Therapists, Coaches, and Grandmas: Techniques for Service Design in Complex Systems

Key Insights

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  Service designers often struggle with connecting dots in complex, siloed, and matrixed organizations.

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  Instead of connecting dots for teams, service designers should focus on bringing the dots closer together by creating conducive conditions.

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  Therapists, coaches, and grandmas serve as metaphors for creating environments for reflection, motivation, and grounding in service design.

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  Creating and holding space means dedicating intentional, time-boxed moments for teams to reflect and explore ideas safely.

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  Provoking and reframing perspective can shift team mindsets by introducing playful, surprising, or inspirational activities.

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  Mirroring and visualizing content lowers barriers by capturing messy, unpolished team input in familiar formats, encouraging authentic engagement.

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  Using ordinary tools like Word or Excel for note-taking can be more inclusive than traditional colorful service design templates for some teams.

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  Applying different approaches depending on team context—whether more coach-like, therapist-like, or grandma-like—requires situational finesse.

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  Holding office hours as low-pressure collaboration times addresses the lack of natural informal interactions in remote or hybrid teams.

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  Design debt can be thought of as ecosystem friction where unaddressed connections cause team stalling, needing active attention.

Notable Quotes