When building digital products and services, we are designing complex systems.We need to think the customer experience through on several channels, figure out the system architecture, gain understanding through data and research, decide what to iterate... - not easy, but fun! In this keynote talk given at Agile Cambridge 2016, Johanna introduces core systems thinking principles for designing better services, discussed how data and feedback mechanisms help us understand what is going on in a system, and addressed the challenge of bringing about change in a system.

1. Systems Thinking
for agile service design
Johanna Kollmann | @johannakoll | Agile Cambridge 2016

2. “A system is
a set of elements or parts
often classified as its function
or purpose.”
that is coherently organized and
inter-connected in a pattern or
structure
that produces a characteristic set of
behaviors,
Donella Meadows

3. “Systems-based thinking is the process of
understanding how things influence one
another.
!
Then drawing on that knowledge to create
efficiencies of process, infrastructure and
communication.”
Abby Covert

4. HARD systems
SOFT systems
!
You can’t “fix”problems with systems
thinking, instead there are “situations you
could improve”.
Peter Checkland

5. Systems exhibit purposeful behaviour over time.
Systems get ‘soft’, unpredictable once humans
are involved.

7. Agile SERVICE DESIGN 😮

8. UNDERSTANDING
CHANGING

9. UNDERSTANDING THE SYSTEM

10. MODELING systems
MEASURING systems

11. MODELING systems

12. Models are the starting point to look at
the situation, and see what change should
be introduced, and how.

13. Checkland’s ‘Rich Picture’
1. Construction of the Humber Bridge (adapted from Stewart and
Fortune, 1994)© The Open University
2. Distance Learning Situation © Wood-Harper et al, Information Systems
Definition: The Multiview Approach, Blackwell Scientific Publications 1985

14. Checkland’s ‘Rich Picture’
Stakeholders
Worldview
Connections
Conflicts

15. Journey maps

17. MEASURING systems

18. Measuring tools
(combined with qualitative research!)

19. Service design challenges:
😮 Human actors who are employees?
😮 How do you measure “soft value”?

20. 3 things to pay attention to in a system:
1) Stocks & Flows
2) Feedback loops
3) Delays

21. 1)Stocks & Flows
inflow outflow
information
feedback, control
stock
Conversion, churn rates

22. 2)Feedback loops
A feedback loop occurs when a change in something ultimately
comes back to cause a further change in the same thing.
Reinforcing Loop
(positive loop)
births/year population
Population
Growth
Balancing Loop
(negative or goal-seeking loop)
heat
Thermostat
temperature
target temperature
temperature
gap
Viral engines of growth

23. 3)Delays
inventory
days

24. 3)Delays
inventory
days
Reacting faster

25. 3)Delays
inventory
days
Reacting slower
Data informs iterations

26. Service design challenges:
😮 Getting data can take a long time

27. Look at systems behaviour over time, rather than
focusing on single events.
!
Spot trends, and ask:
‣What came before?
‣What might happen next?

28. By the time you see what is going on in a
system, it has already happened - and you
are already a step behind.

29. CHANGING THE SYSTEM

31. Use this tool to
help you think
more systemically!
THE ICEBERG MODEL
EVENTS
What is happening?
PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR
What trends are there over time?
SYSTEMS STRUCTURE
How are the parts related?
What influences
the patterns?
MENTAL MODELS
What values,
assumptions, +
beliefs shape
the system?
IncreasingLeverage
Download at: http://donellameadows.org/systems-thinking-resources/

32. Donella Meadows’leverage points
10. Numbers (subsidies, taxes, standards).
9. Material stocks and flows.
8. Delays
7. Balancing negative feedback loops.
6. Reinforcing positive feedback loops.
5. Information flows.

33. Donella Meadows’leverage points
10. Numbers (subsidies, taxes, standards).
9. Material stocks and flows.
8. Delays
7. Balancing negative feedback loops.
6. Reinforcing positive feedback loops.
5. Information flows.

34. For reference: Donella Meadows, http://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/
Structure of information flows
‣How does information flow through the system?
‣What information is shown, how, and to whom?
‣Who can manipulate and control information?

35. Service design challenges:
😮 Enabling timely information flow can be tricky

36. Donella Meadows’leverage points
10. Numbers (subsidies, taxes, standards).
9. Material stocks and flows.
8. Delays
7. Balancing negative feedback loops.
6. Reinforcing positive feedback loops.
5. Information flows.
4. The rules of the system (incentives, punishment, constraints).

37. For reference: Donella Meadows, http://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/
Rules of the system
‣Constraints, social rules, rules about roles of actors in the system
‣Who can take which actions?
‣How can actors in the system engage?

39. Donella Meadows’leverage points
10. Numbers (subsidies, taxes, standards).
9. Material stocks and flows.
8. Delays
7. Balancing negative feedback loops.
6. Reinforcing positive feedback loops.
5. Information flows.
4. The rules of the system (incentives, punishment, constraints).
3. The power of self-organization.
2. The goals of the system.
1. The mindset or paradigm out of which the goals, rules, feedback structure arise.

40. Use this tool to
help you think
more systemically!
THE ICEBERG MODEL
EVENTS
What is happening?
PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR
What trends are there over time?
SYSTEMS STRUCTURE
How are the parts related?
What influences
the patterns?
MENTAL MODELS
What values,
assumptions, +
beliefs shape
the system?
IncreasingLeverage
Download at: http://donellameadows.org/systems-thinking-resources/

41. UNDERSTANDING
CHANGING

42. Matthew Milan
“The fundamental shift design will
need to navigate over the next
decade:
Going from designing for people to
designing with people at scale.”

43. Design as Participation |Kevin Slavin
http://jods.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/design-as-participation
Cynefin Framework|Dave Snowden
http://cognitive-edge.com/
Donella Meadows Institute
http://donellameadows.org/systems-thinking-resources/
Ask me anything: @johannakoll