Find the service design sweet spot - balance divergent requirements for optimum results!
posted 30th May 2022
It's widely understood that good service design is not just how something looks, it's how something works. It needs to work for customers and end-users and it needs to be work-able for those responsible for delivery. So when we're designing, we're not just designing user journeys end-to-end, we're also designing services front-to-back - service blueprints illustrate the whole journey.
Holistic service design therefore needs to balances user, organisational (or system) and technical requirements:
- What is desirable for users? This is user-focused
- What is viable for the organisation? This is the business or organisational orientation
- What is technically feasible?
Each of these criteria are critical to successful delivery, but take care not to prioritise some aspects at the expense others. I like to view them as moving parts that need to work in synergy. Sometimes trade-offs are required, what's right for you depends on the context you’re working with, but ultimately these elements needs to support each other rather than compete. Bring these elements together and you have a much more systemic and synergistic solution for successful delivery.
Understanding your potential sweet spot for change
You may want to grow loyalty across your user-base or grow your user-base or market share. To do this you need to understand what can drive that growth in terms of what you need to offer to target or potential users as well as what you need to do to differently to deliver this new offer. You cannot change what you deliver to customers (outside-in change) without changing what you do or how you work so you are engaging differently with customers (inside-out change). Additionally, you cannot exploit existing technologies without the appropriate capacity, capability or mindset across your organisation - exploiting technology alone is rarely sufficient.
DESIRABILITY: From a user perspective:
- Who are the primary users?
- What are the ideal experiences your current users are seeking?
- What do their current journeys tell you about their needs, pain points or what really matters to them?
- Can you quantify these opportunities?
- Will the proposition meet their unmet needs?
- Are users likely to trust the service and engage with it?
- What practical, social and emotional value is it likely to add?
FEASIBILITY: From a capability perspective:
- Do we have the technical capability within the organisation or system?
- What processes or infrastructure are already in place that we can build on?
- What needs to be developed from scratch (that could give you a competitive advantage)?
- What are you current people capabilities?
- Can our teams deliver and iterate the service at the required pace?
- What are the key constraints (tech, people, legal, data)?
- Are there critical gaps in skills, systems, or tools? Can we close them?
- What dependencies exist across departments or suppliers?
VIABILITY: What's scalable and sustainable for your organisation?
- What value does this service create for the organisation or system?
- What’s the cost to deliver and maintain it at scale?
- Is there a clear funding or revenue model?
- What metrics will demonstrate success or impact over time?
- Do we have a clear North Star Metric?
- How does this service align with strategic goals or policy commitments?
- Can the service adapt to future demand or change?
- What incentives exist for stakeholders to support or invest in it?
- Are there any cultural barriers that you'll need to overcome?
YES you can grow the sweet spot for change
And it's largely based on producing the right communication tools to grow user empathy and reframe problems and engaging the right audiences in the right conversations from the start.
FEASIBILITY: How to increase capability and deliverability
Map current capability before designing the future
- Why: You can’t build on what you don’t understand.
- Tip: Run a “capability scan” across tech, people, processes, data, and governance. Use this to identify what can be reused, adapted, or needs building from scratch.
- Tool: Capability heatmap + maturity matrix.
Co-design with delivery teams, not just users
- Why: They know the operational constraints and workarounds.
- Tip: Involve engineers, ops, and legal early. Invite them to research playback and ideation—not just review.
- Effect: Speeds up delivery and ensures you’re designing within real constraints.
Start small, test fast
- Why: Quick, low-risk tests build confidence and surface hidden blockers.
- Tip: Run a “concierge” or “manual first” pilot before tech build. Test the process with sticky notes and spreadsheets if needed.
- Example: Prove value manually before asking for system integration.
Upskill internal teams through live work
- Why: One-off training rarely sticks.
- Tip: Embed capability building into delivery. Pair experienced designers, data analysts or PMs with internal staff for co-delivery and coaching.
- Tool: Show & Tells can spread practice and ideally supported with embedded feedback / learning loops based on live work
VIABILITY: How to strengthen stakeholder engagement and long-term success
Frame benefits in terms of strategic goals
- Why: Leaders invest in outcomes, not features
- Tip: Map service outcomes to organisational priorities (e.g. cost reduction, retention, compliance, ESG). Use language they care about
- Tools: Use a “benefits canvas” to link user needs to system goals.
Surface trade-offs and tensions early
- Why: Hidden misalignment kills projects later
- Tip: Use system maps and “what if” scenarios to expose conflicting incentives or performance metrics across departments.
Co-create a North Star Metric
- Why: Gives stakeholders a shared destination and long-term measure of success
- Tip: Involve stakeholders in defining what good looks like—for users and for the organisation. Use it to drive prioritisation and storytelling.
Create visibility through story-driven artefacts
- Why: Service design is often intangible
- Tip: Share compelling user stories, journey maps and “before and after” visuals. This makes the value easier to grasp and support
- Deliverables: Slides, short videos, maps, dashboards - use the best format for the audience.
Build coalitions before working towards consensus
- Why: You won’t get everyone on board
- Tip: Identify key influencers and enablers. Focus your energy on those most likely to act. Equip them with what they need to advocate
- Tools: Stakeholder map and influence matrix.
In summary
- Increase feasibility through co-design, test services early and build capability. This will enable you to design services that are deliverable.
- Increase viability by aligning propositions to goals, telling compelling stories and building support across stakeholder groups. These are more likely to secure investment and scale.