Service Design Agency

Service design is a human-centred approach to designing services that work for both customers and organisations. Unlike traditional design that focuses on products, service design considers the entire customer journey, touchpoints, and the systems that deliver the experience.

How service design works:

• Customer journey mapping - understanding how customers interact with your service

• Service blueprinting - mapping internal processes that support customer experiences

• Design sprints - rapid prototyping and testing of solutions using proven frameworks

• Change management - ensuring designs can be adopted and sustained in the real world

However, 60-70% of service design projects fail during adoption. The difference lies in staying involved through rollout until transformation actually sticks.

Industry studies from Gartner and academic research show failure rates of 60-70% for service design and transformation projects. 37% fail due to unclear objectives, while resistance to change and poor stakeholder engagement kill most others.

Common concerns we hear:

• "We tried service design before and it didn't work"
• "How do I know you won't leave us with another failed project?"
• "Our team tried design thinking - it was just sticky note theatre"

The real issue? It's not the methodology that fails - it's organisational adoption. Most agencies hand over beautiful deliverables and disappear. Graph stays involved through rollout until transformation actually sticks.

Read our full case study showing 83 days from discovery to global rollout with 100% adoption across 5,000 employees in 11 offices.

1. They lead with workshops, not outcomes

Good agencies use workshops as tools, not deliverables. If they're selling you "design thinking sessions" without adoption support, run.

2. They promise "quick wins" upfront

Real transformation takes time to stick. Quick wins often lead to long-term failures when the initial enthusiasm fades and old behaviours return.

3. They can't explain change management

Service design touches technology, processes, and people. If they only understand design methodology without organisational psychology, you'll get solutions nobody adopts.

4. They use the same methodology for every client

Every organisation has different change readiness. One-size-fits-all approaches fail when they meet your specific cultural reality.

5. They disappear after delivery

The hardest part isn't designing the solution - it's making adoption stick. Agencies that hand over deliverables and leave set you up for failure.

Graph's approach: We stay involved through rollout until transformation actually sticks, using adaptive change management that fits your organisational culture. We design solutions that work within your existing workflows, measure success by adoption rates not deliverable completion, and provide technical documentation alongside beautiful deliverables.

Approach	Best For	Timeline	Resources Required	Success Factors
Build In-house	Core capability development	2+ years	Dedicated full-time team	Long-term commitment, existing change capability
Use Agency	One-off transformation projects	6-12 months	Budget for external expertise	Clear objectives, executive sponsorship
Hybrid Approach	Building capability while delivering	12-18 months	Mix of internal and external resources	Learning mindset, change management skills

Our recommendation: Start with agency support for your first project, then decide based on results whether to build an internal team. Most organisations underestimate the adoption challenge and overestimate their change management capability.

Discovery Phase: 2-4 weeks

Not just understanding what you do, but why current approaches aren't working. We map your constraints and change readiness, not just your aspirations.

Design Phase: 4-8 weeks

Building solutions that fit your organisational constraints, not ideal-world scenarios. Every design decision considers adoption reality using proven change management frameworks.

Implementation Phase: 8-16 weeks

Where most projects fail. We stay involved through rollout, adaptation, and the inevitable resistance that emerges when people encounter real change.

Integration Phase: Ongoing

Making it stick requires cultural adoption, not just process change. We help you navigate the transition until new behaviours become habits and old resistance patterns fade.

Adoption Speed: 83 days from whiteboard to global rollout with 100% adoption across 11 offices. Speed comes from designing for organisational reality from day one, not from cutting corners.

Service design vs. UX design

While UX design focuses on individual digital products, service design takes a broader view:

• UX design: Digital interfaces, user flows, interaction design

• Service design: End-to-end customer journeys, business processes, organisational change

Common service design methodologies

• Double Diamond Framework: Divergent and convergent thinking across Discover, Define, Develop, and Deliver phases.

• Service Blueprinting: Mapping customer actions, frontstage interactions, backstage processes, and support systems.

• Customer Journey Mapping: Visualising the customer experience across all touchpoints and channels.

• Jobs-to-be-Done: Understanding the functional, emotional, and social jobs customers hire your service to do.

• Human-Centred Design: Starting with user needs and working backwards to organisational requirements.

• Design Thinking: Problem-solving approach that combines empathy, ideation, and experimentation.

• Agile Service Design: Iterative development with rapid feedback loops and continuous improvement.

Graph combines these methodologies with change management expertise that ensures designs get adopted in practice, not just designed in theory.

For Technical Teams: Our implementations integrate with existing systems using proven APIs and data architectures. We provide technical documentation and can work within your security and compliance requirements.

For Procurement: Fixed-scope projects with clear deliverables and success metrics. We provide detailed project plans, risk assessments, and ROI projections for budget approval.

For Implementation Teams: We transfer knowledge throughout the project and provide change management support. Your team learns our methodologies while we deliver results.

We typically work with:

• Global organisations with complex customer landscapes

• Companies with previous transformation disappointments

• Teams dealing with technological and cultural change simultaneously

Recent transformation: Global agency with 5,000 employees across 11 offices. Challenge: 1.9 petabytes of content nobody could find when they needed it.

Solution: AI-powered content intelligence integrated into existing workflows through Microsoft Teams.

Adoption Speed: 83 days from discovery to global rollout

Adoption Rate: 100% with zero training required

Content Volume: 1.9 petabytes processed and made searchable

Global Reach: 11 offices across multiple time zones

Read the full case study

What we don't do:

• One-off workshops without adoption support
• Generic frameworks applied without organisational context
• Projects where we hand over deliverables and disappear

We work with organisations ready to transform completely, not just experiment with design thinking.

How long does a service design project take?

Discovery: 2-4 weeks, Design: 4-8 weeks, Implementation: 4-12 weeks. Total: 3-5 months for most transformations.

What does service design cost?

Projects typically range from 20k-80k depending on scope and complexity. We provide fixed-price proposals after discovery.

How do you measure success?

Primary metric: adoption rates. Secondary: user satisfaction, efficiency gains, and ROI measurement at 90 days post-launch.

What makes Graph different from other agencies?

We design solutions that adapt to how people actually work, rather than requiring behaviour change. This is why we achieve 100% adoption rates with zero training required.

45-minute assessment where we'll cover:

• Failed Project Analysis: If you've tried service design before, we'll diagnose what went wrong and whether it's recoverable

• Change Readiness Assessment: Identify what's actually blocking your transformation success (it's usually organisational, not technical)

• Adoption Reality Check: Review your current transformation plans against real-world change management challenges

• Approach Fit: Honest assessment of whether we can actually help your specific situation - not everyone is a fit

No pitch deck. No generic presentation. Just experienced practitioners analysing your specific challenge.