by Kate Tarling, a service design and organizational transformation expert who has worked with executives in global companies, public sector agencies, and nonprofits.
What’s in it for me?
How to tackle service design at scale.
If you’re trying to improve services across a large organization, most advice falls short. Guidance for one product or a single user journey doesn’t address the reality of dozens of teams running hundreds of interdependent services. Many organizations avoid the challenge or let services evolve with little deliberate design, mirroring the fragmented structure of the company. Yet there are practical ways to optimize at this scale: build the right scaffolding, focus on problem-solving, and address the root conditions within the organization. This book is a practical guide to that work.
Your organization is a service provider
Every large organization delivers services, even if they don’t see themselves that way yet. Services help people get things done—whether that’s paying a bill, applying for a license, or boarding a plane. Today, nearly every industry is moving toward a service model, but most big organizations weren’t built to deliver seamless experiences. Instead, services reflect internal divisions, making coordination and improvement difficult.
The real cost of poor service delivery is frustration for both users and staff. For example, when an airline’s internal booking systems don’t connect with catering or crew schedules, the result is delays and confusion, not just for customers but also for employees. Redesigning these services isn’t like updating a simple app—it means coordinating many systems across departments.
The starting point is to define your organization by the services it provides, not its internal hierarchy. Users care about outcomes—getting a mortgage, finding a doctor, or getting trash collected—not about your org chart. For example, NatWest reimagined its mortgage business as a home-buying service, bundling in steps customers care about.
A service should be defined by the outcome it delivers, with all steps and handoffs included. See your organization as a service provider first—everything else follows from there.
Define services from the outside in
Good service design starts from the user’s perspective, not the company’s. Instead of looking at internal processes, break a service into stages that matter to the user. For someone seeking a small business loan, their first stage is “I realize I need funding,” not “Fill out a form.” Mapping these stages lets you meet users where they are.
This approach means understanding the wider context. If you’re a florist, you’re part of the customer’s “getting married” journey—which involves venues, photography, and more. Seeing where your service fits reveals opportunities to improve the overall experience.
Dig into what’s hard for users and providers. Sometimes, problems stem from disconnected systems or mismatched goals—like a healthcare system tracking appointment volume but not patient satisfaction. Pinpoint these disconnects to drive real improvement.
Define what a good service looks like in plain terms: clear instructions, transparent timelines, reasonable processing times, and responsive support. These are the measures that matter to users, even if they don’t fit the usual internal metrics.
The “outside-in” view is the foundation for designing services that actually work for real people, not just for the org chart.
Track real metrics
Most organizations track internal metrics—how many forms processed, how fast a department works—rather than outcomes. This creates blind spots. For instance, a restaurant might track meals prepared and tables turned, but not whether diners return.
Track outcomes at three levels:
Policy intent: The bigger purpose, like “protect public health.”
Service: What the organization actually delivers (e.g., sick pay).
Service outcome: What users receive (e.g., prompt payment).
Once outcomes are defined, set clear indicators for what success looks like: timely delivery, low error rates, customer confidence, and effort required from users. Use research to find pain points—where people get stuck, quit, or get frustrated.
Go beyond satisfaction scores. Many people are “satisfied” simply because they expected bad service. Instead, measure what users expected going in and how confident they feel afterward.
Avoid optimizing processes that shouldn’t exist. Sometimes, the best fix is to eliminate a step entirely—like ditching paper forms for a simple online submission.
When you focus on real outcomes, you can see clearly where your service succeeds or fails.
Set a service strategy
Your service strategy should clarify what your organization is trying to achieve, how you’ll do it, and what guides decisions along the way.
There are four main parts:
State the job of the service: Articulate a clear outcome, such as “a tax system that helps people pay the right tax easily.”
Set driving principles: Use principles to resolve conflicts and focus effort. For example, “Pay people now so they stay home during a pandemic,” or, “Reduce permit times from three weeks to two days in five years.”
Choose a practical approach: Don’t try to do everything at once. Start small—launch a basic version for a limited user group, learn from real feedback, and scale up.
Create a clear narrative: Communicate the plan and rationale across the organization. Be transparent about priorities, like, “This year we’ll focus on piloting with 100 users, not scaling tech.”
With these elements, your strategy becomes a living tool for alignment and improvement, not just a document.
Organize teams around services
Most organizations are set up in silos, with teams responsible for pieces of a process rather than the whole service. This leads to gaps, duplication, and poor experiences.
Instead, structure teams around services.
Service teams focus on improving the user experience.
Depth teams solve tough, specialized problems—like integration or advanced research.
Capability teams provide shared tools, such as payment systems or authentication.
Enabling teams remove roadblocks, handle procurement, or manage compliance.
Coordinating teams link efforts across functions.
Operational teams maintain daily quality and feedback loops.
Set clear principles for how teams work together. For example, “Hands-on delivery, not just consulting.” When teams understand both their role and how it connects to the whole, they make better decisions and deliver better results.
This isn’t about reorganizing boxes; it’s about changing how value gets delivered.
Plan for change
Rigid plans break down in real organizations. The key is to plan for learning and adjustment.
Start with a “wrong plan”—a rough outline that works backward from the desired outcome, with loose phases instead of firm deadlines. For a government benefits overhaul, that might mean: map user pain points, prototype a new process, test with a small group, then expand.
Identify what you need to learn, then create short learning cycles. Shadow users, interview staff, and test prototypes before rolling out big changes.
Find obstacles early—regulatory hurdles, tech constraints, security requirements—so you can work around them before they derail progress.
Start with a pilot. Try new ways with one team or a single customer problem, see what works, and scale up based on real evidence.
Involve the people closest to the service. The staff who run daily operations should help design and test changes. Their input makes the result practical, not just theoretical.
An adaptable, learning-oriented approach keeps improvement moving and avoids the pitfalls of rigid, one-time transformations.
In short:
To improve services in large organizations, define them from the user’s perspective, track real outcomes, organize teams around the whole service, and plan to adapt as you go. Success depends on practical strategies, clear principles, and tight collaboration across specialized teams that understand both their piece and the bigger picture.
Share this post