Building Capability and Confidence at Knox Council

Context and challenge

Knox's staff were deeply connected to the residents they serve. They could see where services were falling short and had real empathy for the people affected. But without a shared approach to service design, that understanding wasn't translating into action. Previous mapping exercises had produced artefacts that sat on shelves. The gap wasn't knowledge — it was confidence, method, and the ability to bring the customer's voice directly into how services get improved. Knox didn't want another consultant-led redesign. They wanted their own people leading the change.

Our approach

We placed a dedicated coach inside Knox for 12 weeks — on Teams every day, sitting alongside the team as they worked through real problems. When someone was unsure how to run a workshop or got stuck synthesising research, they had someone right there to work it out with.

We began with a baseline skills assessment across 12 design capabilities to understand where the team was starting from and what they most wanted to learn. From there, we shaped a coaching plan around a "See it, Do it, Lead it" model: watch a method in action, have a go with support, then run it yourself.

Coaching rhythms included:

• 1:1 training sessions on design research, mapping, and service design
• Show and tells to share work-in-progress and get honest feedback
• Fortnightly reflections on learning needs and progress
• Regular check-ins to unblock teams and build confidence
• "Park bench" drop-ins for on-the-spot help and toolkit iteration

Learning through real work

The learning was grounded in a live redesign of Knox's hard waste service — covering research, blueprinting, co-design and prototyping. This wasn't hypothetical. Every new skill was applied to a real problem that staff cared about, with real residents at the centre.

To better match staff capacity, we shifted from three large workshops to six co-delivered, bite-sized digital sessions, ensuring there was a mixed toolkit for different situations. The coaching was consistently described as practical, supportive and confidence-building.

The project culminated in a Knox-specific service design toolkit, hosted in SharePoint and Miro, with templates and guides tailored to non-designers. Staff have since used it to run two further service design projects independently.

Outcomes and impact

The result was not just a new service blueprint — it was a measurable uplift in capability. Over 12 weeks, Knox staff saw improvement in 11 out of 12 design capability areas, with the strongest gains in:

• Service blueprinting (+39.3%)
• Customer journey mapping (+26.7%)
• Storytelling (+25%)

Staff now see service design as a way to lighten their load, not add to it. The 10 participants continue to apply what they've learned to improve services, and Knox is using this capability to close the loop with residents — improving communication, digital access and responsiveness.

Momentum is continuing to build, with trained staff now embedding a human-centred approach and design toolkit into Knox's strategy and continuous improvement work.