A Beacon in Uncertainty: A Manager's Guide Part Two - Designing Your Offerings

It's possible to thrive in uncertainty if you know how.

The word 'thrive' evokes energy, confidence, good health, and a positive mindset. It doesn't just happen for some people and not others. We can all thrive, even in the most challenging conditions, but it requires that we be nimble and adaptive, open to continuous learning, and willing to let go when the moment calls for it. Most of all, it calls for courage.

We're seeking a way to work from a consistent basis that at the same time, allows us to design services that meet a broad variety of constantly evolving needs and expectations.

What is courageous for one person is different from what it is for another, and what it takes to attain it is also different. So it is with our prospects, customers, and service users. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to designing and delivering the services our programs offer. Instead we're seeking to work from a consistent basis that at the same time, allows us to design services that meet a broad variety of constantly evolving needs and expectations. This is especially true when circumstances are ambiguous, complex, or uncertain.

One of my favorite design models is Roger Martin 's Knowledge Funnel. It's an oldie but a goodie.

The consistent and unconditional nature of our task when designing our offerings is to move concepts through this funnel—from vague requests and expectations through a consistent set of actions that yield outcomes that always delight our users. We need to do it in an adaptable way that feels customized and personal and doesn't burn out our teams.

We're playing with a limited set of resources tightly constrained in environments highly susceptible to change.

This is not a small ask, so we need a different way of looking at it. We're not taking the straight-up "How to" approach to designing our program offerings here. This approach assumes the team already uses some basic design thinking techniques. Instead, we're taking a more 'sorting' approach to things. We're playing with a limited set of resources tightly constrained in environments highly susceptible to change. So concepts like being assertive, seeking balance, and being realistic about expectations play as big a role as any design method we may use. Intention plays a bigger role than method in these situations.

This post looks at things to consider when designing services that delight users in environments that experience constant change in any number of ways and at every level of an organization.

Below are the key considerations for Designing Offerings in highly dynamic environments.

Designing Offerings - The Big Questions

·????? What are your design principles?

·????? What type of innovation are you enabling?

·????? What type of services are you providing?

·????? How do users determine which service to use?

·????? How do you build value for everyone?

·????? How do you avoid burnout?

·????? Where can your users find out about your full range of services?

(This is the TL/DR - next follows an introductory description of each.)

What are your design principles?

Design principles guide you when making important decisions impacting your program. These principles matter to you and your team as you design your services.

What type of innovation are you enabling?

Let’s bring the term innovation out of the ivory tower. The truth is that everyone is innovating. There are three ‘horizons’ of innovation, and they translate roughly to this:

1.???? The problem is known, and the viable solutions are known (productivity);

2.???? The problem is known, and the viable solutions are not yet known (transformation);

3.???? Neither the problem nor the solutions are yet known (futures).

Understanding which ‘horizon’ of innovation your work supports is essential for setting realistic expectations around potential outcomes, metrics, and other fundamental commitments.

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What types of services are you providing?

Think of this as a three-dimensional object where the dimensions are:

-?????? The function of the service itself;

-?????? It’s classification within a broader catalog of services;

-?????? The medium in which it’s offered (in-person, online, through an intermediary, etc.)

Design the service type to meet the expectations of the users.

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How do users determine which service to use?

One of your core tasks is to help your users to choose which service best meets their needs. If it’s a service you design for them, then a set of good progressive questions will help you understand how to do so. You’ll want to build a decision tree if it’s a self-service or online tool. It acts as a funnel that helps users select options that present a logical set of follow-on questions that define the service they need you to provide.

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How do you build value for everyone?

This is the function of co-creation. Rather than trying to rally everyone around a single perspective, it’s how you design something that builds on the diversity of thoughts and perspectives in a group to generate value for everyone. You really can achieve a win-win-win: wins for individuals, wins for the group, and wins for the organization.

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How do you avoid burnout?

Burnout occurs when reality and expectations are not aligned. To prevent burnout, it's essential to maintain a sustainable balance between your commitments, the requirements to fulfill them, and the resources available to you. You don't have to possess all these resources in your program if you can broker the outcomes between your stakeholders instead of personally executing them. This can be determined through the elements of your strategy, which were discussed in Part One of this series.

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Where can users find out about your range of services?

Create a central source of information on your program's full range of services. This will provide real-time information on the services you can offer and simplify your users’ experience, especially if they can configure their own service from a list of your available resources.

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Expectations and your capacity to meet them are central to designing flexible programs.

In the previous post (Part One) on Strategy, we covered two essential themes for designing effective and compelling offerings. Those are:

-?????? State your strategy clearly;

-?????? State your intention and outcomes clearly.

A program that meets user expectations but drives the team to exhaustion is not sustainable.

The foundational pillar of designing offerings that meet expectations and deliver value for everyone is achieving the balance needed to avoid burnout. A program that meets user expectations but drives the team to exhaustion is not sustainable. So, maintaining a balance between expectations and capacity is the key ingredient in designing effective offerings. Again, these principles are both timeless and unconditional. As your business needs pivot, these actions will facilitate balance even in the most dynamic of circumstances.

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Let's Chat!

I’d love to hear what you think about these or run through a scenario to see how they can help you sort through and simplify your situation.

I have a live bibliography that supports this. If you’re interested in the recommended reading, please send me a note. I’d happily share the people and resources I find most useful.

The final post in this series will look at:

-?????? Designing for Streamlined Operations

As always, thank you for reading.

John