and deliver products, but there’s a growing mismatch: while the rate of product, service and message creation has sped up, the pace of deep customer understanding remains relatively slow, in fact, excruciatingly slow by comparison. This mismatch leads to offerings that don’t fully resonate with consumers, miss emerging trends and ultimately fail to gain traction. The continuous cycle approach can bridge this gap by ensuring that learning and human understanding keep pace with rapid innovation and delivery processes in a tech-enabled world.

New High Ground on the Competitive Landscape

In this changing landscape, a deeper, more continuous integration of learning and innovation has become the new high ground of value and differentiation.  

Leading companies excel by converting insights into market-ready innovations quickly.

Manufacturers are transforming into data-centric organizations, embedding cutting-edge digital technologies and leveraging advanced analytics to develop intelligent products that respond to evolving customer behaviors. By combining physical and digital capabilities, these businesses create products with enhanced functionality, personalized experiences and data-driven services that foster deeper customer loyalty. Consider the evolution of the digital health and fitness tracking industry and the rise of brands like WHOOP that seamlessly integrate into – and enhance – their consumers’ lives.

Competitive advantage now hinges on the ability to unify technology, production and research into cohesive, adaptive systems that accelerate the cycle of learning and making. Companies that master this integration set themselves apart not only through their offerings but also through their agility in innovating and addressing customer needs. Responsiveness becomes a core differentiator.

Embracing the Cycle of Learning and Making

At Material, we help companies build systems that foster this dynamic, through a four-step cycle.

1. Learning: Deepen understanding of customer behaviors, preferences and trends using data analysis, predictive insights and ethnographic research.

2. Making: Translate these insights into meaningful, customer-centric products, services and experiences through innovative design that responds to human desires and needs.

3. Engaging: Go-to-market strategies aimed at strengthening customer relationships through personalized marketing and engagement, from immersive brand experiences to gamified CRM activations.

4. Adapting: Continuously refine strategies and tactics using performance measurement and feedback, employing agile methods to stay aligned with evolving customer needs.

This cycle is self-reinforcing and repeating – each phase fuels the next, leading to sustained growth and a distinct competitive edge.

Overcoming Traditional Barriers

The biggest challenges – and many companies face them – are fragmented operations, siloed teams and an overreliance on technology without clear purpose.

These are obstacles to innovation and responsiveness. Disparate systems, data sprawl and lack of cohesive strategies and behavioral and data science-grounded analytics models leave insights trapped and prevent companies from fully leveraging their data to generate progress in making customers feel seen, heard and understood.

Material teams break down barriers to cross-functional collaboration and help clients drive unified strategies, which in turn makes companies nimbler in response to market shifts and opportunities.

Technology is a Means, not an End

While technology is a crucial enabler of the cycle of learning and making, it serves as a means, not the end goal. Artificial intelligence and advanced analytics enhance our ability to understand and respond to customers but should complement — not replace — human insight and creativity. Thoughtfully integrating technology ensures that businesses amplify their capabilities while maintaining and strengthening the human connections that create meaning and value.

Effective technology integration involves selecting tools that align with strategic goals, fostering a culture of innovation and ensuring that technology implementations enhance rather than complicate the customer experience. Technology is at its most impactful when it responds to real human needs with seamless, relevant solutions. Businesses must not lose sight of the human factor in their rush to adopt the latest innovations.

Shaping the Future

To lead in this evolving landscape, businesses must actively shape the change while it’s happening to drive sustainable growth.

Companies that lead will set new standards for customer engagement, product innovation and operational efficiency. They will create ecosystems where continuous improvement and adaptability are ingrained in the corporate culture, enabling them to thrive amid uncertainty and rapid change.

Material is at the forefront of this approach, helping clients build insights-driven systems that fuel innovation and long-term growth. By fostering cycles of learning and making, we create lasting relationships built for an ever-changing world.