The document discusses how organizations can become more user-centered through conscious design decisions at all levels of the organization. It argues that having designers alone does not make an organization user-centered, and that unconscious design decisions can negatively impact users. The author advocates for increasing design literacy throughout organizations and taking a test-and-learn approach to strategy to align an organization's strategic imagination and better serve people's needs.
3. 3
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
We have
unconsciously
designed complex,
broken and hard to
use services
4. 4
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
“I spend most of my working day
typing and inputting services
plans, filing, etc., all admin
tasks.”
The British Association of Social Workers and Social Workers Union
5. 5
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
No one woke up in the morning
and thought - I’m going to
design a terrible service or
social care system
6. Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
Every organisation
is a collection of
micro design
decisions, made on
a daily basis that
form our user
experience
9. 9
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
Unconscious
design costs us
people
We have created systems that don’t solve
problems. They create more work, cost
us more to run and take us away from the
frontline
10. Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
You can have the best design ops, tools,
designers and funding in the world but
the user experience can still be terrible
12. 12
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
We all have the ability to make conscious
design decision that aid users
If our systems are to work we have to
learn how to consciously design together
13. 13
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
Services are made of 1000s of design
decisions before we even get to the point
of designing the 'user experience’
16. 16
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
The infrastructure
Systems and technology
Data
The service
The user experience
Business processes
The organisation and system
Governance, finance and
resources, procurement
Organisational structure
Skills and roles
Culture and power
The intent
Measurement and incentives
Business Model
Policy
Mission, values and ethics
18. 18
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
“Some places are
14 days: if they have 30 then
that would make me more
likely to return.”
Customer
User Research, Supermarket chain
30. 30
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
What do people need?
Reduce anxiety
Clarify waiting times
Encourage online bookings
31. 31
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
Creating Prototypes
We tested changes to the
website, text appointment
message copy, implementing
a new booking system…
32. 32
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
+800
people
entering
treatment
each month
+30%
Increase in
appointment
booking
-25%
Decrease in
people who
are
discharged
and never
book an
appointment
34. 34
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
Our charity strategy
is ambitious and
requires deep shifts
in our organisation
https://www.wearewithyou.org.uk/about-us/our-strategy/
35. 35
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
We are embedding a
test and learn approach
inside the organisation
to develop our strategy
45. 45
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
Our service users said
negative attitudes,
language and feeling
labelled are massive
problems for them in
their day to day lives
46. 46
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
‘I’m a drinker not a drug-taker’
Service users
Addaction
‘It can be off-putting if people feel like this is for
people with depression or addiction, and they don’t
know for sure what they are.’
47. 47
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
Service users say our
staff counteract this
in our services
treating them with
compassion and
respect
48. 48
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
Overall our service
users used the words
warm, non-
judgemental,
motivating,
supportive and
person-centred
49. 49
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
‘It has been a good experience because the
Addaction worker. She’s the only worker that’s been
there for me.’
Service users
Addaction
‘Other places made me feel like a number, here it was
about me’
53. 53
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
Warm
Reassuring Human
Approachable Non-judgemental
Supportive
Personalised
54. People told us they are
3x more likely
to feel comfortable getting support from
we are
55. Our new name and
everyday approach to
language reassures people
who need different levels of
support for different issues
that it’s ok to reach out.
worried about your drinking?
we are
need to talk?
we are
62. Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
62
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
The re-brand has
thrust us from a
commissioner based
model into a blended
‘B2C’ model
63. What are our services?
How do we make money?
How do we reach users?
Who are our users?
What data do we need to collect?
What does ‘good’ look like?
What is our service model?
What skills do we need for the future?
We are testing
our way through
these strategic
questions
64. Change is hard and calls
for a shared strategic
imagination
65. 65
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
“Strategy is locked to its context: it is
formulated in response to a specific
landscape of perceived opportunity.
Nonetheless, broad concepts, often
unrecognised but shared by large
numbers of people, guide strategies’
formulation”
Rival (Ben and Marta)
66. 66
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
“The surest, most lethal killer of strategic
imagination is being reined in by
orthodoxy: thinking that tomorrow must
be like yesterday.”
Umair Haque
67. 67
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
“Every organisation
must be prepared to
abandon everything it
does to survive the
future.”
Peter Drucker
68. 68
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
The imagination
gap is the biggest
challenge to an
aligned strategic
vision
70. “Why did you not
deliver things?
We spent too long
making strategies and
not enough making”
71. 71
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
Strategy starts before ‘design’ but
continues with designing
We make in order to deliver the strategy,
but we need to take the strategic role of
what we’re making seriously
73. 73
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
10% of our work is ideas
90% of design is bringing people on the
journey to agree with you and we can do
that through open making
74.
75.
76. 76
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
We all have a role in consciously
designing services beyond the design or
customer experience team
78. 78
Build Strategic Imagination
Sarah Drummond – CEO, Snook
@rufflemuffin
Conscious design
decisions at all
levels
Increase literacy in
good design
Aligned strategic
imagination
An organisation that
test and learns
Better services and
outcomes for people=