Rosenverse

Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.

Log in Create free account

100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.

Non-linear service design for complex adaptive systems
Wednesday, December 10, 2025 • Rosenfeld Community

This video is featured in the Systemic Design playlist.

Share the love for this talk
Non-linear service design for complex adaptive systems
Speakers: Kyle Godbey
Link:

Summary

What is service design without chronology? And when do our tools force us to misrepresent and misdirect? In this session, Kyle Godbey uses the Cynefin framework to show how the methods we rely on work beautifully for known, constrained, and measurable spaces—like airport security—but can fail us in more fluid, unpredictable, self-organizing spaces—like an airport atrium. If humans are complex, then human-centered design needs to better reflect that complexity. Kyle will share a set of new tools designed to complement traditional service design methods—tools that help teams work in and make sense of complex, ambiguous contexts, and find opportunities for innovation right where uncertainty lives.

Key Insights

  • Human systems are inherently complex adaptive systems where messiness and unpredictability are features, not bugs.

  • Traditional service design tools that rely on linear, ordered sequences struggle to represent complex, unconstrained human interactions.

  • The Cynefin framework helps differentiate domains of order (clear, complicated) from disorder (complex, chaotic), guiding appropriate design methods.

  • Emergence means whole-system properties cannot be reduced to the properties of individual parts, making prediction impossible but creativity possible.

  • Participatory sense-making involves creating spaces where people collectively discover and reframe their roles and agency, enabling systemic change.

  • Service designers are shifting from deliverers of solutions to facilitators, spacemakers, and guides in complexity navigation.

  • No single tool or process fits all complexity challenges; success requires mixing, adapting, and iterating tools contextually.

  • Storytelling methods like warm data and participatory narrative inquiry reveal multiple perspectives and affordances not captured by traditional metrics.

  • Understanding energy and constraints in systems helps identify where to intervene, amplify, or monitor relationships effectively.

  • Cultural context matters; complexity approaches are more readily embraced in places like Australia and Europe versus the US, requiring tailored communication.

Notable Quotes

"Complex adaptive system is the domain of humans. Humans are messy and we’re complex."

"When we’re released from constraints and enter into the airport atrium, we become free range humans self-organizing unpredictably."

"The right answer is, it depends. And for the sake of our tools we’re forced to make edits not knowing what nuance we lose."

"Chaos is brief. Humans are bad at existing without constraints. We impose or imagine them because we like constraints like gravity."

"Emergence is properties of a whole system not expressed in properties of parts. Water is liquid but hydrogen and oxygen atoms are not."

"It’s not about solving or fixing complexity. We’re making sense of it so we can operate in it."

"Service design fundamentals carry over nicely: pragmatism, evidence, building assets, and iterative relationships."

"No one size fits all solution in complexity. We have to work in context and be resourceful and repurpose tools."

"The role of the service designer shifts from design savior to facilitator, spacemaker, and guide."

"Navigating complexity is like sailing in open ocean. A GPS won’t help if you don’t know how to read wind and water."

Ask the Rosenbot
Zen Ren
Taking Inspiration from Instructional Design for Research
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Cheryl Platz
Merging Improv with Design
2019 • Enterprise Community
Jilanna Wilson
Distributed Design Operations Management
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold
Jon Fukuda
All the Ops: Successful cross-functional collaboration
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
Adam Cutler
Discussion
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Yolanda Rankin
Black Feminist Epistemology as a Critical Framework for Equitable Design
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Jack Moffett
UX Metrics That Matter and The Future of our Design at Scale Conference: A Community Conversation
2022 • Enterprise Community
Robin Beers
Beyond Insights: Researchers as Organizational Change Catalysts
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Megan Blocker
Panel: Excellence in Impact
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Dave Hoffer
UX Job Search AMA #2 with Joanne Weaver and Dave Hoffer
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Megan Blocker
A Selectively Scrappy Approach to ResearchOps
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
James Chudley
Decarbonising User Journeys: How minimising enables us to do more with less
2025 • Climate UX Interest Group
Theresa Marwah
How Atlassian is Operationalizing Respect in Research
2020 • Advancing Research Community
Uday Gajendar
Day 1 Welcome
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
David Conrad
The Feeling of Data
2023 • Enterprise Community
Erin Malone
Understanding the past to prepare for the future
2024 • Rosenfeld Community

More Videos

Peter Van Dijck

"The bot doesn’t summarize books because we’re a publisher and don’t want to cannibalize book sales—it points users to the original sources."

Peter Van Dijck Louis Rosenfeld

Coffee with Lou #4: Taking a Peek Under the Rosenbot's Hood

June 14, 2024

Alexandra Schmidt

"Policy is ideally driven by values, while UX in the private sector is driven by delight and profit."

Alexandra Schmidt

Why Ethics Can't Save Tech

November 18, 2022

Russ Unger

"If you really care about success, you define it first and hire against performance, not just experience."

Russ Unger

Onboarding: The Ecosystem, not the Afterthought

November 7, 2017

Ren Pope

"The best experiences I’ve had are where information architecture and user experience worked hand in hand."

Ren Pope

Building Experiences for Knowledge Systems

June 6, 2023

Feleesha Sterling

"Rapid research programs enable designers to submit research questions and feel empowered to participate actively in the research process."

Feleesha Sterling

Building a Rapid Research Program

May 18, 2023

Chloe Amos-Edkins

"Diverse research teams blend outsider and insider perspectives for authentic cultural translation."

Chloe Amos-Edkins

A Cultural Approach: Research in the Context of Glocalisation

March 27, 2023

Bria Alexander

"The program page has a time zone selector so everyone can attend sessions on their local time without confusion."

Bria Alexander

Opening Remarks

September 9, 2022

Stephanie Wade

"Moving fast into prototyping helps keep momentum going beyond the fun ideation phase to actual implementation."

Stephanie Wade

Building and Sustaining Design in Government

December 8, 2021

Ana Ferreira

"We document everything from product specs to implementation and design specs to prevent knowledge silos."

Ana Ferreira

Designing Distributed: Leading Doist’s Fully Remote Design Team in Six Countries

January 8, 2024