Don’t silo your service: why user goals, not tasks, drive design success

A guide to thinking beyond the scope of your service for a seamless user journey and greater impact.

Photo by Clemens van Lay on Unsplash

TL;DR

Instead of focusing on your service alone, design for the whole user journey:

• Understand user goals: They don’t care about your features, they just want to achieve something.
• Focus on the “why”: How does your service help users reach their goals?
• Break down silos: Collaborate with other services to eliminate friction and frustration.
• Start small and iterate: Deliver the most impactful part first, then learn and improve.

Examples of companies doing it right

• Holistic experiences: Ikea, Spotify, NHS
• Collaboration and data sharing: TripAdvisor, Citymapper
• Focus on user goals: Khan Academy, Duolingo, Headspace

Benefits

• Improved user experience: Seamless journey = happy users.
• Higher service effectiveness: Users achieve goals faster, boosting your impact.
• Better rankings and profitability: Happy users = loyal users = growth.

Design for the big picture, empower users, and make your service truly meaningful.

Introduction

We experience designers dedicate ourselves to making our platforms user-friendly. But sometimes, we get tunnel vision, laser-focused on optimizing the immediate experience within our app, website, or tool. We forget the most crucial element: does it actually help users achieve their goals?

It’s time for a paradigm shift. Instead of obsessing over our individual service slices, let’s zoom out and see the bigger picture: the entire user journey. By understanding the complete path users take to achieve their objectives, we can create experiences that are truly seamless and impactful.

A common scenario

Imagine a user, eager to start their own business. They stumble upon your service, a sleek platform promising to streamline the process. But as they navigate, they hit roadblocks: missing licenses, confusing paperwork, and no clear path forward. Frustrated, they abandon your service, their dream left unfulfilled.

This is the all-too-common consequence of siloed service design. We, as designers, get caught up in our own offerings, forgetting that users don’t care about our internal boundaries. They simply want to achieve their goals, no matter how many “services” it takes.

Understanding user goals

Here’s the key: users define your service not by its features, but by the desired outcome. Forget the features you offer and instead, ask yourself: “What is the user trying to achieve?” Whether it’s starting a business, learning to code, or navigating a city, their goal is the guiding light. This simple realization has profound implications:

• Your service is just a piece of the puzzle. Don’t get trapped in your own scope; understand how your offering fits into the broader landscape of tools and services users need.
• User language is different. Ditch your internal jargon and speak the language of your users. They don’t care about your fancy algorithms; they care about solving their problems.

Beyond your silo

Too often, we design in silos, creating disjointed experiences that frustrate users. Imagine someone starting a business: bouncing between platforms for permits, loans, and marketing, struggling to connect the dots. This fragmented approach is inefficient for everyone. Thus, focusing solely on your own slice of the service can lead to several pitfalls:

• Fragmentation: Users navigate a maze of disconnected providers, creating friction and frustration.
• Late Starts & Early Endings: Your service might kick in too late or end prematurely, leaving users stranded before reaching their goal.
• Duplication of Effort: Both users and providers waste resources navigating silos and filling gaps.

Here’s the magic: when we design for the user’s full journey, we unlock true value:

• Improved user experience: Seamless transitions between touchpoints create a streamlined path to success.
• Higher service effectiveness: Users achieve their goals faster and more easily, boosting your impact.
• Better rankings and profitability: Happy users who achieve their goals become loyal advocates, leading to organic growth.

The art of collaboration

Thinking holistically requires stepping outside our comfort zones. Collaborate with other service providers to:

• Share data and knowledge: Streamline information flow and reduce user burden.
• Align language and processes: Create a consistent experience across platforms.
• Identify gaps and opportunities: Fill in missing pieces and innovate around user needs.

Focus on the Why, not just the How

Photo by The 77 Human Needs System on Unsplash

This user-centric approach doesn’t just improve your design; it fundamentally changes your perspective. You shift from asking “what can we do?” to “how can we help users achieve their goals?” This leads to:

• More relevant services: You identify and address actual user needs, not just potential features.
• Greater impact: Your service becomes indispensable, a vital player in the user’s journey.
• Sustainable growth: You build genuine value, attracting and retaining users through meaningful experiences.

Designing for the bigger picture

When designing your service, ask yourself:

• Is this where the user’s journey truly begins?
• Does my service truly help them reach their final destination?
• Can I collaborate with other providers to create a seamless experience?

Start small, dream big

Designing for the whole journey doesn’t mean building everything at once. Start by:

• Defining the User’s Goal: Understand the user’s ultimate objective, not just the immediate task.
• Mapping the user journey: Get granular. Trace every step users take to achieve their goal.
• Identifying key partners: Connect with other service providers and understand their offerings. Identify all stakeholders and their contributions to the user’s journey.
• Defining your role: Determine the realistic boundaries of your service within the larger ecosystem, that is, decide where your service fits best within the user journey.
• Prioritizing and iterating: Focus on delivering the most impactful part of the service first, then iterate and build. Start small, deliver value quickly, and learn from user feedback.

Examples of companies doing it right

Holistic experience

• Intuit: Their product suite seamlessly integrates tools for taxes, accounting, finance, and payroll, offering a comprehensive solution for businesses.
• IKEA: Their journey goes beyond furniture shopping, providing inspiration, planning tools, assembly services, and after-sales support for a complete home creation experience.
• Spotify: They personalize music recommendations based on user preferences, curate playlists for specific activities, and integrate with fitness trackers for seamless music during workouts.

Collaboration and data sharing

• NHS (UK): They partner with various healthcare providers and share patient data securely, creating a unified healthcare journey across hospitals, GPs, and pharmacies.
• TripAdvisor: They combine hotel booking with restaurant recommendations, activity suggestions, and user reviews, providing a holistic travel planning experience.
• Citymapper: They integrate real-time public transport data with live maps and walking/cycling options, offering users all travel possibilities within one app.

Focus on user goals

• Khan Academy: Their personalized learning platform adapts to individual student needs and learning pace, helping them achieve their educational goals at their own rhythm.
• Duolingo: Their gamified language learning app makes language acquisition fun and engaging, keeping users motivated and on track to achieve fluency.
• Headspace: This mindfulness app helps users achieve their well-being goals through guided meditations and personalized recommendations, tailoring the experience to individual needs.

Remember, these are just a few examples, and many other companies are excelling in different aspects of user journey design. The key takeaway is to look for businesses that understand their users’ goals, collaborate with other stakeholders, and continuously strive to create seamless and impactful experiences throughout the entire journey.

By studying these successful examples and applying their principles, we can all strive to design experiences that truly put users at the center, empowering them to achieve their goals and live better lives.

Conclusion

Thinking beyond your silo is not just good design; it’s essential for creating services that truly matter. Remember, your service doesn’t exist in a vacuum. By embracing whole-service design, you can empower your users, amplify your impact, create experiences that are not just usable, but transformative, and pave the way for a future where services work together to achieve what truly matters: the user’s ultimate goal. Start designing for the bigger picture, and watch your service become a powerful force for user success.

References

To write this article, I want to credit all the fantastic information sources and other authors who have had the exact reflection as me, all from another exciting perspective.

• Louise Downe — Good Services (book) — Amazon Associate Link
• Good Services (website)
• Journey Mapping 101 — NN Group
• How Practitioners Create Journey Maps: Typical Uses, Roles, and Methods — NN Group
• Customer Journey Maps — IxDF

Thank you for reading! 😊