Service Design And UX

👩🦰 Designing Accessibility Personas (https://lnkd.in/evVnB4hd). How to embed accessibility and test for it early in the design process ↓ We often assume that digital products are merely that — products. They either work or don’t work. That they help people meet their needs or fail on their path to get there. But every product has its own embedded personality. It can be helpful or dull, fragile or reliable, supportive or misleading. When we design it, willingly or unwillingly, we embed our values, views and perspectives into it. Sometimes it’s meticulously shaped and refined. And sometimes it’s simply random. And when that happens, users assign their perception of the product’s personality to the product instead. Products are rarely accessible by accident. There must be an intent that captures and drives accessibility efforts in a product. And the best way to do that is by involving people with temporary, situational and permanent disabilities into the design process. One simple way of achieving that is by inviting people with disabilities in the design process. For that, we could recruit people via tools like Access Works or UserTesting, ask admins of groups and channels on accessibility to help, or drop an email to non-profits that work in accessibility space. Another way is establishing accessibility personas for user journeys. Consider them as user profiles that highlight common barriers faced by people with particular conditions and provide guidelines for designers and engineers on how to design and build for them. E.g. Simone, a dyslexic user, or Chris, a user with rheumatoid arthritis. For each, we document known challenges and notable considerations, designing training tasks for designers and developers and instructions to simulate experience through the lens of these personas. By no means does it replace proper accessibility testing, but it creates a shared understanding about what the experiences are like. You can build on top of Gov.uk’s profound research project (https://lnkd.in/evVnB4hd) — it also explains how to set up devices and browsers, so that each persona has their own browser profile. Once you do, you can always switch between them and simulate an experience, without changing settings every single time. All Accessibility Personas (+ Tasks, Research, Setup) https://lnkd.in/evVnB4hd Accessibility doesn’t have to be challenging if it’s considered early. No digital product is neutral. Accessibility is a deliberate decision, and a commitment. Not only does it help everyone; it also shows what a company believes in and values. And once you do have a commitment, and it will be much easier to retain accessibility, rather than adding it last minute as a crutch — because that’s where it’s way too late to do it right, and way too expensive to make it well. [Useful pointers in the comments ↓] #ux #accessibility

HOW DO YOU MARKET TO PEOPLE AFRAID TO EVEN SAY THE WORDS “PAINFUL SEX” OR “POSTPARTUM DESIRE” OUT LOUD? One of the most rewarding parts of the MySine strategy project was defining detailed audience personas for a femtech brand operating in a highly sensitive, often taboo space. We didn’t want generic “women 18–35.” We wanted to understand their real lives, pain points, and needs. Some of our final personas included: • The Informed Intimacy Seeker: Urban, health-conscious, eager for scientific guidance. • The Quietly Curious: Private, cautious, needs anonymity to learn without shame. • The Postpartum Rediscoverer: Navigating identity, desire, and intimacy after childbirth. • The Cycle-Conscious Planner: Interested in hormone-driven libido changes, planning for pregnancy. We mapped their pain points (shame, misinformation, partner communication gaps) to specific messaging strategies and channels This wasn’t just segmentation—it was about empathy and inclusive design. ✨ Have you built audience personas for taboo or sensitive categories? I'd love to have a conversation and talk more.... . . . . #UserPersonas #AudienceStrategy #Femtech #DesignThinking #BrandStrategy

As a Business Analyst who’s worked across multiple domains, I kept asking: "How can we analyze and improve processes while ensuring alignment with customer experience, automation opportunities, and real-world execution constraints?" So 𝐈 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐬 & 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 called 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄—designed for Business Analysts, by a Business Analyst. 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 A structured 5-step approach to analyze, redesign, and implement better business processes. ✅ T - Touchpoint Mapping Map every customer, system, and employee interaction throughout the process. ⏩ Why? Because pain points often lie hidden between handoffs and touchpoints. 🔸 Example: While improving a claims process in insurance, we mapped the customer journey and discovered that 4 out of 7 delays occurred during internal handoffs—not external approvals. ✅ R - Root Cause Discovery Go beyond symptoms. Use tools like 5 Whys, Fishbone diagrams, or even process mining to get to the bottom of inefficiencies. 🔸 Example: A healthcare provider noticed repeated data entry errors. Root cause? The patient registration interface required double entry into two systems due to poor integration. ✅ A - Automation & Adaptability Assessment Assess which parts of the process can be automated (RPA, AI, workflow engines), and how adaptable the process is to scalability, policy changes, or compliance. 🔸 Example: In a telecom project, we flagged a manual SIM activation step as a bottleneck. After RPA automation, processing time dropped by 85%. ✅ C - Change Impact Analysis Evaluate how proposed changes will impact stakeholders, systems, SLAs, and compliance. Build readiness through a Change Impact Matrix. 🔸 Example: In a bank’s loan onboarding process, changing document verification impacted 4 systems and 3 departments. Early impact analysis helped us prep all affected users and avoid go-live delays. ✅ E - Execution Blueprint Create a visual and documented blueprint of the improved process: • Swimlane diagrams • RACI matrix • System handoffs • Success metrics 🔸 Example: For a logistics firm, we redesigned the inventory return workflow. The execution blueprint became the training, UAT, and SOP foundation, saving 2 weeks of rollout effort. 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬: ✔️ Human-centric (starts at touchpoints) ✔️ Analytical (root cause and impact driven) ✔️ Future-ready (focus on automation and adaptability) ✔️ Grounded in BA tools (flows, matrices, UAT, change analysis) ✔️ Outcome-focused (delivers real, implementable blueprints) 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐘𝐨𝐮: Would you try TRACE in your next process improvement initiative? 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐁𝐏𝐌𝐍 𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐦𝐞: https://lnkd.in/eYHriqm3 BA Helpline

Great journey maps start from the intersection of user touchpoints. A customer journey map shows a customer's experiences with your organization, from when they identify a need to whether that need is met. Journey maps are often shown as straight lines with touchpoints explaining a user's challenges. start •—------------>• finish At the heart of this approach is the user, assuming that your product or service is the one they choose to use in their journey. While journey maps help explain the conceptual journey, they often give the wrong impression of how users are trying to solve their problems. In reality, users start from different places, have unique ways of understanding their problems, and often have expectations that your service can't fully meet. Our testing and user research over the years has shown how varied these problem-solving approaches can be. Building a great journey map involves identifying a constellation of touchpoints rather than a single, linear path. Users start from different points and follow various paths, making their journeys complex and varied. These paths intersect to form signals, indicating valuable touchpoints. Users interact with your product or service in many different ways. User journeys are not straightforward and involve multiple touchpoints and interactions…many of which have nothing to do with your company. Here’s how you can create valuable journeys: → Using open-ended questions and a product like Helio, identify key touchpoints, pain points, and decision-making moments within each journey. → Determine the most valuable touchpoints based on the intersection frequency and user feedback. → Create structured lists with closed answer sets and retest with multiple-choice questions to get stronger signals. → Represent these intersections as key touchpoints that indicate where users commonly interact with your product or service. → Focus on these touchpoints for further testing and optimization. Generalizing the linear flow can be practical once you have gone through this process. It helps tell the story of where users need the most support or attention, making it a helpful tool for stakeholders. Using these techniques, we’ve seen engagement nearly double on websites we support. #productdesign #productdiscovery #userresearch #uxresearch

“Personas are pointless.” I used to disagree. Then I agreed. Now? "It depends." Once, I spent six weeks building a set of personas (you can see one below). Blood, sweat, and not-so-fun tears. I put everything I knew into them which, to be fair, wasn’t much back then. I couldn’t sleep the night before the big reveal. And then... ↳ "Oh yeah, we already knew that." ↳ "This isn't our exact focus anymore" ↳ Nods but no action A big old flop. So, can personas be pointless? Absolutely. - If they’re made in isolation - If they aren’t tied to real decisions - If they don’t change how people work But when they do work, it’s because they’re built for decision-making, not lamination. Here are 5 ways to make personas actually useful, based on years of trial, error, and one too many sad personas gathering dust in Google Drive: 1. Run an “Information Needs” workshop before you start Ask your PMs, designers, and devs: “What do you wish you knew about our users to make better decisions?” Document their needs → design your research to answer them → bake those answers into your persona. 2. Build proto-personas collaboratively to surface assumptions early Before you do any research, map out what people think they know. Use sticky notes color-coded by: - Assumption - Analytics - Existing research This reveals gaps, misalignment, and gives you a jumpstart on where to dig deeper during interviews and information to include in your personas. 3. Anchor personas in journey stages, not personality traits Forget personality sliders or random hobbies. Instead, map: - What users are trying to accomplish - What frustrates them at each stage - Which tools they use and why If your persona doesn’t help answer: “What would break their flow here?," rewrite it. 4. Activate personas through workshops, not PDFs Don’t “present” personas, use them. Host an ideation workshop where teams solve for a key need or pain point. Or run a mini-hackathon based on persona insights. 5. Embed personas into rituals and review them quarterly Add a persona lens to roadmap planning: “Which persona does this initiative support?” Post them in your workspace, tag bugs/features with persona names, and revisit them every quarter to update insights. So no, personas aren’t inherently pointless. But pointless personas are everywhere. Always ask yourself: “Will this persona change what we do next?” // If you're struggling to put personas together and don't know what "bad" or "good" really look like, watch this video where I share and diagnose all the problems (and good parts) of the personas I created through the years: https://lnkd.in/etMeeSS9

We’ve spent decades removing friction for guests. Maybe that’s now becoming a problem. Hospitality has been obsessed with “frictionless” service, streamlined check-ins, and polished efficiency. But here’s the catch: when everything is easy, nothing is memorable. Gen Z and younger luxury travelers are tired of skating across glossy surfaces. They crave meaning, stories, and belonging, and meaning often comes with a little effort. Cultural brands already get this. Bon Iver’s album launch sent fans smoked salmon with a poet’s insert, a candle that smelled like a winter cabin, and an app guiding them to intimate listening parties. Many entry points, each a breadcrumb leading you deeper. Some hotels are rewriting this playbook. Aman Tokyo’s tea ceremony is an intentionally slow, ritualized welcome. It’s not convenient, but that’s the point. The friction makes it sacred, and guests leave with a story that outlasts any room amenity. — 5 Ways to Design Joyful Friction in Hospitality 1. Name your rituals. Stop hiding magic behind generic labels. “Turndown service” becomes “Night Script.” The “welcome drink” becomes “The First Pour.” Language signals intention and gives small moments emotional weight. 2. Multi-sensory storytelling kits. Borrow from cultural launches: On arrival, offer a mini city-scent candle, a handwritten poem from a local artist, and a ticket to an intimate lobby performance. Guests engage through touch, scent, and story, each doorway into your brand narrative. 3. Ask, then delight. Have guests complete a three-question “mood card” pre-arrival. Match it with a curated in-room surprise, a book, cocktail, or soundtrack. Effort makes them feel seen (backed by the IKEA effect: effort increases attachment). 4. Create scarcity with care. Design one-hour windows of magic: a nightly martini ritual, a chef’s table for four, or a password-protected dessert. Scarcity raises perceived value while making participation feel earned. 5. Ladder your story over time. Instead of trying to impress all at once, let the brand unfold: Visit 1: A custom coaster. Visit 2: A staff pin unlocking a library room. Visit 3: A seat at the chef’s counter. Each stay deepens their connection and drives return intent. "When everything is effortless, nothing is extraordinary." — Why This Works Choice overload studies prove curated experiences are more satisfying than endless options: - The scarcity principle shows limited access elevates perceived worth. - The IKEA effect reveals guests value what they invest in. Luxury travelers aren’t chasing convenience anymore. They want layered experiences that feel personal, not packaged. — Final Thoughts Hotels that dare to introduce meaningful friction don’t feel cold or inaccessible; they feel alive. Because in hospitality, perfection isn’t about smoothing every edge. It’s about designing edges worth touching. #LuxuryHospitality #GuestExperience #BrandStorytelling #ExperienceDesign #EmotionalDesign

Most UX teams have been there: standing in front of a wall of sticky notes, surrounded by user quotes and caffeine, trying to decide if “Goal Oriented Greg” and “Curious Carla” are genuinely different people or just the same imaginary user with better handwriting. Persona discovery sessions like this often feel productive, the colors, the discussions, the post-its forming patterns, but deep down, we know something is off... The process is usually more art than science, more consensus building than discovery. It produces personas that sound nice in presentations but rarely hold up when real users start behaving unpredictably. Good news?! There is a more rigorous way to approach this, one that turns persona creation from a creative exercise into an analytical process grounded in evidence. Instead of guessing who your users are, you can identify them empirically by examining their real behaviors, motivations, and characteristics across your datasets. This is where clustering analysis becomes invaluable, allowing your data to uncover the story of your users on its own. Clustering uses statistical algorithms to uncover patterns and similarities across multiple dimensions of user data, revealing natural groups that exist beneath the surface. These are not personas invented in a meeting; they are personas discovered in the data. Here is how it works in practice. You begin by gathering rich, multidimensional data, including behavioral metrics. After cleaning and preparing your data, you apply a clustering algorithm such as K Means, Hierarchical Clustering, or Gaussian Mixture Models. These methods analyze the combined patterns across all features and group users who are statistically similar into clusters. Each cluster represents a group of people who share distinctive traits, perhaps they are highly efficient but disengaged, or slower but deeply curious. From there, you interpret and label these clusters in human terms. The data gives you the structure, and your UX insight gives it meaning. You might visualize the results, examine which variables most differentiate each group, and build out personas that reflect the real diversity within your audience. These personas are no longer fictional composites; they are data backed archetypes that show how meaningful subgroups actually behave, think, and feel. The benefits are substantial. Clustering eliminates much of the bias that comes from relying on small samples or internal intuition. It exposes hidden user types that might never emerge from interviews alone, such as a quiet but influential group of users whose needs are consistently overlooked. It also creates alignment across teams because the evidence is transparent and reproducible. When you present personas derived from clustering, you can trace every insight back to data, not opinion. #PersonaDiscovery #UXResearch #DataDrivenDesign #CustomerSegmentation #ProductStrategy #UserExperience #QuantitativeUX

🗺️ Customer Journey Mapping: More than just sticky notes on a wall! When you bring people together to map a customer journey, you’re not just drawing boxes and arrows - you’re uncovering the truth about how your customers actually experience your service. Here’s how to run a simple yet powerful session: 1️⃣ Set the scene Start with a clear journey to map (complaints, repairs, onboarding, arrears - pick one). Agree the start and end points so everyone’s aligned. 2️⃣ Bring the right people Customers, frontline colleagues, back-office teams, leaders. If they touch the journey, they should have a seat at the table. 3️⃣ Walk the steps Document the journey as it really happens today, not how the process map says it should. Capture every stage in the customer’s shoes. 4️⃣ Surface the feelings At each step, ask: how does the customer feel here? Frustrated, confused, reassured, delighted? Emotions are often the missing layer. 5️⃣ Spot the gaps Write down pain points, blockers, and duplication. But don’t forget to highlight the moments that work well as you’ll want to protect these. 6️⃣ Layer in evidence Add data, feedback, and insights to back up the journey. This turns sticky notes into a business case for change. 👉 What to document: ✅️ Steps & touchpoints ✅️ Customer thoughts & feelings ✅️ Pain points & opportunities ✅️ Supporting data & insights ✅️ “Moments of truth” - the make-or-break points in the journey Done well, a journey map becomes more than a workshop artefact. It’s a living tool that guides design, investment, and transformation. Because when you see your service through your customer’s eyes, it becomes impossible to design it any other way.

𝗢𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼𝘂𝗰𝗵𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹. 𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲. 👇 Most brands obsess over traffic, but ignore 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 happens at each interaction. ↳ That’s why your “customer journey” stalls (and conversion rates flatline). 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗲𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱: → Mapped every touchpoint: From first ad view to post-purchase follow-up. → Zeroed in on the friction: Missed emails, weak cart recovery, unclear product info. → Revamped with CRO tactics: Personalized emails, frictionless checkout, clarity at every step. 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁: Revenue +34%. NPS up. Returns down. Customers 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲. A few slides from HappyFresh’s playbook say it all—small changes, compounding impact. Want customers who stick (and spend)? Start with the details no one else sweats. How are you optimizing YOUR touchpoints this quarter? https://lnkd.in/gyEU9-vc #eCommerce #CustomerExperience #CRO #Retention

Culture is and should be something we include when designing for behavior change. This great book by Erin Meyer called The Culture Map can help you get your mindset right on culture. Culture matters because it helps us get more context on how our solutions are going to work in different places, the norms and culture in one place may not work in the next. I learned this not only by reading books like these but by first-hand experience, as I have lived in 10+ cities including Singapore, Dubai, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Madrid… and every place taught me something different about how people make decisions, communicate, and respond to change. The same message, design, or behavioral intervention can land completely differently depending on the context. What you may think is motivating or respectful in one culture can feel confusing or even off-putting in another, so never copy paste generic strategies. Culture shapes what people pay attention to, how they evaluate information, and how they build trust, all things that matter when we’re trying to influence behavior or design for adoption. Here are 4 areas you can think about and include in your archetypes or change frameworks: 1) Communication: low vs high context 2) Evaluation: direct vs indirect negative feedback 3)Persuading: principles-first vs applications-first Scheduling: flexible vs linear time These may sound simple, but they influence everything from how feedback is given, to how quickly teams make decisions, to how people experience time pressure or structure. When we bring culture in early, not as an afterthought, but as part of our behavioral framing.... we design with more realism, it also helps us anticipate friction, design around norms, and build strategies that actually fit the environments they’re meant for. This is how we approach culture and change projects in our advisory and consulting work. Have you read this book, and implemented some of the learnings?