Miracles of God Part 4 — Amy, Center Parcs & Disney

Center Parcs
At the time of writing this, we have been working with Center Parcs for around 12 months. Back in June 2019 they asked for a proposal to do an expert evaluation of the break and activity booking experience. As part of this project, they asked us to include evaluating another “best in class” holiday experience website, to identify any new big opportunities or innovations which could lead to improving the Center Parcs Customer Experience. They then asked if we also do an on-site visit to review the village experience and identify customer experience improvements.
The project was signed off and I was going to lead the project. We started in late July 2019 in what was a summer project.
Disney
I asked which competitor do they want us to evaluate. They said Disney, as they want to see if there is any inspiration within their experience that Center Parcs can harness.
We agreed a date of Monday 7th October for us to present back our customer experience evaluation based on stakeholder availability.
The evaluation of the Disney online user experience was scheduled to take place w/c 23rd September.
Hiring a Customer Experience Researcher
On Wednesday 11th September at 11am we started promoting a new role at PRWD for a customer experience researcher.
At 12.18pm a lady called Amy Messenger applied for the role, attaching her CV, a tailored cover letter and link to a case study.
I replied soon after thanking Amy for her speedy application, and we arranged a video call.
On September 12th we had a 30min video call. It was very productive and I invited Amy to come in and meet me on Tuesday 17th September. I said that by then I will have completed the major Beer Hawk user research presentation deck that I was working on, so I can share that plus other upcoming projects.
Tuesday 17th September
I still had quite a few hours of work required on the Beer Hawk presentation, so I called Amy and asked if we could push back our meeting until Thursday 19th September. Amy was fine with that, I said I will be able to share the response from our client from Wednesday's user research presentation.
The Blog Post
After our call I thought it would be good to ask Amy if she will have chance to write a blog post for Thursday. We tend to do this during our recruitment process to see what people are passionate about and how they communicate through writing.
Amy was happy to do this.
Thursday 19th September
After I had dropped the girls off at school, I was at home and I felt a strong urge to share the story of Adele and the piano. I thought that writing this utterly profound and awe-inspiring story on Medium would be ideal as a platform. I went to Medium and created my free account, and clicked “New story”.
I then started to hear God’s voice. He said that writing this isn’t a priority right now and that instead, I should be organising some of the agency finances that need some attention.
After a morning of accounts I headed in to Manchester to meet Amy.
Amy arrived at our office and we started chatting about her aspirations, PRWD and why this role is important. There was a strong connection and it was appearing like a very good fit.
We headed into the observation & meeting room and I shared some of the Beer Hawk presentation with Amy.
Amy shared how she plans and delivers user research. It was remarkably similar to how we do it.
By this point, I was getting a strong feeling about Amy being right for PRWD. I started considering offering Amy the role during our session now. I have only ever offered someone a role during their interview once in 15 years.
I asked God to give me a sign or signal if this is the right decision to make. I was glancing up to the lights wondering if they might flash, whilst talking to Amy.
About 30 seconds after I had asked God to show me a sign, Amy said
“oh you asked me to do a blog post. I can show you that now.”
Amy was already on her laptop and I was sat next to her. Amy went to Medium. I thought this was the sign I was asking for.
Amy went to her dashboard where I saw she had published about 7–8 articles on Medium.
I saw the third article on the list and knew there and then, God wanted me to hire Amy.

Amy said “oh I absolutely love Disney, we’ve been 5 times, and I’ve used their website loads. I’ve done a really big review of their experience, and I’d love to be able to share it with them at some point.”
At this point I thought that before offering Amy the role, I need to provide some context of my journey from mental turmoil to deep, awe-inspiring faith, which led to this moment right there looking at Amy’s Disney UX article.
I shared a top-level and quite open summary of my journey from 5 years ago. I showed Amy my Facebook post on 11th June and Rammie’s reply an hour later.
I shared how I’m now living my life in absolute awe and inspiration, and God continues to humble me.
I then shared with Amy that we’ve been working with Center Parcs for the last year, and they asked us a bit ago to review their customer experience. I said that they asked if we could review one of their competitor experiences too. I said of course, which one.
Amy looked at me and started smiling. She said, “Was it Disney?!”.
I said “Yes!”
I then said:
“I would like to offer you the role, and if you accept I would like you to come with me on the 7th October and present the Disney user experience based on your work you have already done.”
Amy was overwhelmed.
I said you don’t need to rush in and decide now, have a think about it and maybe get in touch with me that evening.
Amy then said that she was really struck by my openness.
I said to Amy that if she chooses to take the opportunity it won’t be just a job — it will be about helping and sharing on life experiences.
We finished up our 2-hour session and 30min later Amy text me:
Hi Paul — once again, it was great to meet you today and learn about PRWD. I’m very excited to accept your offer, pending the contract details. If you could work on the job package tonight/tomorrow I will look at it ASAP and get back to you. Thanks, Amy
Here is part 1:
Here is part 2:
Here is part 3:
Here is part 5:
Here is part 6:
Here is part 7:
Here is part 8:

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