Why do I create the table of content once my book is written?

At the moment I'm working on the fifth book in the series Service Design Principles. It's a series of book where in each one I share 100 tiny provocations, ideas, questions and examples of how we can make the lives of the people we serve a little bit nicer.

From observation, to writing, to table of content

In this series I never start with a table of content. Instead over months and sometimes years, I write down short observations that simply resonate with me. Once I have hundred that I feel are interesting I then put them into buckets.

That's when I see what are the bigger questions that these tiny principles try to answer. That's when the table of content builds itself.

Not like this for all my books

For other books that are less exploration but more a summary of what I know about a topic, I do the opposite.

I first seat down to build a table of content. Here a lot more thought goes into things like:

• Are the chapters well balanced

• Could I have a similar rythm in each chapter with the same number of insights per chapter

• etc.

Once I write, there are still a few changes that are made to the table of content, but it roughly stays the same than what I have planned.

Books and courses that I've written like that are:

• A tiny history of Service Design

• What is Service Design?

• What is the Service Designer mindset?

• Everyday Service Design

• etc.