Whether you are a consultant, accountant, university, repair shop or a barber, there is more to offering a high-value, high-performing service that just an intense desire to meet your customer’s needs. High performing services need a high-performance engine - this engine can be thought of as being a “Methods Engine“. Within the Decision Driven® Strategy pattern, I’ve framed this decision as “What methods or combination of methods provide the engine for this service?“.
If you’re designing a new service offering or seeking to dramatically improve an existing service, don’t overlook the opportunity to think through the Methods Engine decision proactively and formally. If you can “swap in” in a new methods engine you may be able to supercharge (and charge more for) an existing service offering. If you try to launch a new service without designing in an adequate engine, you may stall and crash during takeoff.
The full decision pattern for designing a new service offering is shown below.
The Methods Engine decision appears as a child of the overall Service Concept. When making this decision, consider the following criteria:
A very similar decision, Core Methods, appears withing the Capability Design decision pattern. Process core competencies are typically built around a methods engine that powers the capability.
Filed under: Decision Driven Strategy, Sample Decisions | Tagged: core competency, core methods, decision pattern, methodology, methods engine, service design
