The goals of the StageIt project are to develop knowledge about how SMEs can take advantage of experience staging as a means to improve their competitiveness and put this knowledge into practice in three SMEs. The point of departure is the recognition that technological innovation alone does not necessarily insure market acceptance. Instead, competitive environments require innovation that goes beyond technology to provide less tangible, but potentially more valuable, experiential benefits. The StageIt project is based on the notion of the “experience economy”, which is the fourth stage in the progression of economic value, preceded by extracting fungible commodities, manufacturing tangible goods and delivering intangible services. Each stage in this progression represents a superior value proposition, with higher potential for competitive advantage. StageIt’s industry-academia collaboration includes two universities and three SMEs that will benefit from transformation to experience staging. The academic participants contribute their knowledge, research findings and expertise and the industry participants contribute their practical experience prior to, during and following the transformation. The collaboration will make it possible to approach the transformation of SMEs into experience stagers from both a pragmatic and a theoretical point of view. Knowledge will be transferred within the consortium by staff secondments and workshops. Knowledge will be transferred to the broader academic and industrial communities through presentations in academic and industry conferences, academic publications and industry reports. The academic partners will raise the quality of their research on experiential design based on the data and insight gained. The industry partners will improve their RTD capability based on the knowledge gained from collaboration with the academic partners, and each other, and enhance their competitive advantage based on the transformations realized.