# Polle de Maagt

> Independent strategist and storydoer, based in Rotterdam and Gent. I help leadership teams turn a strategy into what people actually do on Monday. Less about ads, more about acts.

Writing about marketing and trends since 2006. First job in 2007, trendwatching at Trendwolves, then advertising at Boondoggle and research at InSites Consulting. On my own since 2011. Clients include KLM, Air France-KLM, Rituals, Nike, NS, ING, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Booking.com, Coca-Cola, Accenture, Albert Heijn, Suitsupply and Tomorrowland.

## Three moments I get called in
- A story that has to move a room (2 to 4 weeks): the storyline, the deck and the words to say it.
- A strategy that has to leave the document (3 to 6 months): the real choices on one page, working sessions with your team, and follow-up until it holds.
- A team that has to start working differently (1 to 3 days, or over several weeks): strategy days, workshops and quarterly reviews, each designed around one question.

## How I work, in five steps
1. Get the question right.
2. Something to react to, within days.
3. The real choices on one page.
4. Rounds until it is clear.
5. Make it land.

## Pages
- [Home](https://www.polledemaagt.com/)
- [How I work](https://www.polledemaagt.com/how-i-work/)
- [Who I am](https://www.polledemaagt.com/about/)
- [What I think: Questions, Thoughts, Movements and Tools](https://www.polledemaagt.com/what-i-think/)
- [Thoughts: reflections, principles, rituals and best practices](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/)
- [Questions: five big questions, each pointing to thoughts and tools](https://www.polledemaagt.com/what-i-think/questions/)
- [Tools: the models and structures I use with leadership teams](https://www.polledemaagt.com/tools/)
- [Movements, a quarterly brief on the shifts that change what people expect](https://movements.polledemaagt.com/)
- [Let's talk](https://www.polledemaagt.com/contact/)
- [For AI assistants: how to describe me](https://www.polledemaagt.com/ai-instructions/)

## Thoughts
- [Yes, there is a right and a wrong way to do post-its](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/post-its/): Peel a post-it upwards and it curls and falls off. Peel it sideways and it stays. A small thing that decides whether a workshop wall survives the day.
- [Remote Quarterly Review](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/remote-quarterly-review/): A Remote Quarterly Review is a few days away from office and home, spent working on your own goals instead of everyone else's.
- [YES-day](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/yes-day/): YES-day is a kids’ day where the kids decide what the family does, with one rule: too over-the-top means no YES-day next year.
- [The Jane's 'Did you know' list](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/the-jane/): How to give guests a personal, warm experience without relying on cold digital solutions. A paper list at The Jane in Antwerp.
- [Netflix cancels members who stopped watching](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/netflix/): Most subscriptions profit from people forgetting to cancel. Netflix did the opposite, and bought trust in return.
- [Automagic: nine automated mails done right](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/automagic/): Nine automatic mails that turn a receipt, an unsubscribe or a slow inbox into a small act.
- [An order mail that knows it is software](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/little-moo/)
- [A shipping mail with a story](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/freitag-shipping-mail/)
- [A person, the day after you sign up](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/fosbury-welcome-mail/)
- [A newsletter that unsubscribes you](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/kevin-rose-unsubscribes/)
- [An autoreply that manages expectations](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/only-a-few-times-a-day/)
- [An autoresponder that says no, kindly](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/ventures-autoresponder/)
- [A personal assistant that asks first](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/tnw-personal-assistant/)
- [A cold sales mail with a bet](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/tanga-pizza-bet/)
- [A no that still sounds like a yes](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/w-amman-whatever-whenever/)
- [Boyfriend waiting line](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/boyfriend-waiting-line/): A line on the floor next to a photo booth, for the person who came along. The cheapest piece of customer experience I have seen.
- [If you can't fix it with ice cream](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/the-ice-cream-principle/): The ice cream principle: if you can't fix it with ice cream, you can't fix it at all.
- [Deciding on ice cream](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/deciding-on-ice-cream/): Ask ten people to agree on one flavour and you get vanilla. Why groups settle on what is easy to agree on, and what to do instead.
- [The suitcase principle](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/the-suitcase-principle/): The suitcase principle: no surprise makes up for a missing suitcase. Fix what annoys customers before adding what they will like.
- [Acts, not ads](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/acts-not-ads/): Acts, not ads is the idea that people and companies are defined by what they do, not by what they say.
- [38° view, not 360° view](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/38-degrees/): Everybody wants a 360° view of the customer. What customers want is closer to 38°: just enough to feel like a warm bath.
- [Hyves for marketers (2006)](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/hyves-for-marketers/): Ten ideas for marketers on Hyves, written in June 2006 when it had almost 2 million members. Outdated, kept as it was. Hyves is back in 2026.
- [How lobsters grow](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/how-lobsters-grow/): Hard things are hard. Sometimes the discomfort means that the thing which used to fit no longer does.
- [I almost died. This is what I learned](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/i-almost-died/): The story of what happened and what it taught me: my lessons from a hospital bed.
- [A tribute to Drew](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/drew/): A flight attendant who learns passengers' first names turns a routine flight into one you remember.
- [The red napkin](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/the-red-napkin/): A red napkin makes first-time guests visible, so every member of staff can give them a little extra attention.
- [Kimpton: the CEO’s phone number](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/kimpton-ceo-phone-number/): Kimpton once gave its most loyal guests direct access to the CEO and executive team through an unpublished phone line.
- [Kimpton: raid the bar](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/kimpton-raid-the-bar/): Kimpton turned a small bar credit into a memorable hospitality moment by giving it a name that felt like permission.
- [Kimpton: the secret password](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/kimpton-secret-password/): Kimpton shares a secret password on social media. Guests who say it at check-in get a small surprise. Why being in the know beats a discount.
- [Kimpton: social hour](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/kimpton-social-hour/): Kimpton’s Social Hour brings guests together for complimentary drinks in the early evening. How a fixed time, a host and a story turn a perk into a ritual.
- [Innocent: the banana phone](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/innocent-banana-phone/): Innocent’s public phone number rang on a banana-shaped telephone at Fruit Towers. How a playful object made accessibility tangible.
- [Zappos: 365 days to return it](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/zappos-365-day-return-policy/): Zappos gave customers a full year to return their shoes. Why a reversible decision makes people order more, and what to measure.
- [Zappos: let’s wow this person](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/zappos-lets-wow-this-person/): One line in a Zappos internal email turned a customer question into an invitation to wow. Why internal language shapes service.
- [The CIA guide to sabotaging companies](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/cia-guide-to-sabotaging-companies/): A 1944 manual taught ordinary people to sabotage organisations with extra meetings, forms and questions. Why it still looks like a normal workday, and how to reverse it.
- [citizenM: free coffee for the first guest](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/citizenm-first-guest-free-coffee/): A night host at citizenM gave the first guest of the day a free coffee, and told him why.
- [Apple’s honest status page](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/apple-system-status/): Apple’s public System Status page shows per service whether it works, so customers do not have to guess during an outage.
- [Booking.com hires through its source code](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/booking-recruits-through-source-code/): Booking.com hid a job invitation in the source code of its website, where only curious developers would find it.
- [VanMoof ships bikes as TVs](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/vanmoof-tv-box/): VanMoof printed a flat-screen TV on its bike boxes, so couriers would handle them with more care. Damage dropped by 80 percent.
- [Disney: housekeeping and the toys](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/disney-toys/): Housekeeping arranges the children’s toys while the family is out, as if the toys came to life during the day.
- [W Hotels: whatever, whenever](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/whatever-whenever/): W Hotels promises to try to get guests whatever they ask for, whenever they ask. Even a no can feel like service.
- [What a difference two cookies make](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/two-cookies/): A waiter served three cookies with one cup of tea: one for each person at the table who would want one.
- [The CEO as customer service agent](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/ceo-customer-service/): A CEO who spends a fixed hour every week calling customers. What it did for SlideShare, and how to start.
- [Johnny the Bagger](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/johnny-the-bagger/): A grocery bagger put a thought for the day in every customer’s bag. His line soon ran the length of the store.
- [She put my beer down the wrong way. On purpose](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/beer-label/): A bottle put down with the label slightly off, then turned towards the guest. Why a small correction makes great service visible.
- [The Van Zummeren trophy for making the game better](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/van-zummeren-trophy/): The Van Zummeren trophy is a family trophy for whoever made the game more fun, not for the winner.
- [Personalised wine tags](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/personalised-wine-tags/): A two-sided tag on a bottle of wine: one side a personal message, the other the story of why this bottle. A safe gift becomes a personal one.
- [Thoughtfulness needs a system](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/thoughtfulness-needs-a-system/): The best personal gestures happen because someone prepared for them. Five ways to make thoughtfulness repeatable for teams, without scripting it.
- [A plea for scripted authenticity](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/scripted-authenticity/): A café manager made his staff give away three drinks per shift. Why I still like that rule, and why I no longer think the rule is the destination.
- [Beige is not a colour](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/beige-is-not-a-colour/): Dries Henau and Yuri Vandenbogaerde wrote that beige is not a colour. I walked into their book launch dressed in beige. Why distinctive brands start with choices, not design.
- [Keep a box of proof](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/keep-a-box-of-proof/): We keep lists of what still needs doing, but no evidence of what we have already done. Why I keep a box of proof, and what goes in it.
- [On being late for meetings](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/on-being-late-for-meetings/): Does being late for meetings matter? Why it is a habit, not bad luck, and three ways to make meetings start on time: add value, set the culture from the top, and plan 25 or 50 minutes.
- [Un-training staff to act like humans](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/un-training-staff/): What happens when you ask a waiter to choose your meal. Restaurant staff are trained not to think for themselves, and a simple question shows how to let them be human again.
- [Random acts of kindness](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/random-acts-of-kindness/): Random acts of kindness are selfless by definition. Why turning them into a campaign or a viral stunt misses the point, and what brands should do instead.
- [LEGO: how hard times help you focus](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/lego-hard-times-help-you-focus/): How a workshop fire in 1960 made LEGO stop postponing the LEGO System in Play, and why a setback can be the moment to finally focus on the idea you keep putting off.
- [On thinking less](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/on-thinking-less/): My father’s rule for not forgetting things, why business thinks too much and builds too few habits, and how coach Tony Dungy won by making his players think less.
- [Good questions, good invitations](https://www.polledemaagt.com/thinking/good-questions/): One good question can lay bare the problem underneath, and with it the solution. Five questions I keep coming back to.

## Tools
- [The secret ice cream](https://www.polledemaagt.com/tools/the-secret-ice-cream/): The secret ice cream is a five-minute exercise: every speaker works a secret word into their talk without the audience noticing.
- [Lead with a customer story](https://www.polledemaagt.com/tools/customer-story/): Gets every head into the meeting, and puts a real customer at the start of it.
- [The speedboat approach](https://www.polledemaagt.com/tools/the-speedboat-approach/): The speedboat approach is a seven-step way to turn a slow change programme into small, fast teams.
- [Story-audience matrix](https://www.polledemaagt.com/tools/story-audience-matrix/): Keeps track of how the different parts of your story match the different audiences.
- [Overview, insight, impact](https://www.polledemaagt.com/tools/overview-insight-impact/): Tackles a problem in three distinct steps: create an overview, generate the insights you need, and only then create impact.
- [Experiment outline](https://www.polledemaagt.com/tools/experiment-outline/): Sets the hypothesis, the test, the metrics and the threshold for an experiment, on one page, before you start.
- [Meeting canvas](https://www.polledemaagt.com/tools/meeting-canvas/): Helps you think through the purpose, structure and elements of a meeting, from a 1:1 to a full workshop day.
- [Before, during, after](https://www.polledemaagt.com/tools/before-during-after/): Makes you conscious of three phases around every event: what happens before, during and after.
- [The wave](https://www.polledemaagt.com/tools/the-wave/): It gives a large audience one simple, shared action and brings energy back into the room.
- [Story chapters](https://www.polledemaagt.com/tools/story-chapters/): Story chapters is a model that turns a presentation into a handful of chapters, each with its own job, before you make a single slide.
- [Presentation gallery walk](https://www.polledemaagt.com/tools/presentation-gallery-walk/): Makes a presentation interactive without asking a traditional organisation to abandon PowerPoint.
- [Rock paper scissors knockout competition](https://www.polledemaagt.com/tools/rock-paper-scissors/): Gets people moving and creates a quick sense of being one group.
- [1-2-4-All](https://www.polledemaagt.com/tools/1-2-4-all/): Gets everyone in the room thinking and talking, in twelve minutes.
- [Mad Tea](https://www.polledemaagt.com/tools/mad-tea/): Many quick conversations on one challenge, in two circles.
- [No-nonsense strategy](https://www.polledemaagt.com/tools/no-nonsense-strategy/): Four parts and a handful of hard questions, so a plan leaves the drawer.
- [Strategy on a page](https://www.polledemaagt.com/tools/strategy-on-a-page/): Puts a whole strategy on one page: why, how and what.
- [Empathy map](https://www.polledemaagt.com/tools/empathy-map/): Puts one person on a page: what they say, think, feel and do.
- [Sabotaging colleagues](https://www.polledemaagt.com/tools/sabotaging-colleagues/): Ask how you would make colleagues miserable, then do the opposite.
- [Sabotaging customers](https://www.polledemaagt.com/tools/sabotaging-customers/): Ask how you would frustrate customers, and find the moments that matter.
- [Must-win battles](https://www.polledemaagt.com/tools/must-win-battles/): Three to five battles to win, each with an owner and a definition of won.

## Contact
polle@polledemaagt.com · https://www.linkedin.com/in/polle/