Designing Decision‑Driven Service Solutions for B2B Stakeholders

In an eight‑week engagement, the author joined a decision‑making team focused on service design for a human‑resources decision‑support technology. The goal was to define the product offered to clients, clarify market entry, and adapt existing deliverables to satisfy B2B stakeholder needs.

1. Introduce Actors

Because time was limited and detailed persona analysis was impractical, the author substituted “investors” and “stakeholders” for traditional personas, examining how they decide and influence workflows and future products. Entities such as end‑user groups, enterprise customers, and stakeholders were used to map primary workflows, needs, and attitudes. The distinction between personas and actors lies in how groups are defined; the focus extends beyond end users to anyone involved in development or sales.

2. Define Service System

With actors defined, the next step is to clarify the service system: what resources each actor receives, the value of each service, and internal checkpoints that help the decision team understand participation goals.

The author consulted Andy Polaine et al.'s service‑design literature, recommending a service‑system map for mature products that outlines primary participants, feedback loops, and defined agents (e.g., interface objects, support teams). For nascent products, the map emphasizes the main service goal and the relationship between actors and their environment, focusing on three B2B actor types: distributors, agents, and consumers.

3. Discuss Actors in Interaction Flow

After defining actors and the ecosystem, the author introduced terminology to express actor needs and illustrate how the product resolves pain points, cross‑paths, and interactions. A workflow was built using elements from generic UX deliverables, such as sequence flows, customer journey maps, and scenarios.

The workflow adapts to convey information to specific stakeholders. Using “stages” from a customer‑journey map, the author selected variables like “Actor Scenario” (a brief description of what the actor is doing or their pain point), “Engagement” (how to move to the next stage), and the product solution that supports the actor’s characteristics. These variables can be adjusted based on project nature and communication goals.

4. Deliverables

The creation of actors, the service system, and the workflow serves strategic participation needs. While the author does not intend to alter existing deliverables, they will iterate them when tools or systems fall short, ensuring each deliverable answers specific questions about the product and industry. The deliverables become catalysts for strategy, enabling the team to build a product roadmap and business plan grounded in the defined service system.

Original link: http://uxmag.com/articles/strategic-service-design-on-the-fly