What would you test?
#SystemsThinking #Experimentation #ChangeManagement
05.03.2026 12:31
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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.
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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.
Ask: Where does the work queue up?
That's your constraint.
The constraint isn't always obvious.
Sometimes it's an approval that takes too long.
Sometimes it's information that arrives too late.
Sometimes it's a handoff between teams.
Most teams optimise everywhere at once.
They speed up steps that aren't the bottleneck.
The work still piles up at the same place.
Every system has a constraint.
It's the step that limits how fast work can flow through.
Find it, and you find where to focus.
Next time something keeps going wrong, ask:
What's the setup that keeps producing this result?
#SystemsThinking #DesignThinking #Patterns
To change behaviour, change the structure:
- The information people receive
- The incentives that shape choices
- The connections between parts
- The rules that constrain action
This is why replacing people often doesn't fix problems.
New people enter the same structure. They respond to the same incentives. The same patterns emerge.
Same with organisations.
The behaviour you see - the delays, the workarounds, the recurring problems - emerges from how people, processes, and technology interact.
Think about a traffic jam.
It's not caused by any single car. It emerges from interactions between vehicles, driver reactions, lane changes, and merge points.
Remove the interactions, and there's no jam.
A system isn't a thing. It's a pattern of behaviour.
It emerges from how parts connect and interact.
Change the connections, change the behaviour.
15 minutes with pen and paper might show you something you've missed.
What problem would you map?
#SystemsThinking #Mapping #Visualisation
Four steps to mapping any system:
- List the key variables (things that change)
- Draw arrows showing influence (A affects B)
- Circle any loops (where effects feed back)
- Label your assumptions
Most valuable use: draw it with others.
Their map will look different. The differences reveal where you need to learn more.
Now you can test those assumptions. Or disagree about them productively.
The map isn't the territory. It's a conversation starter about the territory.