Design
Stage 2 in the Lifecycle
Design transforms ideas from Discover into specifications and prototypes for products and services, addressing functionality, user experience, and operational frameworks.
What you should take away
- State the official purpose of design in the Product and Service Lifecycle
- Contrast product or service specification with prototype
- Name the four steps of the high-level design workflow and know when iterations should be triggered
- Explain why human-centred design (HCD) matters for digital product and service work
Official purpose
The purpose of design is to create prototypes and specifications for products and services, covering functionality, user experience, and the operational framework (how the solution will run and be supported).
Design is dynamic: it involves creating ideas, adapting to change, and generating solutions. Digital product and service design uses technology and organizational resources to produce specifications and prototypes that meet or anticipate stakeholder needs.
Specification versus prototype (book definitions)
- Product or service specification: a structured document of requirements and characteristics to be built (features, technical needs, performance criteria, interface details)
- Product or service prototype: an early version showing basic form, function, and operational behaviour, used to test and refine design and test hypotheses
Digital product and service design
Digital product design should include future service interactions and service experience. Service design without product context is hard; product design without service context is incomplete.
Key facts
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Why do we do it? | Create prototypes and specifications detailing functionality, user experience, and operational framework |
| Who does it? | Product teams; specialized design teams in some cases |
| When is it performed? | As frequently as needed, triggered by schedule, product strategy changes, stakeholder feedback, or performance deviations |
| Key outputs? | Product and service specifications and prototypes |
| Success metrics? | Quality of specifications and prototypes, design cycle time, roadmap adherence, stakeholder satisfaction |
Human-centred design (HCD)
HCD is a problem-solving approach centring the people who will use or be affected by the solution, relying on empathy and iteration. Key ideas include:
- Early and continuous focus on users and their tasks
- Active user involvement throughout
- Iterative design and evaluation
- Attention to the whole user experience
- Multidisciplinary skills and perspectives
Adopting HCD requires tight integration between product development and service management teams.
High-level workflow (four steps)
Analyse product and service demand
Plan design activities
Execute the design plan
Communicate the solution design
When to run design iterations
Iterations may follow a schedule, but fixed schedules alone can delay reaction to roadmap changes or external events. Prefer to trigger design iterations when:
- The product roadmap changes
- Performance deviates from expectations
- Acquire, Build, or Transition show the current design is suboptimal
Sometimes Discover and Design are tightly coupled, with several ideas analysed and prototyped before choosing a direction.
Extended design topics (study depth)
Architecture and solution shape
- Enterprise, solution, technical, and integration architecture
- Non-functional requirements: security, availability, performance
Operations and support design
- Operating and support model
- Monitoring and alerting concepts
- Incident and problem handling at design level
Security, compliance, and AI (ITIL v5 context)
- Security and data protection by design
- Regulatory requirements
- AI governance when the solution uses or supports AI
Related management practices
| Practice | Role in Design |
|---|---|
| Service Design | End-to-end service design |
| Architecture Management | Solution and technical architecture |
| Information Security Management | Security design |
| Availability Management | Availability design |
| Capacity and Performance Management | Performance design |
| Service Continuity Management | Continuity and recovery design |
| Service Level Management | SLA and target design |
Inputs and outputs
Inputs: business cases and requirements from Discover, constraints, standards, prior lessons
Outputs: design packages, architecture views, SLA or target definitions, test and transition plans, operating procedures
Metrics (examples)
- Design quality and review findings
- Design cycle time
- Defects found after design freeze
- Standard adherence
- Prototype feedback scores
ITIL Car Rental scenario: Design in action
Context: With Discover confirming the driverless car initiative, the team designed a solution for intuitive, safe, and scalable autonomous rentals.
Anna (Product Manager): "Since customers are happy with the current app, we'll integrate it with the partner's autonomous electric vehicles. Customers can choose between existing car-sharing or driverless cars."
Maria (Business Analyst): "I'm mapping design requirements across all service areas. We no longer need AI-based damage detection or smart fuel-level tracking. Instead, we'll take full responsibility for accidental external damage and provide drop-off-anywhere features."
Alex (Enterprise Architect): "Our solution should support real-time sensor data, seamless integration, multilingual interfaces, and automate variable workflows within the driverless car rental value stream."
Maria: "We also need to define possible risks: competitors introducing driverless cars before us, government regulation changes, or incidents that would deter customers."
Omar (IT Delivery Manager): "We need to prototype and test the new journey from booking to drop-off and billing to assess possible issues."
Anna: "We want a seamless, intelligent, and safe experience throughout the entire journey, supported by intelligent services and designed with the customer at heart."
This scenario demonstrates HCD in practice: designing around user needs, adapting to new technology, identifying risks early, and planning prototype and testing before building.