Service Design
Context
During the UX work on Showcase and the Events websites I discovered that our wider Content Sales journey was disjointed as a service. The Marketing and Sales teams operated very independently and customer touch-points were not complimentary. I saw that we needed to connect teams and processes if we were to deliver an engaging, profitable and efficient Content Sales service.
Partnering with specialists
Creating a working group
The first step was to sell in discipline of service design to BBC Studios. I recruited 2 lead service designers from BBC Public Service to form a working group and deliver the first stage of a pitch. I describe the situation at hand and together we created a pack to sell into a stakeholder / well-positioned UX ally in the BBC Studios Marketing Team.
Delivering the pitch
I held several sessions with our Marketing stakeholder and the service designers to fully review the gaps in our current service as well as talking through the clear benefits that service design could offer.
These sessions were a resounding success, our stakeholder agreed with the strategies suggested and offered some budget to show the value of this approach.
Strategically engaging a service design agency
Strategically briefing the agency
I engaged a service design agency to build credibility with new higher-ranking stakeholders who did not yet have confidence in our in-house teams. I made sure that the agency had access to all previous adjacent work so existing efforts would be acknowledged — a deliberate measure to address stakeholder concerns about duplication.
Navigating internal politics
There was a tricky political situation that threatened to block our agency from interviewing subject matter experts and users. However, through a tactical approach with my UX ally, I was able to connect the agency up with a selection of stakeholder and users to enable them to complete their work.
I provided creative direction for the resulting strategy from the agency and we delivered a vision that was far more widely received than any previous work delivered at this level.
My key decisions that made this work successful:
Tactically using an agency — to establish trust with senior stakeholders where internal teams couldn't yet reach
Highlighting user and stakeholder evidence — to ground the strategy in real insight rather than opinion
Continuing a clear story from previous work — to prevent the work being dismissed as repetitive or disconnected
Engaging ally stakeholders — to create internal advocates who could carry the message into parts of the business I couldn't access directly
Uptake
Bottom up engagement
The vision and strategy was then picked up by key lead product manager, whose use of the strategic direction helped to promote it within the business.
Top down support
Our VP of product then created a business case and budget proposition to hire 2 new service designers to support more ongoing work identified in the limited time engagement with the agency. I then proceeded to managing the interviewing and hiring ensuring that key stakeholders and service design specialists were involved throughout. Taking all needed through the process.
Impact of my involvement
Service design formally championed by senior stakeholders across BBC Studios
Two new service design roles created and championed by VP level management, with hiring led by me in collaboration with key stakeholders and specialists
Strategic vision adopted at executive level, directly informing the business case for ongoing investment in the discipline