Skip to content

Service Design

Amplifying the best version of your service’s potential

Great products alone don’t create great services and experiences that excel. Software is there to multiply the effects of your processes and most of what a product does happens outside the product itself.

The workflows people follow to use it, the systems it exchanges information with, the decisions that keep everything moving at the pace the business needs. Those pieces are what let a product deliver against the outcomes it was built for, or quietly hold it back from ever getting there.

This is the backstage of the product. It is where a lot of the value a good product could be creating either flows through or stalls. Get the workflows sharp, the systems talking properly, and the decisions happening at the right level, and the product tends to deliver what it was designed to. Leave those pieces to sort themselves out, and even a well-built product ends up carrying weight it should not have to.

Where we come in is making sure the backstage keeps up with the product. Clean workflows, connected systems, and decision-making that moves at the pace the operation needs, all built into how your teams already work rather than layered on top of them.

Case Studies

Service design dashboard on a desktop monitor, showing an end-to-end service brought together in one view
→
Nursdoc

Turning timesheet admin into a retention tool for a healthcare staffing group
Connells Group's custom sales platform on an iPad, an example of Sonin taking digital products from idea to impact
→
Connells Group

Helping the UK’s largest estate agency network unite 1,200 branches and 80 brands on one nationally proven platform, without disrupting agents’ day-to-day work.
Construction worker using a mobile app on site, an example of service design for frontline teams
→
Checkmate Insurance

Helping Checkmate transform on-site inspections and mitigate their risk

Our Approach

How we work

A proper read of the operation as it stands today is where the work begins, how work moves between teams, where the friction sits from inside the doing rather than from above, and where the biggest openings to sharpen the machinery are. From there the work moves across three connected areas, the workflows and processes people follow, the systems and operations underneath them, and the governance that keeps decisions moving at the right pace.

How we work

Diagnostics

Before anything else, we spend time understanding where the operation around your product stands and where the biggest opportunities to sharpen it sit. That means looking at how work moves between teams, what the operational processes look like in practice versus how they are documented, where the systems are and are not talking to each other, and where decisions are happening quickly enough to keep the product moving. We speak to the people running the operation and the people relying on it, because those two perspectives together give us the fullest picture. Where it helps, we spend time on site watching real work happen, because what people do on a Tuesday afternoon is almost always more revealing than what the process document says they should. What comes out of it is a clear read of where the operation is strongest, where it has room to grow, and a focused plan for where to put the effort next.

Diagnostics

Process Optimisation and Alignment

The workflows and processes around a product are what convert its capabilities into something the business can deliver against. We work with your internal team to map the workflows and processes that sit behind your product, spot where hand-offs between teams have room to be cleaner or sharper, and set out the roles, responsibilities and dependencies so everyone can see their part in the chain. Where redesign helps, we reshape those workflows with you so each team can see how their work connects to the wider product or service delivery. The tangible output is a set of service blueprints mapping the end-to-end processes and touchpoints, role and responsibility matrices, and process documentation for the hand-offs and dependencies that keeps the operation running cleanly.

Process Optimisation and Alignment

Systems and Operations

When your systems and tools are talking to each other well, information moves through the business at the pace the product needs. We work with your internal team to connect the tools you already use so data flows between them without gaps or duplication, put real time monitoring in place so you can see what is happening across your operations day to day, and set up the processes that catch issues early and turn each one into a lesson the teams learn from rather than a problem that keeps repeating. What you have to hand is a set of data flow diagrams showing how information moves through your systems, performance metrics and KPI definitions for operational health, and the incident management processes that keep the operation moving even when something goes wrong.

Systems and Operations

Governance

Decisions are what keep a product moving forward, and clear decision-making is what keeps them happening at the pace the product needs. We work with your internal team to set out who makes which decisions, what information they need to make them well, and how issues escalate cleanly when they need attention at a different level. Where competing priorities or unclear ownership are slowing teams down, we work with you to remove the blockers so decisions land at the right level and at the right pace. What sits with your teams after the work is a set of decision-making frameworks and governance structures, RACI matrices clarifying roles in decision-making, escalation protocols, and the decision logs and audit trails that keep the operation both accountable and moving.

Governance
“

Their advice was amazing. What was most impressive though was how they communicated it. They explained every decision in detail. This meant we built our own understanding of product strategy and management instead of just implementing their suggestions.

CEO – No1 Rated Health & Fitness App

Ways we can help

Every business is different. The way we work reflects what you need from a partnership and evolves over time in line with what you need to meet your objectives

Consulting

The right thinking, without the build Helping provide insights, expertise from across the industry and an independent point of view. Ideal for when you have in house capability but need guidance and new opinions. We bring the strategy, expertise and objectivity to solve a specific challenge or shape what’s next.

Product Teams

Everything you need to Build the Right Product. Our own dedicated teams set up to deliver your product end-to-end. Pre-built, high performing with the perfect mix of capabilities for your product. There to deliver the right outcomes from strategy through build to growth and adoption, bringing everything needed to deliver the right result

Embedded Teams

Our people, your team, one goal Our specialists join your team and work as one of you, embedded in your processes, your tools and your goals. Ideal for bringing in additional pace to an existing team, or adding complementary expertise into your delivery teams

Managed Teams

A dedicated team, without the overheads A dedicated team working on your behalf. Delivering the output of a high-performance agency team, with the benefits of a full in-house capability – and all without the overhead of managing it.

Product Audit

Product Audit

If your digital product isn’t meeting expectations, you need to understand why. More importantly, you need to understand where to start.

Find out more
Designers mapping app screens on a whiteboard for the next era of interfaces

Product Discovery

Make sure you’re building the right product. The biggest risk to delivering on your businesses objectives isn’t the build of the product, it’s building the wrong product.

Find out more
Team reviewing printed charts, navigating the path to digital success

R&D Projects

Make sure you’re investing your time and money in the right technology that’s going to deliver the results you and your users need it to.

Find out more
Data & Analytics

Data & Analytics

Turn the data your business and products generate into decisions, direction and exceptional experiences.

Find out more

Related Insights

View All Insights