Abstract There is an abundance of instances when the state of a complex network needs to be altered to a pre-specified target state, one potential example being the need to alter a disease-induced tissue to a healthy state. Unfortunately, in many such cases, accurate models of the underlying network are unavailable. Consequently, the algorithms for control need to be model-independent. We have previously introduced an approach that relies only on the knowledge (of a partial list) of relevant nodes and the system feedback to perturbation on a selected subset of nodes. This feedback can be used to construct ‘response manifolds,’ which, as we argue, are all that is needed to design the necessary control. Here, we demonstrate the feasibility of the approach by successfully moving nonlinearly-coupled electrical circuits to pre-specified target states.