Who does what by how much?
Summary
More than ever, we’re tasked with building ways for humans to interact more efficiently with one another, with services, with machines, and now with AI. As the toolset grows as quickly as the challenges we need to solve, how do we know we’re building the right things in the most valuable way? In this practical talk, Jeff will bring together the world of product and service design to focus on the humans in the mix and how to ensure that everything we create has a meaningful, positive impact on them.
Key Insights
-
•
The core value equation in designing services is who does what by how much, focusing on measurable changes in human behavior as outcomes.
-
•
Historically, learning loops to validate product value took 6-12 months, but modern digital services like Amazon enable deployment every second, allowing rapid feedback.
-
•
Managing towards output—the delivery of products or features—often undermines true customer value and slows organizational agility.
-
•
Effective OKRs focus on qualitative objectives describing the desired future customer state without prescribing solutions or features.
-
•
Key results must be outcome-based metrics measuring actual behavior change rather than output milestones.
-
•
All teams, including HR, finance, and legal, can and should use outcome-driven OKRs by focusing on how their outputs change human behavior.
-
•
Product discovery processes like design thinking and lean UX are essential for teams to identify the right solutions in an outcome-driven OKR framework.
-
•
AI-powered customer experiences introduce unpredictability in inputs and outputs, increasing the complexity of designing effective systems around human behavior.
-
•
Successful OKRs require both top-down strategic alignment and bottom-up team goal setting, with negotiation to ensure cohesion.
-
•
Changing incentive systems from rewarding output delivery to rewarding learning, evidence-based decision making, and customer centricity is crucial for OKR adoption.
Notable Quotes
"We can’t predict the future; all we can do is make the best guesses based on what we know right now."
"Amazon deploys new code into production into the hands of customers once every second."
"Managing towards outputs means someone has decided what the solution is going to be and told you to make that thing."
"Our goal ultimately is not to deploy a static solution but to make sure humans in the system achieve their goals successfully as often as possible."
"Objectives are qualitative, inspirational statements about the future we want to create for our customers without mentioning any solutions."
"Key results must be measures of human behavior and outcomes, not output metrics like 'launch this service'."
"Everyone has a customer — whether external users, third-party vendors, or internal colleagues; those humans consuming your product are your customers."
"If you don’t tell teams what to make, they need a product discovery process to decide what to build."
"Changing course based on evidence of actual human behavior is what agility really means."
"For OKRs to work, incentives have to focus on learning, customer centricity, and evidence-based decision making, not just delivery."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Situational disabilities like glare or temporary injuries affect a large portion of your audience and need to be considered in design."
Sheri Byrne-HaberThe Importance of Accessible Design Systems
January 8, 2024
"It often feels like research becomes beholden to exact quotes rather than the richer story that context provides, what I call the tyranny of transcripts."
Mujtaba HameedThe new horizon of ethnography: using AI to unlock the full potential of in-person research
March 11, 2026
"The Ministry of Culture will be the only government office totally open for public use."
Sofía Delsordo Kassim VeraPublic Policy for Jalisco's Designers to Make Design Matter
December 8, 2021
"Don’t lead with salary negotiation; build trust first and then explore possibilities."
Dave Hoffer Joanne WeaverUX Job Search AMA #2 with Joanne Weaver and Dave Hoffer
April 3, 2025
"Building a great culture means caring for individuals and creating rituals like recognition and shared learning."
Liam ThurstonWhy Your Design Team Is Quitting, And How To Fix It
June 10, 2022
"Visual communication is still really important—it's always better to show rather than tell."
Shipra Kayan Robert Kortenoeven Eileen TangEmerging principles for using AI in Design: What the product design team at Miro has learned from deeply integrating AI in their workflow
June 11, 2025
"Co-creation is where the meat of transformation happens; designers facilitate those who hold knowledge and make decisions."
Dharani PereraThe mandala of service design: unlocking alignment and action through service design
November 20, 2025
"I’m actually using GPT-4, but not via the chat interface—I'm calling it from the Mac’s command line."
Jorge Arango[Demo] How to re-categorize content at scale using LLMs
June 5, 2024
"Shadow design is not about blaming people—it’s about recognizing that design work is happening outside the design team."
Audrey CraneShadow Design–Where Else is Design Happening in Your Organization?
April 20, 2023
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
How can organizations manage the noise created by non-expert researchers conducting user research?
How does systems thinking help identify leverage points for improving rural maternal health?
What does a successful healthcare UX career look like in terms of accumulating influence and aligning with clinical/business goals?