Snezh Halacheva, service designer and Anne Bienia, head of product, CRUK Technology, Cancer Research UK Visit the CharityComms website to view slides from past events, see what events we have coming up and to check out what else we do: www.charitycomms.org.uk

1. Embedding Service Design
and Product Thinking at
Cancer Research UK
Snezh Halacheva @VassiAva
Anne Bienia @annebienia
5 February 2019

2. In today’s session
• Our vision for Technology at Cancer Research UK
• How we do Product
• Digital devolution through the Hub and Spoke model –
a case study
• What’s next?

3. Our vision
Our vision is to make Cancer
Research UK the most adaptive,
resilient and innovative
organisation it can be.
We’ll help CRUK transform its
technology, embrace new ways
of working and maximise its
impact, accelerating our
progress towards 3 in 4.

4. Our design principles
• We focus on outcomes, not outputs
• We treat our data as a critical asset, and make decisions based on
evidence
• We partner with the people in the charity who use our services,
encouraging co-creation and empowerment
• We disagree without being disagreeable
• We start small and develop iteratively towards our goals
• We always think about delivery end-to-end
• We don’t rest on our laurels
• We work ethically, honestly and deliver things that act in our users’ best
interests
• We work in the open​

5. The Hub and Spoke model
• 2015 - the Hub & Spoke model was put in place with the aim of transferring
ownership, knowledge and skills out of digital and into other teams across the
charity (Fundraising & Marketing, Philanthropy & Partnerships, Research &
Innovation, Policy & Information)
• How does it work?
• The Digital (Technology) team are not a service provider, we are a partner
• Bring the right people together – be clear about roles and responsibilities
• Co-create a vision and agree ways of working (lean and agile)
• Agree an upskilling plan
• Follow a design process (but allow room for flexibility) Business Owner
+
Proposition Manager
Other team members
from the Hub
(Developers, UX, Search, etc.)
Business owner colleagues
Upskill
Deliver outcome

6. Products underpin this model
• Building blocks to make user experiences real
• Give Cancer Research UK teams ability to self-serve
• A combination of things we've bought and built ourselves
Online Fundraising Marketing Platforms Ecommerce Websites

7. The product mindset
• Balancing the needs of users and the charity with what is
technically possible
• Strategic ownership and continuous improvement
USERS
How do we meet
their needs?
BUSINESS
How do we
create value?
TECHNOLOGY
How do we build
it?
Product
managers

8. The Free Wills Service spoke
The vision
To fully understand and validate the needs and pain points of
key users of the Free Wills Service (solicitors, supporters and
CRUK teams) so that we can improve their user experience.
The team
• Service Designer
• Business Owner (and a few
key stakeholders) from the
Legacies team
• User Experience Designer
• Content Strategist
• Digital Producer
• Agile Delivery Manager
• Insights & Reporting Analyst

9. The Free Wills Service spoke
The design process

10. The Free Wills Service spoke
The experiment
Our riskiest assumption:
Solicitors would use the online form
over the current paper submission
process.
How do we put this assumption to the
test?
• Run a 'Wizard of Oz' type test
• Set clear experiment fail
condition(s) and success criteria
ahead of running the experiment

11. The Free Wills Service spoke
The results
The experiment failed – but that's not a bad thing!
• We learnt a lot about our users
• We’re not looking to invest more time and money in
developing an online form for solicitors at present
• We're doing follow-up interviews with solicitors to gain
deeper insight following the experiment
• The Legacies team are putting their new skills to practice

12. What’s next?
• How do we take digital devolution further and make it
sustainable?
• How do we create a unified approach towards digital
devolution across Technology?
• What is the relationship between Service Design, User
Experience and Product?
• What are the type of problems that Service Design would help
CRUK to solve?

13. Stay in touch and find out more about our work
• Our Technology blog:
https://medium.com/cancer-research-uk-tech-team-blog
• Follow us on Twitter:
@VassiAva
@annebienia
• Other case studies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akZEOkF1pFw&list=PLjvFbrBh8iNSIc
MMKKDiMDaLzu_EPfZCW (Creating an Environment for Change, Connie
van Zanten & Arif Bobat)

14. Group discussion questions
• What techniques can we use to shift organisational ways of
working to a more digital approach?
• How can we apply the test and learn approach to fundraising
products or service delivery?
• How can we be user-driven on small budgets?
• How can we engage stakeholders in the new product
development process without holding up progress?
• How can we encourage organisations to take a ‘lean’ approach
to new product development?

15. Taking a digital approach to new
product development and
service design
Sponsored by
5 February 2019
Heads of Digital
London
#charitydigital

16. Visit the CharityComms website to view
slides from past events, see what events
we have coming up and to check out
what else we do:
www.charitycomms.org.uk