creditsuisse
creating clarity
embedding service design to deliver
A 10-week pilot at Credit Suisse, led by Fjord’s service design team, was embedded within an ongoing development program spanning Berlin and Zurich.
The initiative aimed to introduce service design practices that would clarify priorities, enhance delivery readiness, and foster collaboration-all while respecting established team dynamics and maintaining development momentum.
Emphasis was placed on practical, collaborative methods to achieve successful delivery within tight time constraints.
Challenges
Late Integration of Service Design: The service design team joined an established program midstream, with a pre-defined backlog, set team rituals, and ongoing development. Embedding new practices without causing disruption or confusion was a significant hurdle.
Ambiguity in Prioritisation: There was a lack of clarity around which problems were most worth solving and how to prepare work for efficient delivery. Both the client and internal teams needed better visibility into what should be prioritized and why.
Bridging Design and Delivery: There was a gap between design intent and delivery execution. Ensuring that design insights translated into actionable development tasks required new processes and mindsets.
Solutions
Structured Sprint Rhythm: The team implemented a two-week sprint cycle. The first week focused on reviewing backlog stories and building shared understanding through collaborative workshops and low-fidelity prototyping. The second week was dedicated to refining the experience and producing a final prototype with clear design guidance for handover.
Transparent Collaboration: Regular touchpoints every two days were introduced to review progress, share insights, and challenge assumptions. This ensured alignment among team members, stakeholders, and the client, reducing misunderstandings and keeping everyone engaged.
Agile Partnership: Collaboration with an Agile Product Manager was crucial. This partnership defined clear expectations for backlog readiness and sprint planning, helping to bridge the gap between service design and agile development.
Opportunity Mapping: The team developed an "Opportunity Map"-a tool to help both the team and client assess whether ideas were ready for execution, viable, or required further discovery. This shifted conversations from mere execution to strategic intent, allowing business owners to see where design could unlock real value.
observations and learnings
Collaboration Drives Clarity: Embedding service design practices within an agile environment is most effective when it is collaborative, transparent, and structured. Frequent touch points and shared tools (like the Opportunity Map) help teams move from ambiguity to actionable clarity.
Agile-Design Partnership Is Key: Working closely with an Agile Product Manager enabled the team to establish shared rules of engagement, improve backlog management, and align design with delivery. This partnership was pivotal in reducing ambiguity and building confidence in the process.
Value Beyond Interfaces: The project demonstrated that service design’s impact extends beyond user interface improvements-it can fundamentally shift how teams prioritize, plan, and deliver value.
Human-Centered Change: The most lasting impact was not just the prototypes delivered, but the way the process brought people together, evolved studio practices, and introduced human-centered design thinking at a broader organizational level.
