The second day of MaastrichtMBA’s week on Future-Proof Business Models opened with the lively and interactive morning session Empathising, research insights & exploring strategic alternatives and strategic decision-making in a sustainable landscape, led by Prof. Dr. Dominik Mahr. He invited students to step into the design thinking mindset; challenging assumptions, uncovering hidden customer needs and placing customer value at the centre of innovation.
Prof. Mahr guided the group into the psychology of habits, showing how triggers and routines subconsciously drive everyday decisions. For instance, people rarely choose a new smartphone after a rational comparison of features, he explained. Instead, they respond to subtle cues; a brand they know and trust, a friend’s recommendation or the discomfort of a malfunctioning device. To shift customer behaviour, organisations must therefore do more than build a better product; they must design better experiences around it.
Prof. Dr. Dominik Mahr is Professor of Digital Innovation & Marketing at Maastricht University and Scientific Director of the Service Science Factory. He specialises in human-centred innovation, service design and the adoption of emerging technologies. Combining academic expertise with industry experience at Volkswagen/Audi, he bridges research, education and business practice in all his teaching and consulting work.
The insights provided by Dominik Mahr served as the foundation for the Fairphone challenge strategy sprint that groups of students worked on throughout the week. The challenge was to create sufficient added value in the coming years by exploring new services and partnerships for Fairphone. Or, how to design triggers, routines and rewards to convince consumers to shift toward more sustainable choices.
Fernand de Vries, IT Manager at ABN AMRO, explained how the session shifted his mindset: “Empathy added a completely different dimension to business modelling. It’s no longer about building something and hoping users adapt, it’s about understanding the human needs behind their behaviour.” According to Fernand, the morning session helped his team ‘dig deeper’, moving beyond surface-level assumptions to discover the ‘golden nuggets’ that would later strengthen their Fairphone value proposition.
Another student, working in healthcare, says she was especially inspired by Prof. Mahr’s example of a professional service robot supporting long-term care. “For me, it was a glimpse into the future of healthcare,” she explained. “It showed how innovations only work when you truly take the user’s perspective seriously.” What struck her most was how visualising interview findings through tools such as customer profiles helped her team decide where to go with our Fairphone case. “It forced us to really look from the customer’s point of view, which is the whole essence of design thinking.”
The atmosphere throughout the morning was energetic and collaborative. What made the session particularly engaging was how behavioural theory and hands-on work came together. The day before participants had conducted interviews within their own networks. The morning was devoted to turning these interview notes into structured insights. “Ninety percent of what you hear is what you expect,” Mahr told the group. “It’s the odd detail, the surprising comment, where innovation begins.”
Asked if the method proves its value outside the classroom, the students answer with a big ‘yes’! One student says she has already applied certain aspects of Mahr’s class in her daily practice. “We are currently designing a new treatment programme and used some of the tools to gain more insight of the value proposition and stakeholders. This resulted in a stronger and more clear presentation of the design challenge.” Her key takeaway was that the tools provided can really help to clarify your case, your customer journey, your value proposition and stakeholders. “Each tool offers a different insight or point of view that can be helpful in the process of design thinking. Practicing during the lesson with these tools in regard to the business case was very useful.”
Fernand de Vries names three top takeaways: “The importance of truly understanding the customer rather than assuming their needs, the methodology for finding ‘golden nuggets’ e.g. high-value insights that differentiate a proposition, and last but not least the practical skill of creating personas to humanise our data and strategies. As an IT-manager, it’s easy to get lost in technical details. Applying these insights will help me to better empathise with end-users. I consider this as a key-driver in my daily work to ensure that I am creating real, added value for my stakeholders, rather than just delivering IT-solutions.”
Concluding: by the end of Dominik Mahr’s session students were left with a sharpened design mindset, a deeper understanding of users and a clearer direction for the steps ahead.
This article displays the student insights and experiences of the Future-proof Business Models week of the Sustainable Innovation elective. The MaastrichtMBA programme has an executive modular part-time format and offers two tracks: On-Campus MBA and Online MBA. The programme has a Triple Crown accreditation and is aimed for professionals with at least 5 years of working experience.
