Why Good Design FALLS FLAT And How To Fix That / Brad Alphonso / Ep. #228

Why does doing good service design often feel like an uphill battle...

Okay, I'm on a mission this year to find the best recipe for BBQ Chicken Wings (recommendations are welcome, by the way).

Over the weekend, I was experimenting with a new one (I'd give it an 8.5/10), and then it struck me.

I can have the most delicious recipe, but if my guests turn out to be vegetarian, we spontaneously decide to go out for dinner, or the kids are just tired of eating chicken again, it won't matter.

No one will appreciate my tasty chicken wings, no matter how hard I try.

And obviously, the problem isn't with the recipe itself.

Well, you might be surprised how often this exact scenario plays out in our work in service design.

We pour our hearts and souls into crafting solutions that should create a positive impact on users and our organizations.

Yet, somehow, a lot (maybe most?) of these well-designed solutions never actually see the light of day.

Is it because they are bad solutions? Assuming you know what you're doing, most likely not.

So, there must be something else going on. Are there other critical success factors (like knowing your guests are vegetarian) that we tend to overlook when we're so focused on perfecting the "recipe"?

It turns out there are (which probably isn't a huge surprise to many of us).

So what are these other success factors?

And most importantly, how do we understand them and maybe even turn them in our favour?

That's what we discuss in this episode with our returning guest, Brad Alphonso.

Brad has led numerous service design initiatives from the initial idea all the way through to implementation inside a large, regulated, and pretty complex organization.

He's open about the fact that not all of these initiatives had the impact he hoped for, but over the years, his success rate has gone up significantly.

In this episode, we look back and reflect: Was it luck? Was there a magic breakthrough, or did the 'game' itself change somehow for him?

So if you want to move the needle with your work, instead of it feeling like a constant struggle, this episode offers important clues – around understanding your organisation's real momentum and how decisions actually get made – that could help you navigate much more effectively.

This conversation made me reflect on the fact that I see so many talented service design "players" out there. And I do wonder how many of us are, at times, playing the wrong game... let's try not to be that person.

Keep making a positive impact!

Take care,

~ Marc

--- [ 1. GUIDE ] ---

00:00 Welcome to Episode 228

04:00 Brad's hopes for the conversation

06:00 Challenges in Brad's role

09:30 Business challenges

11:00 What gives teams headaches

13:00 Service design definition

15:00 Current operating systems

20:30 Importance of service design

24:45 Problem ownership

27:00 Alternative O.S. for solving wicked problems

30:00 Types of tools used

32:00 Strategy document examples

33:00 Three questions to ask your CFO

34:30 What is "good enough"?

36:30 Observing changes in your work

39:45 Tools for clarifying the operating system

42:00 Avoiding naivety

45:00 Winning the 'game' as a toolkit

47:00 What are we missing?

49:00 Obvious next steps - idea to inception

53:00 Why some projects fail

55:00 Pitfall perspective - pre-mortem activity

56:30 Summary of the Alternative O.S.

58:00 Question to ponder

--- [ 2. LINKS ] ---

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-alphonso

--- [ 3. CIRCLE ] ---

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