Service Design in Practice

Understanding complexity, shaping services and enabling transformation

Opening perspective

Service Design is not simply about improving customer journeys. At its best, it helps organisations understand complex problems, challenge assumptions and make better decisions about how services should work. Throughout my career, I've used Service Design to connect customer needs with operational realities, technological possibilities and business priorities.

The three examples below illustrate different ways of working — from collaborative discovery and prototyping to service economics and rapid experimentation. What connects them is the use of evidence and multidisciplinary collaboration to turn complexity into practical decisions and meaningful improvements.

Case National Grid ESO

TRADING EXPERIENCE INNOVATION

Making sense of a complex energy ecosystem through collaborative design and prototyping.

Challenge

National Grid ESO was preparing to modernise its electricity trading platform to support an evolving energy market and the transition towards renewable energy. The challenge was to understand the needs of diverse market participants, reconcile competing requirements and establish a shared direction for future trading services.

My contribution

I led the strategic design engagement, personally facilitating departmental and organisation-wide workshops with ESO stakeholders. Working alongside a senior user researcher who conducted interviews with external organisations, business partners, customers and wider market representatives, I led the synthesis of requirements into a shared understanding of the trading ecosystem and its priorities.

Design approach

We combined external user research, internal stakeholder workshops and requirements synthesis to identify common needs, tensions and opportunities across the ecosystem. We then developed four interactive service prototypes, designed for mobile access so that participants could explore proposed services independently and provide feedback. This allowed us to test potential experiences with diverse B2B users while making the implications of different service approaches more tangible.

National Grid ESO | Methods and practices

• Stakeholder interviews and collaborative workshops
• Requirements clustering and synthesis
• Experience design and interactive prototyping
• B2B user testing and feedback

Decisions influenced

ESO had already identified potential priority services based on customer relevance and existing pain points. The prototypes provided an additional perspective, helping stakeholders examine financial and technical implications, identify gaps and consider operational feasibility alongside user desirability. Together, these insights informed the final prioritisation decisions and the direction of future service development.

Outcomes

The engagement brought together perspectives from more than 30 industry stakeholders and enabled four priority services to be prototyped and tested, informing the future direction of the trading platform. The services progressed into operational use in November 2023.

Case Zurich Insurance

CUSTOMER EMPOWERMENT

Connecting customer research, service economics and AI-enabled design to rethink customer services.

Challenge

Zurich's customer service operation was facing rising contact volumes and declining service levels. Repetitive policy enquiries were consuming operational capacity, limiting the attention available for complex cases and vulnerable customers. The challenge was to improve efficiency without compromising the clarity, confidence and human support customers expected from an insurance provider.

My contribution

I led Capita's consulting team in shaping Zurich's customer experience and AI-enabled service transformation. I personally planned the research strategy, participated in operational data analysis and spent time shadowing customer service agents to observe real customer interactions. I also developed the Experience Economics framework that helped translate research and operational insights into investment priorities.

Design approach

We combined operational analytics with direct observation of customer-agent interactions to understand recurring enquiries, customer behaviour and the sources of service demand. Through stakeholder workshops, journey mapping and service blueprinting, we explored opportunities to simplify interactions, improve service flows and introduce AI-enabled self-service. We then developed detailed prototypes for the most promising functionalities, enabling further exploration before full development.

Zurich Insurance | Methods and practices

• Customer-agent shadowing and operational research
• Customer journey mapping and service blueprinting
• Experience Economics modelling
• Functional prototyping and use-case evaluation

Decisions influenced

I developed the Experience Economics framework to help identify where service redesign could create the greatest operational value. We initially prioritised use cases associated with the highest contact volumes and handling costs. A second assessment considered technical feasibility and operational complexity, narrowing the options to four high-value self-service opportunities. This evidence informed decisions about future service functionality, automation priorities and the operational changes needed to support implementation.

Outcomes

The resulting transformation contributed to more effective digital self-service and increased operational capacity for complex customer needs. The wider programme contributed to doubling agent productivity and achieving a customer NPS of +82.

Case Lloyds Banking Group

YOUTH ONBOARDING

Using customer evidence and rapid experimentation to improve a troubled digital onboarding journey.

Challenge

Lloyds was experiencing difficulties with digital onboarding for younger customers during an active marketing campaign. Technical difficulties in the identity-verification process, combined with successive workarounds, had made the onboarding journey increasingly long and confusing for children and parents, generating complaints and additional service demand. With the campaign still running, the business needed practical improvements that could be introduced quickly, without waiting for the underlying technical issues to be fully resolved.

My contribution

I led the Service Design team's investigation and prioritisation work, combining direct problem-framing and stakeholder facilitation with the leadership of designers and researchers. Working across business, product, technology and operations, I helped shift the discussion from technical remediation alone towards the wider customer experience and service consequences.

Design approach

We combined contact-centre data with customer interviews to understand where customers were struggling and why they were seeking assistance. Interviews with branch managers added another perspective, revealing complaints from parents and helping us understand how successive workarounds had made the journey more difficult to navigate. Given the urgency, we deliberately prioritised evidence gathering, collaborative problem-solving and rapid experimentation over producing extensive design documentation. The team tested a combination of revised customer communications, contextual guidance and previously deferred improvements to the onboarding flow.

Youth Onboarding | Methods and practices

• Contact-centre analysis and customer interviews
• Branch-manager interviews and operational insights
• Collaborative problem framing and prioritisation
• Rapid experimentation and performance evaluation

Decisions influenced

The evidence helped the business recognise that resolving the identity verification platform's technical issues would not, by itself, address all the friction customers were experiencing. It supported a shift towards improving the end-to-end journey, including changes that had previously been deferred until the marketing campaign ended. The results of the initial experiments helped secure further investment and encouraged a broader view of onboarding performance, extending beyond account opening towards activation and actual usage.

Outcomes

The initial test achieved a 20% improvement in conversion and a 31% reduction in related customer calls. More broadly, the engagement demonstrated how targeted, evidence-led service improvements could address immediate customer difficulties while longer-term technical remediation continued.

Closing reflection

These experiences have reinforced my belief that Service Design is as much about improving the quality of decisions as it is about designing services. Different challenges call for different approaches. Sometimes the value comes from making a complex ecosystem understandable. Sometimes it comes from connecting customer needs with the economics of service delivery. And sometimes it means moving quickly, using just enough evidence to challenge assumptions and identify a practical way forward.

What matters is choosing the methods that help people understand the problem, make informed decisions and act. For me, this is where Service Design becomes particularly valuable: not as a discipline operating in isolation, but as an integral part of business transformation and performance improvement.