Summary
Service designers can struggle to define our impact in complex organizations. This resistance can emerge because service design involves delving into root issues and encouraging transformative change. This approach can feel overwhelming or even unwelcome in environments unprepared for deep shifts; at other times, the problems are so tangled and complex that progress can feel elusive, leaving service designers questioning our own impact. In these cases, the key to impactful work lies in a subtler approach: creating conditions for connection and growth rather than pushing direct solutions. Inspired by the roles of therapists, coaches, and grandmas, this talk explores three techniques for “bringing the dots closer together” within complex systems. By holding space, mirroring insights, and gently reframing perspectives, service designers can guide organizations toward meaningful change while honoring their pace and readiness. Let's meet organizations where they are with understanding, trust, and gradual transformation!
Key Insights
-
•
Service designers often struggle with connecting dots in complex, siloed, and matrixed organizations.
-
•
Instead of connecting dots for teams, service designers should focus on bringing the dots closer together by creating conducive conditions.
-
•
Therapists, coaches, and grandmas serve as metaphors for creating environments for reflection, motivation, and grounding in service design.
-
•
Creating and holding space means dedicating intentional, time-boxed moments for teams to reflect and explore ideas safely.
-
•
Provoking and reframing perspective can shift team mindsets by introducing playful, surprising, or inspirational activities.
-
•
Mirroring and visualizing content lowers barriers by capturing messy, unpolished team input in familiar formats, encouraging authentic engagement.
-
•
Using ordinary tools like Word or Excel for note-taking can be more inclusive than traditional colorful service design templates for some teams.
-
•
Applying different approaches depending on team context—whether more coach-like, therapist-like, or grandma-like—requires situational finesse.
-
•
Holding office hours as low-pressure collaboration times addresses the lack of natural informal interactions in remote or hybrid teams.
-
•
Design debt can be thought of as ecosystem friction where unaddressed connections cause team stalling, needing active attention.
Notable Quotes
"Service designers connect the dots, which represent elements, teams, processes, policies, and customer needs that all must align."
"In large complex systems, the dots are scattered across silos and time zones, making progress feel elusive."
"Service design is 10% connecting the dots and 90% creating the conditions that bring those dots closer together."
"Therapists create space for clients to reflect and discover insights in a safe environment."
"Coaches organize practices or drills to push players toward specific goals and improvement."
"Grandmas provide grounding, resilience, and long-term perspective often through rituals and storytelling."
"Creating and holding space is like putting bumpers up in bowling so people know they won’t fail if they engage."
"Provoking and reframing perspective helps teams get unstuck by thinking in new and surprising ways."
"Mirroring content by repeating back what people say helps them understand their own ideas better."
"Taking ugly notes together without worrying about making things pretty lowers barriers and increases engagement."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"A model is a simplified representation of a system, whether in math or UX."
Scott PlewesWhy Isn't Your UX Approach Going Viral?: A Mathematical Model
March 28, 2023
"Design operations is really about how we’re scaling the work, thinking our practices, and serving cross-functional teams."
Alison Rand Sarah BrooksScaling Impact with Service Design
March 25, 2021
"Moral injury is not just about witnessing harm; it's the inner knowing that you might also be complicit in producing it."
Rachael Dietkus, LCSWThe power to heal and harm
March 13, 2025
"Optimizing something for ease of use does not mean best for the user or humanity."
Sheryl CababaLiving in the Clouds: Adopting a Systems Thinking Mindset
June 6, 2023
"I think the world we’re in is definitely not antagonistic to research, there’s a huge opportunity right now."
Renee BouwensLanding Product Impact: Aligning Research as a Foundational Driver for Delivering the World’s Best Products
December 15, 2023
"We’re always taking suggestions for new apps to add to the tools map for later iterations."
JP Allen Holly HoldenNavigating the UX Tools Landscape
October 1, 2021
"If you have a question for a speaker, put it in the thread for their talk, not in the general chat."
Bria AlexanderOpening Remarks
November 18, 2022
"Blurring user faces loses context and doesn’t address voice privacy, making it an inadequate solution."
Llewyn Paine[Demo] Deploying AI doppelgangers to de-identify user research recordings
June 5, 2024
"Cluster analysis will definitely replace personas, the fictional personas of course."
Ricardo MartinsUnlocking the power of advanced quantitative methods
March 12, 2025