Playlist · 12 videos
Implementation and delivery
Resources on execution discipline, coordination, and the challenges of making change work in practice.
Open playlistThematic hub · 24 connected resources
Implementation: bring ideas into real services.
Designing a proposition is only part of the work. Implementation calls for coordination, decisions, learning, and attention to the context in which the service operates.
The central idea
Change happens within existing systems.
Plans encounter rules, dependencies, capabilities, and competing interests. This hub brings together perspectives to prepare for implementation, observe what happens, and adjust course responsibly.
Level 02 · Practice
Related methods
Choose a method based on the question you need to answer and what you still need to learn.
01
B2B interviews
One-to-one interviews with business customers, suppliers, experts, or the client’s stakeholders.
View method →02Participant observation (shadowing)
Spend several hours or a day alongside someone in their natural setting, observing what they do.
View method →03Participation (becoming the user)
The researcher or client takes on the user’s role: acting as a mystery shopper, working as a new employee, or simulating a user’s circumstances when they cannot experience them directly.
View method →04Service safaris
Participants—often members of the client team—experience other services for several hours or a day, alone or in groups, without the design team accompanying them.
View method →05Roadmap
A visual plan of stages, decisions, dependencies, and milestones for moving a solution forward.
View method →06Resource assessment
Identify what is needed to operate the solution and which gaps still need to be addressed.
View method →07Build partnerships
Form alliances with organizations and people who can increase the capacity to make the solution work.
View method →08Assemble the project team
Adapt the team’s composition, capabilities, and responsibilities for the implementation phase.
View method →09Funding strategy
Plan how to secure the resources needed to launch and initially sustain the solution.
View method →10Live prototyping
Test a solution in real-world conditions with a controlled scope and duration.
View method →11Pilot
A sustained, limited operation that tests the solution as a complete system.
View method →12Gather feedback
Put an idea or prototype in front of the right people and turn their responses into the next learning steps.
View method →Watch
Playlist · 8 videos
Change management
Resources for turning intent into coordinated change, with attention to behavior, buy-in, and implementation.
Open playlistBooks to support implementation
Advanced
The Service Profit Chain
Connects internal service quality, employee experience, perceived value, loyalty, and business results. Particularly useful when making the case that services depend on an organizational system, not just touchpoints.
View in the library →
Intermediate
The Nordstrom Way
Examines the culture, autonomy, and relationship practices associated with Nordstrom's customer service. It is a case study in how service principles need to be supported by hiring, management, and internal routines.
View in the library →Implementation is also a way to learn.
As you move forward, observe how responsibilities, operating conditions, and decisions interact—and what adjustments become necessary.
Continue with Systems8 related publications