The Truth About Human-Centered Strategy (And Why Most Companies Miss It)
A conversation with Justin Tidmarsh, Founder of With/in
Justin, why is human-centered strategy such a big focus for With/in?
With/in is built on three things: human-centered strategy, solutions that actually work in the real world, and sustainable growth. Human-centered strategy is the foundation because without it, the other two do not stick. You cannot build sustainable growth if you are fighting against the way people actually think and behave. And you cannot design solutions that last if they are only built for the company’s perspective.
When you start with the humans you are serving, whether yourself as a leader, customers, employees, or partners, you see things you miss when you start with the product, the spreadsheet, or the process. You find the friction, the moments of delight, and the real reasons people say yes or no. That is when strategy stops being theory and starts delivering results.
But people still hear “human-centered” and think it is soft. Why?
The misconception is it is soft and woo-woo. Wrong.
This is hard, focused work. It is about digging into behavior, decision-making, and context, then building strategy around that. It is not “make people happy.” It is “make it easy for them to choose you.”
Want proof? Grab a sheet of paper. Draw two columns: Helps Me Buy and Stops Me From Buying. Think about the last time you walked away from a purchase. Write down what helped and what got in the way. You have just done a micro human-centered analysis. Simple, fast, and already telling you where to focus.
What is the biggest misconception about human-centered strategy?
That it is just a rebrand of what you are already doing. If you are not mapping the real journey, surfacing emotional triggers, and removing friction, you are not doing it. You are putting fresh paint on a crumbling wall.
Give me an example of product-first versus human-centered.
So many come to mind. Let’s start with a simple one and a common trap leaders and teams fall into during every business review.
Product-first: “We need more repeat buyers. Let’s send a discount.”
Human-centered: “Why did they not come back?”
When I have done this work, the reasons are rarely what leaders think:
They did not know how to use or style what they bought
They had a bad returns or shipping experience
They simply forgot about you
Each reason demands a different fix. Education for one group. Operational fixes for another. A timely nudge for the rest. Human-centered strategy finds the right lever for the right reason.
You talk about the science behind it. What do you mean?
Human-centered strategy is not just a creative exercise. It is built on two bodies of research I use all the time: behavioral economics and systems theory.
Behavioral economics studies how people actually make decisions, which is rarely the perfectly rational process we imagine. We all have mental shortcuts, emotional triggers, and biases that shape our choices. For example, people are more motivated to avoid losing something than they are to gain something of equal value. If you know that, you can design messages and offers that work with that bias instead of fighting it.
Did you know that one key insight for the initial Starbucks mobile payment was the fact that consumers forgot their wallets at home before they forgot their phones? May seem silly now, but in 2008 it was a new insight.
Systems theory is about seeing the whole picture and how all the parts interact. A company is not just sales, marketing, and operations working separately. Those systems are connected. Change in one affects the others. If you improve the buying experience but the delivery process is broken, you will still lose customers. Systems thinking forces you to look at the chain of cause and effect so your strategy is not just a quick fix but a sustainable solution.
When you combine the two, you get strategy that understands why people act the way they do and builds the environment where the right action is the easiest and most natural choice. That is when the work starts to stick.
What is one thing a leader could do today to get more human-centered?
Start with an understanding of your stakeholders.
Pick a project you need to move forward
List every person involved in making it happen
For each, answer: “What is in it for them? What might make them hesitate?”
Use that map to shape your next conversation or campaign
That is human-centered strategy in a nutshell. You are matching what you need with what they need to say yes.
What is the risk if companies skip this?
They push solutions that do not solve the real problem. They run into resistance. They waste money. And they burn trust.
And when they get it right?
Everything moves faster. Customers stay longer. Teams resist less because they see themselves in the solution. It feels lighter because you have designed it to work with people, not against them.
How can someone go deeper into this with you?
This is what I do at With/in every day. I help leaders and companies map the real journey, find the friction, and design strategies that actually stick. If you want to see what that looks like for you, drop me a note at justin@wearewithin.co
With/in: Clarity within. Growth together.
Visit wearewithin.co to learn more.