Focus and capacity planning are critical. When design efforts are strategically aligned and resourced, the value becomes clear through better outcomes, faster progress, and stronger collaboration.
By Sophie Gillstedt, Global CX Strategy and Research Lead at H&M
Opening the Right Doors
When it comes to introducing Service Design into an organization like H&M, the key to success often lies in one pivotal step: opening the first door. For H&M, this involved pinpointing a particular kind of challenge—one that called for a Service Designer’s holistic approach to connect individual experiences to larger organizational goals.
“The first step when building Service Design awareness is helping the organization to understand that certain challenges aren’t just isolated incidents but part of a broader journey. We show them how Service Design can bridge these gaps and create meaningful, sustainable change.”
H&M’s early exposure to Service Design established a solid foundation of a Holistic Customer journey, customer behavioural groups and other deep work to build on. There was already trust built for Design within parts of the organization. This familiarity allowed collaboration between the design team and decision-makers who held the authority to implement meaningful change.
Follow the Current of Curiosity
“We went where the river took us, following the flow of interest and enthusiasm rather than fighting uphill battles.”
The team recognized that sustainable integration of design thinking comes from authentic interest rather than forced implementation. By identifying and nurturing pockets of curiosity throughout the organization, they were able to demonstrate value in contexts where it would be most appreciated.
The Sourdough Strategy
Convincing leadership wasn’t about pushing an agenda.
“We didn’t force it. It’s like sourdough—it doesn’t work if the interest isn’t there. Instead, we used our toolbox to demonstrate what Service Design could achieve. Cool, inspiring examples. Small wins. It’s about finding leaders who are curious and open to the ‘whole package,’ not just isolated fixes.”
This organic approach allowed design thinking to take root naturally in fertile organizational ground, rather than trying to cultivate it in resistant environments.
Facilitation, a core Service Design skill, also emerged as a critical innovation capability.
“Facilitating qualitative, creative workshops requires courage and focus. It’s about creating a safe space for exploration and then guiding the group toward concrete outcomes. This skill is what makes Service Design indispensable for innovation.”
Selective Engagement
“We learned early on not to take every assignment that came our way. If decisions have already been made—especially ones that would have been different if we had been involved earlier—it’s better to step back. Service Design requires openness to change, and we can’t deliver meaningful results if the process has already been closed off.”
This strategic selectivity meant the design team could focus their energy where they could make a genuine impact, building a track record of successful interventions rather than fighting uphill battles against predetermined outcomes.
By Annette Öberg, Head of UX & Service Design at Swedbank
Building Relationships with Managers
Annette tells the story of how sharing knowledge and building trust with management has been a crucial part of her journey.
“Our designers belong to a unified design organization, but they work across most product areas in the bank. For me, it’s been essential to build trust with leaders in those areas—to have an open, constructive dialogue and to clearly communicate our goals for design competence, both short- and long-term. It’s been especially important that managers across the organization feel that we, as a central yet embedded design team, truly support them and deliver real value.
At one point, I found myself in a discussion with senior management about whether we should distribute designers directly into product teams or keep them part of a centralized, distributed competence hub. Hearing senior managers—those I had worked with closely—argue for the latter, saying it was working well, felt like a real confirmation that my approach was the right one. Had they been unfamiliar stakeholders, I’m not sure we would’ve had the same outcome. Distributing design can absolutely be the right approach in certain contexts, but I don’t believe the time is right for us. Decisions like that need to be well-considered.
My strategy has always been to raise design maturity by speaking each manager’s language. They often play a key role in how design is perceived and prioritized. But managers don’t always realize—or want to admit—how limited their understanding of design might be. That’s why I take every chance to talk about the business value of design. By recognizing each manager’s unique perspective and tailoring my message, I help them see why design competence matters. It’s about creating both understanding and a sense of need. This approach has helped us grow, hiring more designers, defining new roles, and making a real impact both on what we do, and how we work in product teams.”
Show, not just tell
Annette emphasizes the importance of demonstrating real outcomes to gain trust from managers and other stakeholders.
“Gaining trust from senior leadership depends on showing concrete results that prove the strategic value of design. When the design unit was first established during a major reorganization, we focused on showcasing how design could drive measurable business impact. We used past project results as proof points and actively sought out ongoing or upcoming initiatives where our skills were clearly needed. Even when we didn’t have enough resources to support every project, we made a point of contributing wherever we could, always with the goal of showing our value.
One particularly strong example came from a department that needed to create a comprehensive service blueprint. We helped them bring in an external consultancy to lead the project, while staying involved behind the scenes. We connected the consultants with our designers, who were able to share previous work and insights that helped fill out the blueprint. Thanks to that collaboration, the agency could focus on the right things and work far more efficiently, because we had already done much of the groundwork. The consultants delivered better results within the limited time they had, the internal client was happy, and design’s value became unmistakably clear. This was a concrete example where we could directly show our contribution—not just through business impact, but in comparison to consulting costs. And I think this project really helped raise design maturity in that product area. It put our team on the map.”
By Natasha Ehlén, UX & Design Manager, Avanza/ Previously Head of Product Design, Storytel
When she was Head of Product Design at Storytel, she successfully embedded service design within the Product & Tech organization, demonstrating its direct impact on business, decision-making, and organizational growth.
“Previously, service designers worked at a separate unit, and few product leads were aware of their work and the potential value they could create in product development. As part of a reorganization process, service designers were moved to Product & Tech and I became their manager. In the coming months, I focused on integrating them in product development, inviting them to initiatives within Product & Tech where I believed they could contribute with their expertise. At first, I had to convince some product leaders to involve service designers into various initiatives. But as time went by, more and more of them experienced the value of working with strategic designers experienced in bringing in the customer perspective and service design expertise got requested more widely.”
Leveraging the Designer-to-Developer Ratio
“When building the product design organization at Storytel, I used the designer-to-developer ratio as a key input to assess and advocate for increased design competence. Industry trends showed that mature product companies were shifting from a 1:10 ratio to around 1:5 or 1:6, reflecting a stronger investment in design.I made the calculation for our company and could see that the ratio was around 1:10.I could then highlight the need for more designers to enhance our design maturity. While this metric alone doesn’t determine success, it serves as a useful benchmark when viewed in context with other organizational factors. Used strategically, it can support conversations about scaling design teams, improving collaboration, and elevating the role of design within a company.”
Karin Hedman, Head of Customer Experience Design, Scania
Embracing Design as a Strategic Enabler of Transformation
The transport industry is undergoing a large transformation within three main areas of digitalization, electrification and automation. At Scania, managers are continuously trained in these areas, being equipped to operate in a changing business environment. Managers are continuously trained in these areas. The organization needs to be able to handle this uncertainty, and we have had service designers working on these issues to help us navigate. There is a growing need within Scania to adopt more customer-centred ways of working. CX methods have been introduced to support this shift, and Service Designers have played a key role in developing and implementing these methodologies.
Bringing Designers into Strategic Conversations
For Service Designers to be effective, leadership must support their ability to work across functions. It is not about designers forcing their way into different areas but about leadership enabling cross-functional collaboration. If Service Designers are not integrated into strategic planning, they risk working in isolation, limiting their ability to drive broader change.
Building Leadership Understanding of Design’s Strategic Value
As Scania continued its journey, Karin realized that leadership buy-in was key to success.
“It wasn’t enough to just hire designers; we needed leadership to understand the value they brought.”
While UX is well understood, the role of Service Design is often questioned. However, when large research projects have been conducted, including persona development and customer journey mapping, leaders within Scania have seen the collaborative value that Service Design brings. Service Designers facilitate teamwork and have contributed to a more open and cooperative environment within cross-functional teams.
The ability of Service Designers to visualize structures and dependencies has improved cross-functional collaboration and highlighted the need for cooperation between departments. Their work has led to a better understanding of how different functions are interconnected, ultimately fostering a more effective and coordinated working environment. By involving the Service designer in the same issues that leaders are dealing with, Scania’s leaders recognized that design was not just about execution but also about shaping strategy and guiding transformation.
“If you bring in a Service Designer, leadership must enable them to work broadly. The value of Service Designers comes when they are allowed to zoom out and work more holistically, bringing different teams together and creating a mutual understanding of the problem that needs to be solved in cooperation between many disciplines. As a leader, it’s about opening doors and explaining why it’s necessary to work this way.”
By Bhu Nyström-Kandola, Design Manager at Volvo
Collaboration and Stakeholder Engagement
Effective collaboration is crucial for proving the value of design.
“We need product specifically, but also engineering to support us. You need product first to understand the value of design before you even go to the business stakeholder.”
Therefore, working with, not for, business stakeholders is key. and ensures that stakeholders are part of the process, fostering a shared understanding and appreciation of design’s value.
We have established WoW around OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and have found that this is an effective tool. It contributes to an open structure where the entire team can influence and be kept updated on the upcoming period’s goals, progress and development focus. Collaboration and alignment between design, product, and engineering teams are crucial. By defining requirements and deadlines together, they can deliver impactful designs within the given timeframe
“Having a tight collaboration between those three at least, our triad in digital, is super important because then we are defining together, OK, the requirements are this, the deadline is this, what can we do in that period of time to deliver a really impactful feature design or release.”
Incentives and Impactful OKRs
In addition to clear roles and growth opportunities, having clear incentives within the delivery process is a key factor in maintaining a motivated and high-performing team. Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are an effective tool in this regard. They provide a structured approach to setting and achieving goals, ensuring that every team member understands their impact on the organization’s success.
Nyström-Kandola highlights the importance of collaboration in defining OKRs:
“Having a tight collaboration between those three at least, our triad in digital, is super important because then we are defining together, OK, the requirements are this, the deadline is this, what can we do in that period of time to deliver a really impactful feature design or release.”
