Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

The mandala of service design: unlocking alignment and action through service design

Gold
Thursday, November 20, 2025 • Advancing Service Design 2025
Share the love for this talk
The mandala of service design: unlocking alignment and action through service design
Speakers: Dharani Perera
Link:

Summary

The Problem: I was once brought into a major telecommunications project where Australia’s largest private telecommunications company was required, under a government mandate to hand over infrastructure and service delivery to a newly formed, government-run organization. The mandate was politically charged and not welcomed by the private company, creating significant resistance beneath the surface. For months, the handover had stalled, bogged down by complex legal documentation, vague ownership of responsibilities, and heightened emotional tensions between teams. Progress was frozen, trust was low, and no one could see a clear path forward. What We Did: Together with another service designer, we stepped in to facilitate cross-functional co-creation sessions involving legal, operations, product, engineering, and compliance teams from both organizations. We applied service design tools with a customer-first lens, helping to neutralize organizational tensions and shift the focus toward shared goals. Using methods such as ecosystem mapping, service blueprints, and scenario planning, we surfaced hidden interdependencies, clarified roles, and made invisible processes visible. Most importantly, these tools became a vehicle for building a shared understanding of the end-to-end service landscape and fostering alignment across siloed teams. Outcome and impact: The outcome was transformative: we uncovered operational gaps, highlighted hidden risks, and, most importantly, built trust and alignment across previously disconnected teams. Within weeks, both companies gained the confidence to sign off on the handover, something that had been stuck for half a year. This case study is about moving the understanding of service design beyond neat visual artifacts, it was service design in action, grounded in core principles: • Human-centered: involving real people, challenges, and motivations • Collaborative: co-created with all stakeholders • Iterative: refined through dialogue and testing • Sequential: mapping the full service over time • Holistic: looking at the ecosystem, not just isolated parts By moving beyond documentation to creating value during the process, applying service design became a catalyst for clarity, confidence, and collective momentum. The true legacy of good service design.

Key Insights

  • Service design’s value lies more in the practice and facilitation of change than in producing polished artifacts.

  • Building organizational buy-in over time is critical before tackling large complex problems.

  • Creating champions at executive and working levels unlocks trust and organizational alignment.

  • De-risking sessions that address emotional concerns reduce resistance and prepare stakeholders for co-creation.

  • Humanizing technical stakeholders by bringing user personas and scenarios to life enables better decision making.

  • Co-creation sessions reveal gaps, uncover new opportunities, and foster shared ownership of solutions.

  • Visualization during workshops helps stakeholders navigate complexity without focusing on artifact perfection.

  • Starting with small, measurable impact projects can build initial credibility for service design teams.

  • Service design can strategically bridge multiple organizations with conflicting goals and cultures.

  • Despite trends in automation and AI, service design remains vital as it maps human and agent interactions for better experiences.

Notable Quotes

"As much of the wisdom and transformation takes place in the act of creating the mandala, so it does in service design."

"Often we’re seen just as people who create personas or blueprints, but that’s not even what’s needed."

"When we see the problem space from multiple lenses, we can understand stakeholders’ outcomes and emotional needs."

"We moved a months-long deadlock in a matter of weeks by putting service design practices in place."

"Buy-in is critical: stakeholders need to believe the team can move through change and support them."

"De-risking sessions gave disgruntled stakeholders a forum to voice fears before larger workshops."

"Stakeholders began referring to user groups by name—humanizing conversations and keeping us focused."

"Co-creation is where the meat of transformation happens; designers facilitate those who hold knowledge and make decisions."

"Visualization isn’t about beautiful artifacts but about creating accessible spaces for stakeholders to collaborate."

"Service design has a critical role in mapping human and agent interactions in an AI and automation world."

Ask the Rosenbot
Dave Gray
Group Activity: Making Sense of DesignOps
2017 • DesignOps Summit 2017
Gold
Sam Proulx
Prototype Reviews, People With Disabilities, and You
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Dean Broadley
Not Black Enough to be White
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Jen Briselli
Learning is the north star: service design for adaptive capacity
2025 • Advancing Service Design 2025
Gold
Laura Klein
Human vs. machine: Testing AI’s ability to synthesize and analyze research
2026 • Advancing Research 2026
Gold
Marissa Cui
Climate Design Product Showcase
2024 • Climate UX Interest Group
John Cutler
The Alignment Trap
2023 • Design in Product 2023
Gold
Jemma Ahmed
Research at an inflection point: Adapting to a new era of collaboration, equity, and innovation
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Frances Yllana
Theme 2 Intro
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Julie Baher
Culture Change—My Journey
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Aurobinda Pradhan
Introduction to Collaborative DesignOps using Cubyts
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Frank Duran
Partnership Playbook: Lessons Learned in Effective Partnership
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Shazia Ali
Communication: Innovative techniques for making your voice heard [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
2024 • Advancing Research Community
Nora Tejeda
Scaling Design Capabilities at BBVA Through a Self-service Design Model
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Louis Rosenfeld
Coffee with Lou #3: What Makes for a Successful UX Conference Presentation?
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Yasmine Khan
Checking Bias and Listening to Financially Vulnerable Americans
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold

More Videos

Greg Petroff

"Prediction frameworks worked until the world changed; now our prior experiences aren’t always helpful for what comes next."

Greg Petroff

Software as Material—A Redux

June 6, 2023

Brendan Jarvis

"Why was the universe doing this to me? That was a bad question."

Brendan Jarvis

Framing Tomorrow by Questioning Today

June 8, 2022

Prerna Makanawala

"Tracking implementation commitments after each design network group keeps momentum and accountability."

Prerna Makanawala

Achieving Balanced Design Consistency

June 9, 2021

Tricia Wang

"Language matters — calling people 'users' reflects and reinforces the reality of reduced agency."

Tricia Wang

From Users to Shapers of AI: The Future of Research

March 25, 2024

Cheryl Platz

"Duolingo’s AI push damaged immersion by breaking narrative cohesion and lowering course quality."

Cheryl Platz

Embrace Your Fun Factor: Game Development Best Practices for Product Design

January 9, 2026

Ariel Kennan

"This field is still really emergent and growing momentum nationally and internationally."

Ariel Kennan

Theme Two Intro

November 17, 2022

Tricia Wang

"You have to ask who the 'we' is in the room, because often the communities you're designing for aren't represented or understood there."

Tricia Wang

The most popular design thinking strategy is BS

January 27, 2022

Kristin Wisnewski

"You can't just jump to the top of the pyramid like Maslow’s hierarchy—you have to consider all the underlying layers supporting the experience."

Kristin Wisnewski

Measuring What Matters

October 23, 2019

Scott Jensen

"Research helps make a positive change on the product team and our end users."

Scott Jensen Sarah Delaney Carmen Liu

Short Take #2: UX/Product Lessons from Your Industry Peers

December 6, 2022