Mind the Product Engage Hamburg 2022. Language matters: industrial "product/feature/ship" metaphors create siloed mental models, while services created in silos are experienced in bits. Polaine argues for ecosystem thinking and a garden metaphor — long-term stewardship of nested product-service ecosystems — drawing on Service Design: From Insight to Implementation.
People
Andy Polaine
Methods
Service DesignService design examines how people, tools and organisational processes work together to deliver an experience. Map the customer-facing steps alongside the staff activities, policies and systems that support them, often using a service blueprint. Bring the relevant teams together to identify broken handoffs, duplicated work and conflicting responsibilities, then coordinate changes across the service. Use it when problems span departments or channels and cannot be resolved through interface changes alone. Include employee experience because internal constraints shape what customers receive.