Teams Matter Too!

Studio Notes | Short Reads

by Sean Casey, Service Designer

If you’re running a service, you probably spend most of your time thinking and talking about the ‘frontstage’ – those parts of your service which your customers can see.

However, services also have a ‘backstage’, where people do the hard work of keeping the service running and dealing with things that go wrong. Your services rely on these teams – and like an iceberg – most of this work is invisble to the customer or service user.

When designing a service, we always make sure to work closely with your teams, engaging through workshops, one-to-one interviews, or even by having them join the design team throughout the process.

Our approach is carefully structured to empower your team to design and improve the service they are already part of, while also instilling a “design mindset” and sharing the tools they’ll need to keep innovating after we’re gone.

Here are three ways you and your teams might benefit by taking part in the design process this way…

1. Improved teamwork & cross-functional collaboration

Bringing teams together from multiple departments or functions within your organisation exposes everyone to wider perspectives and opinions. In co-design workshops, we bring service stakeholders together from across your organisation to work through challenges and come up with ideas. When cross-functional teams work together and share ideas collaboratively, the outcome is more powerful innovation for your service.

2. Better job satisfaction & employee experience

Designing a service to meet the needs of your teams alongside the needs of customers improves your employees’ job satisfaction. A team who know their input is valued will feel more enthusiastic and better supported. When your delivery team feels valued, supported and confident – this results in a better service experience for your customers.

3. Reduced costs in the long-run

The people who work on your service every day will likely already know of ways it can be made better. By giving your teams the opportunity to participate early in the design process, it means problems can be addressed before resources are spent on implementation. When problems are solved in design, it significantly reduces the costly risk of failure down the line.

So, what does this look like in practice?

Here are some real world examples of projects where we have involved teams and stakeholders (both internal and external) in the design process:

Understanding the needs of your customers is vital to delivering a good service, but your teams matter too!

If you need help bringing your delivery teams together to lend their voice to the design of your services – get in touch!