Measure the impact for me

Daniele Catalanotto
Mar 22, 2022
A Service Design Principle about the ROI of good service

I do a lot of coaching sessions. At the end of these coaching sessions, I have a little ritual. I ask:

"On a scale from 1 to 10, how did you feel before the session? How do you feel now, again on the same scale."

Then I use the website percentagecalculator.net because I'm bad at math to find out how significant the percentage improvement is.

A lot happens in a coaching session. And we often forget about how we felt before versus how we feel now. So by taking a break and measuring the impact, people then say stuff like:

"Oh wow! I realize that I made a lot of progress!"

As service creators or designers, it's our job to make the impact of our work tangible and visible.

You can, for example, ask customers before they join your service how painful the situation is now. And later, after using your service for a bit, ask how they feel about this issue.

Both you and the customer will realize how much impact the service has.


Little side notes

  • This is the second draft of this Service Design Principle.
  • I was able to reduce the lengths by 7.89% compared to the first version.
  • Once adapted, even more, this principle will be part of the book "Service Design Principles 201-300"
  • As always feel free to share comments, feedback or personal stories to improve this principle.

2 comments

Patrick Marcelissen
May 9, 2022
Clear to read the message of this principle.
Daniele Catalanotto
Oct 30, 2022

The third draft of this Service Design Principle

I have a little ritual at the end of my coaching sessions. I ask:

"On a scale from 1 to 10, how did you feel before the session? How do you feel now, on the same scale?". I then transform that change in a percentage (1) to show how significant the improvement is.

A lot happens in a coaching session. And we often forget how we felt before it started. So by taking a break and measuring the impact, people say, "Oh wow! I realize I'm making a lot of progress!"

It's our job to make the impact of our work tangible and visible. So let me ask you.

How can you help the people you serve realize how much impact the service has on them (2)?

Footnotes

(1) I use a little online tool to do that because I'm bad at math — Jari Jokinen (2007). Percentage Calculator. Available at https://extra.swissinnovation.academy/mxvx accessed 20 October 2022.

(2) You can, for example, ask customers before they join your service how painful the situation is now. And later, after using your service for a bit, ask how they feel about this issue.

Daniele’s notes

  • This is the third draft of this principle.
  • I’ve reduced the length of this principle by 27 % compared to the previous draft.
  • I’ve added a conclusion question to help the reader turn this principle into action.