Why I Created SEE-Me: Bringing Research Into the Design of Real Markets

Over the past two decades, much of my research has been concerned with a simple but persistent question: how do markets actually work when people, firms, and institutions interact in complex hybrid digital-physical (phygital) systems?

Much of economic theory begins with assumptions about markets already functioning. Prices exist, actors can transact, information flows, and coordination somehow happens. Yet in the real world — especially in the places where economic participation matters most — markets often fail to form in the first place.

• Farmers cannot access finance.

• Small firms cannot reach customers.

• Workers cannot demonstrate their capabilities.

• Communities remain invisible to systems that determine opportunity.

These are not simply problems of supply and demand. They are problems of design.

Over the years, my research on service ecosystems, value creation, and digital markets has increasingly pointed to the same conclusion: markets and ecosystems do not simply emerge — they must be intentionally designed. Participation, trust, incentives, and coordination have to be structured so that value can be created and recognised.

One reason these problems persist is that we lack a discipline that focuses on this space.

Economics largely assumes that markets already exist. Marketing focuses on how firms compete and reach customers within those markets. But the messy space in between — where markets, communities, institutions, and technologies interact — has surprisingly little structured guidance.

Yet this is exactly where many of today’s most important economic challenges sit. It is the horizontal space of ecosystems, communities, habitats, cities, families, and networks of organisations. These are not simply firms operating in markets, nor are they markets that emerge naturally. They are systems of participation that must be intentionally coordinated so that value can be created, recognised, and exchanged.

Part of the ambition behind SEE-Me is therefore to contribute to the emergence of a new field of practice and study that I would call Markets and Ecosystems. Markets and ecosystems is the discipline of designing the systems that make participation, coordination, and value creation possible.

If economics studies markets that already exist, and marketing studies how firms operate within them, Markets and Ecosystems focuses on designing the conditions under which markets can form and thrive in the first place.

In my recent book The Great Sleepwalk, I describe how much of our economic system has evolved without deliberate design. Technologies, institutions, and incentives accumulate over time, often without questioning whether they still serve the outcomes we care about. In many cases, we are effectively sleepwalking into new economic structures shaped by digital technologies and data, without fully understanding how they reorganise participation, power, and value.

Alongside this, my academic work on market design and smart data ecosystems has explored how digital infrastructures and data flows increasingly mediate coordination in modern economies. These studies examine how trust, legitimacy, and verification can be structured through data, and how markets might be designed to enable broader participation rather than concentrating value in a few platforms.

Yet while the research on these topics has grown, there remains a gap between theory and practice. We have concepts that explain value, coordination, and digital ecosystems, but far fewer opportunities for practitioners to learn how to apply these ideas to real problems.

SEE-Me — Systems for Economic Empowerment through Market Design — is my attempt to close that gap.

The programme is technology-agnostic and brings together ideas developed across my research on value creation, service ecosystems, market design, and data-enabled coordination. These ideas are translated into a structured learning environment where participants can understand how economic systems work and how they can be redesigned.

The learning journey begins with fundamentals. Participants examine transactions, value, and exchange — the building blocks of economic activity. From there we explore how exchanges are organised through firms and platforms, how coordination is achieved through institutions and rules, and how digital systems and data increasingly mediate participation in modern markets.

But learning alone is not enough.

The purpose of SEE-Me is not simply to understand markets; it is to design them and to achieve real impact.

Participants move from foundational learning into a studio-based design phase where they apply these concepts to real coordination challenges. Working in teams and supported by mentors, they design ecosystems that could enable new forms of participation, trust, and value creation. These designs are not abstract exercises but structured attempts to rethink how markets might function differently. From there. They will be able to work on real world problems by industry (and there are so many!).

SEE-Me is technology-agnostic and is being delivered through HATLAB Studio in the first instance. If you think there may be opportunities for collaboration, do get in touch.

If we want markets that enable broader participation and more resilient economies, we cannot rely on incremental adjustments to existing systems. We must be willing to rethink how coordination works and to design ecosystems that make value visible and exchange possible.

That is the ambition behind SEE-Me.

For more information about the programme, please visit ireneng.com and contact me through my website.