Build a new service
How to productise a service using your team’s expertise
Productising a service means giving a repeatable piece of work a clear shape: who it is for, what the client receives, what each side does and how it is delivered. The work can still use the client’s own context. AI may help deliver part of it, but a useful offer begins with a job someone needs to complete repeatedly.
Keep the method repeatable and the client context specific. Test whether people want the resulting service before building the full product.
Define the job the client will return to do
A repeatable service might prepare a monthly plan, help someone review progress or support a recurring content decision. “Access to our AI” tells the client very little about what they can achieve. Name the work and the result.
Said sees an opportunity in content firms serving executives and businesses. Clients may want more ongoing help than the existing offer covers. A firm already holding useful context about the client’s business and competitors could offer another way to use that knowledge.
His proposed route is a client-operated system available through a smaller retainer, including the possibility of bringing former clients back. That is a commercial hypothesis. We have not established a launch, customer conversion or a measured revenue increase for that offer.
The same question applies inside a large organisation: which recurring job could more teams complete with access to an expert group’s method and context? The funding and access model will differ, but the delivery responsibilities still need to be designed.
Standardise the method while preserving client context
| Shared service method | Client-specific information |
|---|---|
| The steps for preparing a content brief. | The client’s audience, goals and business context. |
| A review process for factual claims. | The approved sources available for this client. |
| Rules for asking an expert for help. | The client’s agreement and named approvers. |
| A way to record accepted decisions. | The decisions made for this client and when they apply. |
Customisation becomes expensive when every new client requires a new system. Look for a stable method that can use different records and settings. Where a requirement changes the method itself, decide whether it belongs in this offer or needs separately scoped work.
Said’s reporting experience shows why this boundary needs investigation. You have to examine the different client versions before you can understand what they share. Choosing the common part too early can remove the very detail the client values.
Design the service around people as well as software
A client-operated service still needs a delivery model. Decide what the client supplies, what the software prepares and where the firm’s experts remain responsible. Some clients may be willing to prepare their own brief; others may still want the firm to do the whole job.
For the proposed content service, a client might select an audience and request a draft. The system could use approved context to prepare it. A named person would check factual claims, sensitive judgement and any publishing commitment through the agreed route. This is an illustrative split, rather than a report of the current product’s actual roles.
Support is work too. Include account setup, changing context, questions, failed requests and expert intervention. If a smaller retainer requires as much attention as a full-service client, the economics need another look.
Check what the offer changes in your business
A former client returning through a different offer could create new contribution. A current client moving from a full service to a smaller retainer could reduce it. Look at both rather than counting every subscription as additional revenue.
Estimate the delivery, review, support and running work for each kind of client. Check whether the service creates repeat use and an accepted result. A positive reaction to a demonstration is useful feedback, but it does not establish that someone will keep paying.
Ask what the client would do instead: keep the existing service, hire someone, use another tool or leave the job undone. That alternative helps explain what the new offer is actually worth to them.
Use the service design worksheet
Worked example
A proposed client-operated content service
Invented teaching example. No client outcome is claimed.
CLIENT NEED
Former strategy clients still need help preparing content using the work already done.
PROPOSED JOB
The client requests a draft for a named audience.
Approved business and competitor context helps prepare it.
RESPONSIBILITIES
The client supplies the current purpose and checks business details.
Experts handle agreed review and requests outside the normal service.
Publishing follows a separate approved route.
COMMERCIAL QUESTIONS
Would clients use it repeatedly and pay for the agreed service?
How much review and support does each active client require?
Would the offer replace an existing full-service relationship?
FIRST TEST
Show one usable example to suitable clients and offer a small, clearly scoped trial.
Choose a first build that teaches you something
Start with one recurring job and a small group of suitable users. Build enough to deliver that job and record what they accept, where they need help and whether they return. You can broaden the offer when those results justify it.
The foundations may support further jobs: current client context, a reusable method and records of reviewed decisions. Each extension still needs a reason to exist and a test of whether the delivery works.
Further reading
Written by Said Lopez, founder of LeverageAI and author of Lean AI. Our guides draw on the method in the book and our work with clients.