Garry BurnsBook a conversation

How I work

A connective method, not a fixed toolkit

Service design is often mistaken for a single discipline: research, or journey mapping, or UX. In practice the useful part is what connects those things to a decision an organisation can actually act on.

01

Customer insight

Understanding what people actually experience, through research, journey mapping and service audits, not what the org chart assumes they experience.

02

Business intent

Connecting that insight to what leadership is actually trying to achieve commercially, so the work is relevant at the table where funding decisions get made.

03

Operating logic

Designing the roles, rituals, governance and decision rights that let an organisation act on insight repeatedly, not just once as a one-off project.

04

Delivery discipline

Turning intent into a prioritised, sequenced roadmap with clear ownership, so ambition survives contact with a delivery team's actual capacity.

Photo placeholder

Facilitation in action: an executive workshop or co-design session, wide shot showing the room at work

A repeatable operating rhythm

One lifecycle, scaled to the size of the problem

The same seven stages recur across every engagement, whether that is a single workshop or a multi-year, Board-level programme. Each stage produces the outcome that unlocks the next.

  1. 01

    Frame

    Name the real problem, not the presenting symptom.

  2. 02

    Intent

    Agree what success needs to mean, commercially and humanly.

  3. 03

    Assess

    Understand the current state with evidence, not assumption.

  4. 04

    Design

    Shape the service, journey or operating model to close the gap.

  5. 05

    Prepare

    Build the governance and readiness needed to deliver it well.

  6. 06

    Execute

    Deliver with the right decision rights and dependency management.

  7. 07

    Measure

    Prove the value created, and feed it back into the next cycle.

Prefer to see it work rather than read about it?

Run the lifecycle end to end

Where this fits

The kind of problems this is best suited to

01Framing
You know something needs to change but haven't yet named the real problem, or aligned leadership on what 'better' would mean.
02Alignment
You have insight or strategy already, but it hasn't translated into shared conviction across a cross-functional or executive group.
03Design
You need the actual service, journey or operating model designed, not just diagnosed.
04Governance
You need lightweight, practical structures for prioritisation, decision-making and delivery review that will actually get used.

Have a challenge that looks like this?

The most useful first step is usually a short conversation. Bring the shape of the problem, and we'll work out from there whether this is worth pursuing.

Book a conversation