Podcast Summary: Work For Humans Episode: Immersive Experience Design: How to Use Story to Design Work Experiences | Stacy Barton, Revisited
Host: Dart Lindsley
Guest: Stacy Barton
Date: November 11, 2025

Overview

This episode explores the principles of immersive experience design through the perspective of celebrated designer and writer Stacy Barton, most notably known for her work with Disney and other top entertainment brands. The conversation dives into how storytelling, audience engagement, and emotional resonance are central to crafting memorable experiences—whether for entertainment or within the workplace itself. Dart and Stacy examine parallels between immersive experience design and designing irresistible work environments, exploring how leaders can apply these lessons to foster employee engagement, trust, and mission-driven cultures.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Centrality of the Audience

• Stacy’s Philosophy: The audience should always be the “star of the show,” whether in entertainment or in workplace design.
  • Quote: “The audience is primary, they're the center of the story. … The promise again is not perfection. The promise is that the audience is going to get to step inside this world and live and breathe and participate in it with the performers.” — Stacy [09:15], [12:07]
• Insight: In both immersive events and at work, people must feel invited, important, and involved.

2. Creative Process in Experience Design

• Stacy starts each project by considering:
  1. Who is the audience and what do they care about?
  2. What is the promise to them?
  3. How will that promise be delivered?
  4. What emotional takeaway do we want them to have?
  • Quote: “You start with the audience and then those three questions: what's the promise? How are we going to deliver it and what are they going to take away? And then those three questions guide how we turn the story into the experience. Because the promise is never the story. The promise is the experience with the story.” — Stacy [13:11]

3. Co-creation & Illusion of Co-creation

• Immersive design often creates both actual and perceived opportunities for participation.
  • Quote: “It's both… Only some of that is actual co creation. The rest of it is the illusion in terms of plot and what happens, all that kind of stuff.” — Stacy [11:24]

4. Collaboration Across Disciplines

• Immersive experiences demand integration across teams (writers, set designers, engineers, costume designers, technologists, etc.).
  • Notable Example: The Mad Hatter’s Dinner with custom animatronic effects [07:44]
• Emphasizes the challenge and creative thrill in unpredictable, “one-off” events.

5. Parallels to Workplace Experience

• Designing work as an experience means understanding the narrative that employees inhabit—problem-solving, achievement, discovery.
• Insight: Leaders should foster environments in which each employee’s unique strengths are recognized and engaged.
  • Quote: “We come together to hear different voices, which does two things. It gives us an opportunity to shine in our respective strength. And it gives us an opportunity to listen to other people's different strengths, which is enlightening.” — Stacy [28:43]

6. Importance of Authentic Appreciation and Trust

• Companies that design experiences (or work!) need authentic appreciation, not mere performative gestures.
  • Quote: “It has to come from leadership. Because I've worked under other leaders who did not believe that... As a result, I didn't want to work for them ever again and have not.” — Stacy [37:42]

7. Storytelling as Attractor and Filter in the Workplace

• A company with a strong narrative can attract better-aligned talent and foster genuine employee engagement.
  • Quote: “Stronger brands that know who they are, that know the story they're telling, that know what people want from them, are usually better at doing the same thing with employees.” — Stacy [42:01]

8. Structure & Constraints Fuel Creativity

• Contrary to expectations, strong organizational structure enables greater creative freedom.
  • Quote: “What's interesting about that is that it's counterintuitive, which is for me to be free, I need structure.” — Dart [53:44]
  • Quote: “When I'm in a situation that has really strong structure, then I can be wildly creative because there's a producer and a production manager and all these other people that are going to say, well, that's a great idea, Stacy, but we can't do that because of this...” — Stacy [51:31]

9. Crafting the Narrative of Work

• The workplace narrative should be real—“creative nonfiction”—and built on authentic foundations.
  • Quote: “It has to be nonfiction. It has to be made out of bricks of reality. But those bricks of reality are going to be arranged in a particular way that it forms a narrative, an interpretation and a framing …” — Dart [40:40]

10. Emotional Labor, Vulnerability, and Cost of Creativity

• The most taxing aspect for creative professionals is when their deep investment isn’t understood by colleagues or clients.
  • Quote: “The most painful point for me in my work is when someone doesn't understand what I just gave them...when they misjudge the depth of the work, it's painful.” — Stacy [57:54, 59:30]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• The Power of Loving the Audience:
  • “The tendency is to go out on stage … and hope the audience loves you. Instead, you go out and you go, how can I love the audience first? How can I show them they're invited, they're welcome, that they matter?” — Stacy [00:04], [16:11]
• Designing for Different Levels of Engagement:
  • “You create experiences for those levels, the toe dippers and the deep divers...so that you have those little special things. For someone who's a complete Star Wars fanatic in Galaxy's Edge, there's things around for them that are like gems.” — Stacy [23:05]
• Structure Enables Wild Creativity:
  • “When I'm in a situation that has really strong structure, then I can be wildly creative…” — Stacy [51:31]
• Constraints as Inspiration:
  • “Great creativity comes from constraints. And they said that's why sonnets are great, because they're hard.” — Dart [57:05]
  • Example: Writing a storybook to fit last-minute constraints (silent knight, princess, Santa) by 9am [54:51]
• Employee Engagement through Narrative:
  • “We all have the same goal, we just have different parts of that goal … Even the person doing the billing, everyone…Everyone is a cast member in the show, which is for the guest.” — Stacy [32:30]
• Authenticity and Inclusion:
  • “It can be fostered, but it has to be believed. It can't be a fake fostering...it has to come from leadership.” — Stacy [37:42]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:04] – Stacy on loving the audience; foundational to immersive experiences.
• [02:41] – Stacy’s role and approach: making audiences the star.
• [04:36] – Example: Designing Alice in Wonderland immersive experiences.
• [06:03] – Multidisciplinary collaboration.
• [11:58] – Stacy’s creative process and the importance of audience, promise, delivery, and takeaway.
• [16:11] – Lessons from street theater: “How can I love the audience first?”
• [23:05] – Designing for “toe dippers and deep divers”; Easter eggs and layered engagement.
• [28:43] – Stacy on fostering creativity, inclusion, and recognition at work.
• [32:30] – The shared narrative and the Disney cast member philosophy.
• [42:01] – Story as attractor/filter for both customers and employees.
• [51:31] – Why strong structure fertilizes great creativity.
• [53:44] – The critical role of structure and psychological safety.
• [57:05] – Constraints driving creativity (“no letter E” novel and sonnets).
• [57:54] – The emotional cost of creative labor when misunderstood.
• [62:57] – Stacy on the necessity of improvisation and grounded collaboration.

Conclusion & Takeaways

The episode masterfully weaves the art of immersive entertainment and storytelling into tangible lessons for workplace experience. Stacy Barton and Dart Lindsley demonstrate that, by treating work as a designed experience—anchored in authentic appreciation, narrative clarity, meaningful structure, and deep understanding of “audience” (employees)—organizations can inspire passion, commitment, and creativity.

For leaders and designers of work, the message is clear:
Start with your people, know their dreams and fears, craft a true narrative, and build with both love and structure.

Connect with Stacy Barton

• LinkedIn: Stacy Barton
• Amazon Author Page: Search “Stacy Barton” (four books; ensure correct author)
• Website: staceybarton.com (no "e" in Stacy)

Recommended for listeners who want to transform the everyday job into an irresistibly engaging experience, this conversation offers depth, warmth, and actionable wisdom.