Embedding service design capability

The project

Design thinking meets transformation

Co-op was undergoing a strategic transformation, bringing digital and design thinking into how it served its members and communities. The work spanned two connected challenges: building service design capability across product and delivery teams (with Digtial Skills), and applying that practice to real, sensitive services, most notably Co-op Funeralcare, where customers are at their most vulnerable.

The challenge

New to the organisation

Service design was new to many teams outside of Digital. There was enthusiasm but limited understanding of how to embed design practices into existing delivery workflows, and maturity varied dramatically, some teams had strong practice, others were unfamiliar with basic concepts. Competing priorities and tight delivery deadlines created resistance to work that felt strategic rather than immediately productive.

Alongside this, Co-op Funeralcare needed to redesign services that support people during one of the most vulnerable times of their lives. That demanded particular sensitivity and inclusivity, grounded in real experiences rather than assumptions about what bereaved families need.

What we did

Enterprise, service and learning design

The role was about both practising service design and growing the organisation's ability to do it independently, embedding design thinking into how teams made decisions rather than adding it as a separate layer.

• Enterprise design working with C-suite, Enabling Functions and Digital Skills team to define service design capability models and programmes.
• Inclusive, trauma-informed research for Funeralcare with bereaved families and funeral directors, mapping the end-to-end service and identifying the moments that mattered most. The research process itself was designed to be respectful and careful.
• Operating model support to embed design as a core capability connected to how the organisation made decisions about digital strategy.

The outcome

Capability at scale

Design capability was established at scale across product and delivery teams, shifting how the organisation approached service development and transformation.

• Product and delivery teams adopted design-led practices, moving from solution-first thinking to understanding user needs before committing to builds.
• The Funeralcare work delivered inclusive, accessible service improvements grounded in real user needs, in one of the most emotionally complex service contexts in any sector.
• The operating model transformation embedded design into governance and decision-making, connecting it to digital strategy and business priorities.

Learnings

Reflections from this work

• Meet teams where they are. With maturity varying dramatically across the organisation, one-size-fits-all training would have failed. Coaching, sprints and a community of practice worked because each met people at a different starting point.
• Sensitive services demand slower, more careful research. Working with bereaved families showed that how you research matters as much as what you learn. Designing the research process to be respectful and trauma-informed was part of the design work, not a preliminary to it.
• Capability sticks when it reaches governance. Skills alone fade under delivery pressure. Embedding design into the operating model and decision-making is what turned a way of working into a lasting practice.