Service Design
We help our clients design services that work in the real world. Services that reflect operational pressures, policy constraints and frontline realities.
Services often get designed around systems, structures or policy rather than around the people who use and deliver them resulting in confusion for customers and staff.
Our approach is practical and evidence led. We start with what customers and staff actually experience by building a clear picture of what’s happening today. We then co-design improvements that are deliverable and sustainable to run. We align to GDS principles and the Double Diamond bringing structure without slowing things down.
We see Service Design as delivering value to customers, reducing risk, building shared clarity and giving leaders the confidence to make informed decisions before committing investment.
The Team
Our Service Design team brings experience in user-centred design, operational improvement, digital delivery and change. We work alongside you and your teams to create services that are clear, simple and easy to operate.
We work hand-in-hand with clients to design services that work in the real world. Services that reflect operational pressures, policy constraints and frontline realities, not just processes written on paper.
What’s on your mind?
- Do you know something isn’t working, but you’re not yet clear what the real problem is?
- Are customers struggling to navigate your service?
- Are frontline teams relying on workarounds to get things done?
- Do journeys cut across multiple teams, making improvement difficult?
- Are you trying to improve your operating model while maintaining compliance and service continuity?
How can we help?
We support service design from early discovery through to implementation and improvement.
Understand what’s really happening: We build a complete view of the current service built from user research, operational insight and performance data. We use this view to identify pain points, risks and opportunities and from there support evidence-based decision-making.
Design the whole service: We design end-to-end services and operating models not just standalone fixes. Processes, Roles, Controls, Policy constraints, Assisted Routes and Technology all feed into a service designed to deliver meaingful outcomes for customers and better ways of working for staff.
Test before you commit: We prototype and test ideas early. This reduces the risk of investing in solutions that won’t work in practice. It also ensures accessibility, inclusion and operational feasibility are considered from the start. Together, this provides the evidence needed to enable informed decisions about the way forward.
Connect design to delivery: We link service design directly to requirements, business cases, procurement and change activity. In this way, the design maps a direct route to implementation.
Build internal capability: We build confidence in teams through learning from user insight, running co-design sessions and applying service design principles in their own work so that this capability gets properly embedded in the organisation.
A snapshot of some of our clients
Tamworth Borough Council
A collaborative design of a new operating model and accompanying organisational structure for the Council
RSPCA
The redesign of ways of working to support improving the volunteer experience and embedding collaboration and partnership across the branch network
London Borough of Enfield
The creation of a new service model for the Building Control service to align to statutory requirements and improve the customer experience
Circle Voluntary Housing Association
The co-design of new operational processes and embedding digital change
Kings College London
An end-to-end review of estates services to meet the needs of students and visitors