Empowering Innovation and Empathy at Scale with onXMaps

Bringing Human-Centered Design to Life at Camp onX

onXMaps, a trailblazer in outdoor navigation and mapping, has always prioritized innovation. With products beloved by hunters, hikers, and adventurers alike, the company’s leadership understands that delivering exceptional user experiences begins with deep customer empathy. So, when it came time to energize their entire team at the company-wide Camp onX all-hands event, they didn’t want a conventional training—they wanted a catalytic moment. A shared, memorable experience that would shift mindsets, spark creativity, and build new habits around customer-centric thinking.

That’s when onX partnered with Centered to design and deliver a transformational workshop experience that would impact every corner of the organization.

The Challenge: Scaling Meaningful Engagement for 400 People

Design thinking is powerful—but how do you translate its principles into an experiential workshop that resonates across roles, from engineering to marketing to customer success? And more importantly, how do you do that with 400 participants at once?

That was the challenge onX handed to Centered. They needed an experience that was:

• Immersive and hands-on: Not just theory, but real practice.
• Human-centered by design: A workshop that modeled the mindset it was teaching.
• Scalable across 40 teams: Each group of 10 needed to move in sync, without losing depth.
• Inclusive of all roles: From frontline engineers to product leaders and support staff.

The Approach: Designing for Empathy, Engagement, and Energy

Together, onX and Centered co-created a high-energy, fully immersive learning journey designed to shift how employees think about their customers—and about each other.

Interactive Learning Through Real-World Scenarios

Participants were guided through a structured yet flexible design thinking session focused on solving real customer challenges. The activities emphasized empathy mapping, storytelling, problem framing, and sketching, making abstract concepts tangible and actionable.

Dynamic, Playful, and Energizing

The tone of the workshop was intentionally lighthearted, collaborative, and energetic. It wasn’t a sit-and-listen lecture; it was a hands-on, minds-on experience designed to keep teams engaged and moving. The workshop celebrated curiosity and creativity, enabling participants to practice thinking outside the box—sometimes for the first time in their professional careers.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Groups were formed intentionally across departments, helping participants connect with colleagues they rarely worked with. This broke down organizational silos and created a richer exchange of perspectives.

Scalable Facilitation Model

With 40 simultaneous teams, Centered employed a facilitation approach that empowered local ownership while maintaining consistency across the entire experience. Each team of 10 had its own trained facilitator, supported by advance preparation and a clear experience flow.

The Results: A Company Transformed—One Empathy Map at a Time

The results were immediate and electric. Employee feedback captured the transformational nature of the experience:

“It opened my eyes to an entirely different way to solve problems.”
“Even though I’m not in product, these ideas will help me serve other engineers better.”
“We need to think more about the emotional experience of our customers—not just the data.”
“This was a reminder that I have awesome colleagues across the company.”

Key outcomes included:

• 400 Active, Engaged Participants: Every employee at Camp onX took part in the workshop.
• Increased Customer Awareness: Participants reported a deeper appreciation for customer experiences, needs, and emotions.
• Strengthened Cross-Functional Ties: Teams broke down barriers and built new bridges across departments.
• Lasting Mindset Shift: Employees began to think more critically and creatively about how they design, build, and support onX products.

Facilitator Insights: Behind the Scenes at Camp onX

Designing an experience for 400 people requires not just a solid plan—but a system that empowers others to lead. Here's how Centered scaled impact through intentional facilitation:

🧭 40 Facilitators, 40 Teams
Each 10-person team had its own facilitator, creating intimacy within scale. Facilitators weren’t just volunteers—they were trained and prepared through pre-event run-throughs and alignment sessions.

📋 Advance Prep Made Easy
Before the event, facilitators experienced the full arc of the workshop themselves. This gave them confidence, clarity, and ownership in guiding others.

🗺️ Tabletop Experience Design
Each table was laid out as a visual journey, allowing teams to literally move through the design thinking process:

1. Empathy Mapping at one end of the table to explore customer needs.
2. A Framing Question section to align on the core problem.
3. A Journey Map in the center, with a clear "first step" marked to ground teams in real scenarios.
4. Ideation Space with sketching and Crazy 8’s at the far end, where creative solutions came to life.

💡 Tactile Thinking
The physical layout mirrored the mental process. This tactile progression helped participants visualize the problem-solving arc and stay grounded in the user journey.

This choreography of people, process, and space made it possible to create a deeply engaging, high-impact experience that didn’t just deliver learning—it inspired transformation.

About Centered

Centered helps organizations build cultures of innovation by equipping teams with the tools, mindsets, and collaborative practices they need to deliver breakthrough results. From design sprints to large-scale immersive workshops, we help organizations like onXMaps turn curiosity into action.

🌐 Explore more at centered.work
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