A lot of my work in organization development involves helping clients to define and stand up new services. Some elements of the service must be defined in order to support the business case that must be approved as an initial step. But even after this approval, there is a lot of complex work to be done to set up the service before launch. I developed the following model as a very simple guide around which my clients can organize small or very large implementation plans, ensuring that each element is addressed.
In defining the service, organizations should consider the questions below for each element in the model:
Functions of the Service:
- What functions do we perform as a part of this service?
- What is the value proposition of this service?
Policy:
- Are there already policies that support our service?
- Do we need to create policies to support out service?
- If so, what might they be?
- Who might need to be involved to develop or approve these policies?
Standard Operating Procedures:
- How do we perform each service?
- Who does what? When? How?
- What are the roles & responsibilities?
- What are the workflows?
- What systems and tools do we use?
Resourcing:
- What types of skills are desired/required to perform these services?
- How many resources of each skill set do we need to provide these services?
- Who is the team to provide this service?
- What are the costs associated with providing this service?
Metrics:
- How will we know we are successfully performing this service?
- What are the key measures of success?
- How will we measure them?
- How will we report results?
- Who will we report them to?
Customer Outreach:
- Who are the customers we serve?
- What should we tell them about this service?
- Benefits of service?
- Where to get info about service?
- Customer oriented SOPs?
- How should we communicate to them?
Partner Agreements:
- Who do we need to partner with to provide this service?
- What are the partners’ roles and responsibilities?