Clarity is
Strategy

Designing a Scalable Workshop Experience

2023 - 2025

Client: Bonny Morlak - Startup Growth Coach

Type: Experience Design, Workshop Product Design

Role: Product Manager & Experience Designer (with Multipasss)

Focus: Designing and scaling a live Ikigai-based workshop experience

Stage: Pilot workshop at Canva Space Sydney

Designing a live Ikigai workshop as a product

Clarity is Strategy: Find Your Professional North Star was a 2.5-hour evening workshop created by startup coach Bonny Morlak to help founders, creatives, and professionals find direction and purpose through the Japanese concept of Ikigai — the intersection of what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what you want in abundance.

As Product Manager, I led the design, structure, and delivery of the workshop experience. My role was to transforming Bonny’s previous informal university sessions into a cohesive, premium, and emotionally engaging live product— one that could eventually scale.

This project represents my approach to experience design beyond screens — applying UX, service design, and marketing strategy to create a real-world journey of clarity and connection.

The pilot was hosted at Canva Space in Sydney, a perfect environment to test this concept with a mixed audience of 24 founders, creatives, students, and professionals.

The challenge

Bonny had previously run Ikigai sessions at universities and startup accelerators, offering high-value insights but within an experience that lacked design consistency.

While the content was powerful, the execution felt unstructured:

Disorganised venue setup and scattered visuals
No ambient energy (silent background, poor flow)
Unclear pre-event communication
A presentation that didn’t visually reflect Bonny’s professional credibility

We wanted to reimagine the workshop from the ground up — to craft an experience that reflected Bonny’s world-class coaching depth while also embodying the clarity, trust, and inspiration that his message stood for.

The mission was to redesign the entire journey — from first touchpoint to final reflection — creating a unified experience that felt intentional, inspiring, and premium.

The Opportunity

To begin, we reviewed participant feedback and my own field notes from the previous university version.

The findings were clear:
the visual and spatial rhythm of the room deeply affected engagement; the lack of music or sensory cues limited emotional connection; and the absence of a visual storytelling layer weakened comprehension.

We realised that if we approached this like a startup product, not just an event, we could improve it through user-centered design.

We reframed the workshop as a prototype — a human-centered product that could be iterated, scaled, and measured through user experience principles.

What We Did

I led the product and experience design for the pilot workshop: mapping the journey, designing the environment, creating the workbook and tools, and shaping the marketing and launch funnel.

1.Research & Insights

Reviewed feedback and field notes from earlier university sessions, identifying what worked emotionally and where structure broke.

We found that room layout, sensory cues, and visual storytelling had a direct impact on engagement and depth of reflection.

2.Product & Journey Design

Mapped the full journey from persona and outreach to sign-up, arrival, in-room flow, and post-event follow-up.

We defined six core phases for the evening and designed each moment to balance introspection, interaction, and clarity.

3.Environment & Experience Design

"Designed the spatial layout, lighting, music, workbook, and tactile tools such as magic wand pencils.

On the day, we adapted to the available furniture, shifting to a cafe-style layout that made conversation and connection feel natural."

Atmosphere of the Workshop

A wide shot capturing the atmosphere of the Clarity Is Strategy workshop, showing the room setup, creative environment, and participant energy.

Workshop Engagement (Bonny + Participants)

Bonny leading a discussion with workshop participants, showing active engagement, interaction, and the collaborative environment inside the space.

Bonny at Canva Space

Bonny standing in fornt of Canva Space before the workshop evening started.

Atmosphere of the Workshop

A wide shot capturing the atmosphere of the Clarity Is Strategy workshop, showing the room setup, creative environment, and participant energy.

1/5

4.Marketing & Launch

I Created a landing page, Eventbrite listing, and Meta + organic campaigns under a tight budget.

We filled all 24 seats through a mix of ads, partnerships, and personal outreach, validating the concept and price point."

Key Insights

The workshop proved that treating experiences like products testing, iterating, and designing every touchpoint creates more meaningful, scalable offerings for both founders and participants.

Experiences Are Products

Designing a workshop as a product with journeys, feedback loops, and value propositions creates a repeatable, testable format instead of a one-off event.

Environment Is Part of the UX

"Lighting, seating, sound, and pacing changed how safe people felt to share.

The room layout became as critical as the slides."

Structure Enables Depth

A clear arc from arrival to closing reflection gave participants enough safety and momentum to reach honest, actionable clarity about their direction.

Marketing and Experience Must Match

Positioning the workshop as calm, strategic, and human set expectations that the in-room experience then fulfilled, strengthening trust in the brand.

These insights now inform future versions of Clarity is Strategy from self-paced courses to scaled workshop formats.

ROI

For Participants

For the Business

Participants left with a written North Star statement, clearer language for their professional direction, and a calm, grounded feeling instead of overwhelm.

The pilot proved there is demand for a structured, premium version of the workshop and laid the foundation for an online course and future live offerings.