When the email client SuperHuman started, it had two things that really stood out to me. First, its price. It was a crazy expensive thing at around 30 bucks a month. But that was not what was inspiring to me. Second, to get it, you had to go through a manual onboarding session with someone from the SuperHuman team. They'd show you how the tool works and set it up for you.

With these personalized onboardings, the team not only educated their potential users about what made this email client different but also they go to meet their users. Users asked questions, suggested things, and reacted to what made sense or didn't.

Today onboardings are often fully automated. Sure, that's super efficient, but we miss out on building relationships and learning from the people we serve.

Replacing some automations with human interactions or rituals forces us to take a break and see if what we're doing actually makes sense. Instead of sending an automated thank-you email, sending a handmade card or making a tiny video reminds us that we're doing something for others. It also makes us realize just how many people are involved in our service. (1)

Action question

What automations exist within your service and workplace? Which of these could you replace with human rituals to create a more meaningful service and check-in moments to understand the true scale of what's happening?

Footnote

(1) If we don't have time to stop and say a little thank-you note to every new user, maybe it's not a sign of success but rather a sign that we're overwhelmed.

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.

Written with AI help
This principle draft is based on an audio note I took while walking that was transcribed and cleaned using Audiopen. I then reviewed and improved the text by hand.