A lot of the time, things already exist in some shape or form. Instead of building a new service from scratch, what if you partnered with an existing service either to improve it or add the missing parts to it?

The idea here is to start with what is already existing. What is already existing can be existing material and existing tools. It can also be existing people and relationships. But also pre-existing services.

I feel that often we go from idea to execution because we want something to exist and be made by us. But before going to execution we could ask ourselves: is there somebody else already doing something similar?

Again, you don’t have to work alone. You can work with other services to offer a better experience.

Action question

What’s something you are trying to build? How could you, instead of building yourself, make it happen through partnerships?

The inspiration

We discussed this principle with Service Design and sustainability nerd Haley Anderson. Watch that part of the interview here.

Daniele's notes

• This is the first shitty draft of this principle

• This principle might one day make it in the fifth book in the "Service Design Principles" series that explores how to better serve humans and the planet.

• If you're curious about service design principles, you can get the four previous books in the series, with proofread principles and less grammatical creativity.