Service Designers —Designing

Act as a senior service designer. Based on this brief: [insert], frame the underlying service problem. Cover: what user need is unmet, where the current service breaks down, what 'good' would look like, and what's out of scope. Present as a 1-page framing doc with sections: Problem, Symptoms, Definition of Good, Out of Scope.

Act as a service designer. For [insert service], write the user-facing outcome the service exists to deliver — not the deliverables, channels, or features. Use Lou Downe's framing: 'help users do what they're trying to do.' Then list 3 outcomes the service should NOT chase. Present as: True Outcome, False Outcomes, Why It Matters.

Act as a service designer. For [insert service], map the whole service end-to-end — not just the touchpoint we're being asked to design. Identify: pre-service (how users find it), service (how it's delivered), post-service (what happens after). Highlight where the brief's scope sits within the whole and 3 risks of designing only the slice. Present as a three-column map (Pre-service / Service / Post-service) with the risks below.

Act as a service designer. Audit [insert existing service] against Lou Downe's 15 principles of good services (be findable, explain its purpose, set expectations, enable users to complete the outcome, work as users expect, be agnostic of org structure, require minimum effort, be consistent, have no dead ends, be usable by everyone, encourage right behaviours, respond to change, clearly explain decisions, easy to get human help, easy to recover from mistakes). Score each Pass / Partial / Fail. Highlight the 3 worst gaps. Present as a scorecard table: Principle, Score, Evidence.

Act as a senior service designer. Based on this messy input: [insert], write a 1-page service design brief. Include: user problem, business goal, in-scope channels and stages, out-of-scope, constraints, success measures, key stakeholders, and assumptions to test. Make it specific.

Act as a service designer. For [insert service], map the ecosystem of actors. Include: end users, frontstage staff, backstage staff, support functions, third-party providers, regulators. For each: their role, incentives, what they need to deliver well, where they're under pressure. Present as an ecosystem map.

Act as a service designer. For [insert service or project], identify the internal stakeholders we need to align. For each: their role, what they care about, what they fear, what would make them a champion vs blocker, what they need to see early. Present as a stakeholder map.

Act as a service designer. For [insert service], identify which organisational silos, departments, or systems the user journey crosses. Highlight: where handoffs happen, where ownership is unclear, where the user experiences seams between teams. Reference Lou Downe's principle that good services are agnostic of organisational structures. Present as a table: Journey Stage, Teams Involved, Handoff, Ownership Gap, User Impact.

Act as a service designer. For [insert service], build a RACI matrix covering the main service activities (acquisition, onboarding, core delivery, support, recovery, offboarding). For each: who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed. Flag activities with no clear owner or multiple accountable parties.

Act as a service designer. Plan a 90-minute alignment workshop with stakeholders from [insert teams] for [insert service]. Include: pre-read, opening exercise, framing of the service outcome, stakeholder mapping activity, alignment on scope, decisions needed by end. Present as an agenda with timings.

Act as a service designer. Plan a research programme for [insert service] that captures both sides: end-user experience and frontline staff experience. Include: methods for each (interviews, contextual inquiry, frontline shadowing, mystery shopping), sample sizes, recruitment criteria, ethics. Present as a research plan with two streams.

Act as a service designer. Write a 45-minute interview guide for frontline staff who deliver [insert service]. Cover: a typical day, the easy bits, the painful bits, workarounds they've invented, what they wish leadership understood, what would let them deliver better. Avoid making them feel audited.

Act as a service designer. Plan a service safari for [insert service or competitor]. Include: the user goal, channels and touchpoints to traverse, what to capture at each (time, friction, language, evidence, emotion), how to record, the debrief format. Present as a safari brief.

Act as a service designer. Plan a half-day contextual inquiry observing [insert audience, e.g. branch staff serving customers]. Include: what to observe (behaviours, tools, environment, interactions, workarounds), what NOT to do, questions for during and after, ethical capture. Present as a one-page inquiry plan.

Act as a service designer. Synthesise this research from both sides: [insert user findings] and [insert frontline findings]. Identify: where user pain and staff pain align, where they conflict, where the service is delivering despite itself, where it's failing on both sides. End with 5 insights and 5 'How might we' questions.

Act as a service designer. Map the as-is customer journey for [insert service and user goal]. Use stages: Trigger, Find, Choose, Use, Pay, Get Help, Leave/Renew. For each stage capture: user actions, touchpoints, channels, thoughts, feelings, pain points, time taken. Present as a journey table: one column per stage, one row per capture.

Act as a service designer. Based on this as-is journey: [insert] and these insights: [insert], design a to-be customer journey for [insert service]. For each stage: what the user does, what we deliver, what's removed, what's improved, and which of Lou Downe's principles it now meets that it didn't before. Present as a journey table, with a change-log row showing what's new at each stage.

Act as a service designer. For this customer journey: [insert], identify the 5 'moments of truth' — the points where user trust, satisfaction, or churn is decided. For each: what happens, why it's a moment of truth, what currently goes wrong, the design opportunity. Present as a table: Moment, What Happens, Why It's Decisive, What Goes Wrong, Opportunity.

Act as a service designer. For this journey: [insert], plot two curves stage-by-stage: emotional state (-5 to +5) and effort required (1 to 5). Identify the lowest emotional points and the highest effort points. Recommend 3 places where reducing effort would unlock disproportionate emotional gains. Present as a stage-by-stage table with the two scores as columns, then the 3 recommendations.

Act as a service designer. For this list of pain points: [insert], map each to the Lou Downe principle it violates. Then group violations by principle and identify which principle the service is failing on most. Present as: Pain Point, Principle Violated, Severity, Frequency.

Act as a service designer. Based on this journey and pain points: [insert], generate 10 'How Might We' questions. Spread them across: reducing effort, reducing dead ends, increasing trust, improving consistency, helping users recover from mistakes. Rank them by impact and feasibility. Present as a ranked table: HMW, Category, Impact, Feasibility.

Act as a service designer. Build a layered service blueprint for [insert service and core user journey]. Use these layers stacked vertically: 1) Customer actions, 2) Frontstage interactions, 3) Line of visibility, 4) Backstage actions, 5) Support processes, 6) Evidence, 7) Time, 8) Emotion. For each step in the customer journey, fill all layers. Flag fail points and bottlenecks. Present as a blueprint table: one column per step, one row per layer.

Act as a service designer. Take this single high-risk moment from the journey: [insert moment, e.g. 'customer requests a refund'] and blueprint it in granular detail. Use the same layered structure but break the moment into 5–10 sub-steps. Identify every fail point, dependency, and place a human could intervene. Present as a blueprint table: one column per sub-step, one row per layer.

Act as a service designer. Across this blueprint: [insert], identify: 1) Fail points, 2) Bottlenecks, 3) Single points of failure. For each, suggest a mitigation. Present as: Issue, Type, Layer Affected, Mitigation.

Act as a service designer. For this service: [insert], map the backstage layer in detail. Include: every system involved, every data flow between them, every policy or rule that constrains delivery, every third-party dependency, every team that touches the process. Highlight where the backstage is fragile or makes the frontstage worse. Present as a map table: System, Data Flows, Policies, Dependencies, Teams, Fragility.

Act as a service designer. For this service journey: [insert], identify the physical or digital evidence the user encounters at each step (emails, letters, signage, app screens, receipts, badges, confirmations). For each: what role it plays, whether it's serving the user or the org, whether it could be improved or removed. Present as a table: Step, Evidence, Role, Serving Whom, Improve/Remove.

Act as a service designer. Translate this service blueprint: [insert] into a backlog of work for delivery. Group items by layer: frontstage design, backstage process, support systems, policies, training, evidence/artefacts. For each item: what needs to be built/changed, why, which team owns it.

Act as a service designer. Plan a 60-minute session with frontline staff to pressure-test this blueprint: [insert]. Include: how to walk them through it, what to ask at each step ('what's missing? what won't work? what's idealised?'), how to capture corrections, how to fold their input back in. Present as a session run sheet with timings.

Act as a service designer using the practical blueprinting method (Flowers & Miller) — no frontstage/backstage swim-lanes; every step is simply marked visible or hidden to the user. Blueprint the current state of [insert service and scenario, e.g. 'a patient rebooking a missed appointment']. Start with a scenario title and one-line description, then break the journey into phases with numbered steps. For each step capture: what happens, visible or hidden, touchpoint, role, systems/technology, policy, processes, questions, notes, metrics, critical moments, and opportunities. Present the whole blueprint as one table — each column is a step (grouped by phase, with a phase header row spanning its steps), each row is a layer.

Act as a service designer using the practical blueprinting method (Flowers & Miller) — no frontstage/backstage swim-lanes; every step is simply marked visible or hidden to the user. Blueprint the target state of [insert service and scenario] — how the service should work, not how it works today. Start with a scenario title and one-line description, then break the journey into phases with numbered steps. For each step capture: what happens, visible or hidden, touchpoint, role, systems/technology, policy, processes, questions, notes, rationale (why this change), and potential pitfalls (what could go wrong). Present the whole blueprint as one table — each column is a step (grouped by phase, with a phase header row spanning its steps), each row is a layer. End with a summary of the key differences from the current state.

Act as a service designer. Based on this opportunity: [insert] and these insights: [insert], generate 3 different service concept directions. For each: the core idea, how the user experiences it, the key channels, what makes it distinctive, what it sacrifices. Make all three genuinely different. Present each direction as a one-page concept card.

Act as a service designer. For this touchpoint or moment: [insert], generate 8 quick concept variations using a Crazy 8s approach. Range from safe to weird. For each: the core mechanic, what the user experiences, a 1-line provocation. Present as 8 numbered concept cards.

Act as a service designer. Design a 3-hour co-creation workshop with mixed users and frontline staff for [insert service area]. Include: warm-up, sharing of insights, structured ideation activity, prioritisation, low-fi prototyping, feedback round. Specify materials and facilitator scripts. Present as a workshop agenda with timings.

Act as a service designer. Take these service concepts: [insert] and pressure-test each against Lou Downe's 15 principles. For each concept, score against each principle (Pass / Partial / Fail) and identify: what it does well, where it would fail a real user, what to fix before prototyping. Present as a scorecard table per concept, then the fix list.

Act as a service designer. For this service concept: [insert], write a 6–8 frame storyboard following [insert persona] through the new service. For each frame: caption, visual description, what the user is doing/feeling, which channel or touchpoint they're at.

Act as a service designer. Plan a prototype for [insert service concept] that simulates the experience across multiple channels (e.g. app + call centre + physical visit). For each channel: what we'll prototype, fidelity (paper, clickable, role-play, real environment), what we want to learn, what we'll fake. Present as a table: Channel, What We Prototype, Fidelity, What We Learn, What We Fake.

Act as a service designer. For this service moment: [insert], write the frontline staff script. Cover: opening, key information to gather, key information to give, common edge cases, escalation triggers, closing. Use plain language. Match this tone: [insert tone].

Act as a service designer. For this service: [insert], draft the 5 key user-facing communications (confirmation email, reminder, status update, problem notification, completion message). For each: what the user needs to know, what they don't, what action is expected, tone. Present each as a ready-to-edit draft with a subject line.

Act as a service designer. Plan a body-storming / role-play session to prototype [insert service moment]. Include: roles to cast (user, frontstage, backstage, system), the scenario and user goal, props needed, the script start point, what observers should look for. Specify how to debrief. Present as a session run sheet.

Act as a service designer. Plan a Wizard of Oz prototype where [insert backstage system or capability] is simulated by a human, so we can test the user-facing experience before building anything. Cover: what the user sees, what the wizard does, the protocol, success criteria, what we'll learn. Present as a WoZ test plan.

Act as a service designer. Plan a 6–12 week pilot of [insert new or redesigned service] in [insert location/segment]. Include: scope, exclusions, users involved, staff involved, success criteria, the metrics dashboard, the failure thresholds, the kill criteria, the learning agenda, the decision point. Present as a one-page pilot plan.

Act as a service designer. For [insert service], define success metrics across 4 dimensions: User outcome (did they get what they came for?), User experience (effort, satisfaction, trust), Operational health (cost, time, error rate, staff load), Business outcome (revenue, retention, referral). For each metric: definition, source, target, review cadence. Present as a metrics table: Dimension, Metric, Definition, Source, Target, Cadence.

Act as a service designer. Plan a service walkthrough audit where 5 users complete [insert task] using the prototype/pilot service. Include: tasks, what to observe at each touchpoint, the 15-principle scoring framework to apply, follow-up questions. Build in observation of effort, dead ends, recovery, need for human help. Present as an audit plan with an observation checklist.

Act as a service designer. Plan a 1-day test where frontline staff run [insert new service] with real users while we observe. Cover: how to brief staff, what NOT to over-train (we want to see real friction), what to capture (script deviations, workarounds, requests for help, pace, errors), the staff debrief format.

Act as a service designer. Synthesise these pilot results: [insert]. Cover: what worked, what didn't, what surprised us, where the service met or violated the 15 principles, where backstage broke under real load. End with a clear decision: scale, scale-with-changes, re-pilot, or kill.

Act as a service designer. Build a launch plan for [insert service]. Include: rollout sequence (geography, segment, channel), training plan for staff, comms plan for users, support plan for early issues, monitoring dashboard, escalation path, rollback criteria. Present as a phased launch plan with owners.

Act as a service designer. Design a half-day training for frontline staff on [insert new service]. Cover: why we changed it (the user problem), what's different, the new script and process, the 5 hardest edge cases, where to escalate, how to give us feedback. Avoid corporate fluff. Present as a session-by-session training outline.

Act as a service designer. Write the operational service standards for [insert service]. Cover: timeliness, quality, accessibility, communication, recovery. For each standard: the user-facing promise, the operational target, how it's measured, what triggers intervention. Match the 15 principles. Present as a standards table: Standard, Promise, Target, Measure, Trigger.

Act as a service designer. Design the support model for [insert service] following Lou Downe's principle 'make it easy to get human help'. Cover: how users access help (channels, hours), how we route them, how we make it easy to recover from mistakes, what we never automate, the escalation tree. Present as a one-page support model with the escalation tree.

Act as a service designer. For [insert service], design the post-launch learning loop. Include: the metrics dashboard, the regular service review cadence, how user feedback flows in (and to whom), how frontline insights flow up, the format for monthly service health reviews.