Most organisational problems are complex, not complicated.
But we keep trying to solve them with complicated-system tools: detailed plans, rigid processes, predictive metrics.
It doesn't work. Not because people fail, but because the approach doesn't fit the problem.
#SystemsThinking #Complexity
What works instead:
- Probe and learn (small experiments, not big plans)
- Create conditions (not detailed instructions)
- Adapt continuously (not plan once and execute)
You can't manage complex systems like complicated machines.
You can't fully predict them.
You can't control them with detailed plans.
You can't optimise them from the outside.
Complex systems are different.
They evolve. They adapt. Cause and effect are only clear in hindsight. The same intervention can produce different results at different times.
Complicated systems have many parts, but they're knowable and predictable.
Take them apart, understand each piece, put them back together. They work the same way every time.
A jet engine is complicated.
A healthcare system is complex.
The difference matters more than you'd think.
Understanding pricing means understanding why your service works the way it does.
What would change if the model changed?
Day 4 of Know the business covers pricing architecture.
Free 10-day course on business thinking for designers.
www.humanedesign.co/courses/bus...
If the pricing model changed, what would the service become?
That's the question designers rarely ask. But it reveals what the model is actually doing.
In public services, "free at point of use" is often assumed rather than designed.
But the funding model shapes the service just as much as the user interface does.
Freemium works when the free tier creates real value and the premium tier removes a real friction.
If neither is true, you just have a product with two tiers that nobody wants.
The NHS is free at point of use.
That's a pricing architecture choice with deep consequences for demand, equity, and behaviour.
It shapes everything downstream.
Three common models.
Free at point of use increases demand. Subscription incentivises retention. Transaction incentivises volume, not loyalty.
Pricing is a design decision.
What you charge for shapes what gets used. That makes it as much a design question as a financial one.
What would you test?
#SystemsThinking #Experimentation #ChangeManagement
The goal isn't to avoid failure. It's to fail informatively.
A small experiment that doesn't work tells you something valuable about the system.
A big plan that never launches tells you nothing.
A good test is:
- Small enough to run without major approval
- Fast enough to learn from quickly
- Informative whether it "succeeds" or "fails"
Complex systems are unpredictable. You can't know in advance what will work.
But you can design small experiments that reveal how the system actually behaves.
Not: what's the perfect solution?
Not: what will definitely work?
Not: what can we get approved?
What would teach us something?
What could you test this week that would tell you something useful in two weeks?
That's the question that unlocks change in complex systems.
What job does your service actually do?
Not the one in the product spec. The one your users are trying to accomplish.
Day 1 of Know the business covers value proposition.
Free 10-day course on business thinking for designers.
www.humanedesign.co/courses/bus...
Features can be copied. The specific job someone needs done, in their context, is much harder to replicate.
If you can't name the job, you're probably designing the wrong thing.
People using a planning portal don't want to submit a form.
They want certainty that their application will progress without error.
Same pattern. Completely different design approach.
When you design for the booking, you optimise the form.
When you design for the reassurance, you think about information, waiting, and what happens after.
People booking a GP appointment don't want a 15-minute slot.
They want reassurance that something is, or isn't, serious.
Those sound similar. The design implications are completely different.
Features describe what a service does. Value proposition describes what a user gets.
A booking feature and a booking outcome are not the same design brief.
Value proposition is one question.
What job does someone need done? Not "what does the service do?" but "what does the person achieve by using it?"
Once you've addressed the constraint, another will emerge.
That's fine. Focus there next.
System improvement is finding and addressing constraints, one at a time.
Where does the work queue up in your system?
#SystemsThinking #Constraints #Bottlenecks
Don't optimise anything else until you've addressed the constraint.
Improvements elsewhere just push work faster toward the bottleneck. The queue grows.
