Designing for Impact: How to Sidestep Common Pitfalls in Outcomes-Based Services

In public health and healthcare, making a real impact goes beyond good intentions—it’s about crafting services that resonate deeply with the people who use them. You’ve got to think ahead, move fast, and stay flexible. At Elephant Impact, we believe in a human-centered approach to developing tech-enabled services that prioritize health outcomes and sustainability. It’s about building something that matters, that grows, and that lasts.

The path to impactful services is riddled with challenges, but with foresight and a human-centered approach, you can minimize the obstacles to focus your attention and efforts on where they matter most. Here are some common pitfalls and how to dodge them on your journey to delivering outcomes-based services.

1. Define Clear Outcomes

Pitfall: Diving into service design without crystal-clear outcomes is like setting sail in a direction without a specific destination. It’s easy to veer off course, wasting time and resources on things that don’t impact your outcomes.

Avoid It: Start with your North Star—what are the outcomes you want to achieve? Engage stakeholders early—patients, health providers, community members, and partners—to co-create a vision of success. Use theory of change tools, logic models, and impact maps. Remember, clarity on outcomes drives everything else.

2. Elevate the End-User's Voice

Pitfall: It’s tempting to make assumptions about what your clients need based on expertise or data alone. However, failing to incorporate the voices of the people directly impacted can lead to services that miss the mark or even exacerbate existing issues.

Avoid It: Get up close and personal with your end-users. Interview them, shadow them, observe their behaviors, and understand their pain points. Use empathy maps, personas, and rapid prototyping to capture their needs, understand what is most important to them, and iteratively refine your service.

3. Simplify the Service Design

Pitfall: Complexity can be a barrier to adoption, especially when working with diverse user groups and cross-functional parts of your organization. Too much complexity breeds confusion, which leads to frustration, and ultimately, failure to deliver the intended outcomes.

Avoid It: Simplify wherever possible. Focus on what truly drives outcomes and strip away the rest. Use journey mapping to identify pain points and streamline processes. Aim for services that are intuitive and easy to use.

4. Context is Critical

Pitfall: Ignoring the broader context—the cultural, social, economic, and environmental factors that shape a service’s reality—can cause even the most well-designed services to fall flat.

Avoid It: Understand the environment in which your service will operate. Engage with stakeholders to uncover the nuances of the setting, and tailor your approach accordingly. The more your service reflects its context, the more they will resonate and succeed.

5. Embrace Continuous Learning

Pitfall: Even the best-designed services will encounter unforeseen challenges. Thinking of your service as a finished product rather than a work in progress risks falling behind or becoming irrelevant as the needs of the end-users evolve.

Avoid It: Foster a culture of continuous learning and adaptation. Monitor your outcomes closely, collect feedback, and be prepared to pivot. Use agile methodologies to keep your service relevant and impactful. Challenge your assumptions check in with stakeholders, keep evolving.

6. Align Stakeholders

Pitfall: Misaligned stakeholders can derail even the best-laid plans. When funders, service providers, and end-users have conflicting priorities or expectations, it is difficult to maintain momentum and achieve outcomes.

Avoid It: Foster stakeholder alignment from the start. Clearly communicate the service vision and objectives, set shared goals, and create structures that enable stakeholders to have a voice. When everyone feels invested in the journey, they’ll pull together to make it a success.

7. Plan for Scalability from the Start

Pitfall: Designing a service that works in a pilot phase is great; scaling it sustainably is another challenge. Many services fail to scale because scalability is not considered from the start.

Avoid It: Think about scalability from day one. How can your services expand and adapt? Where are there efficiencies to be gained? Plan for the resources—people, money, time—that will be needed for sustainable growth, and identify partners who can help amplify your impact.

Wrapping Up

Outcomes-based services are about making a meaningful impact. meaningful, measurable difference. But impact isn’t just a goal—it’s a process. By keeping your eye on these common pitfalls, you can steer clear of the traps and ensure that your service not only meet today’s needs but is ready to grow and evolve with the future. At Elephant Impact, we’re here to help you navigate the journey, keeping your focus on what really matters: creating services that make a meaningful, measurable difference. Let’s build a brighter future, together.

Seeing the Whole Elephant: How Systems Thinking Transforms Strategy and Service Development

In public health and healthcare, the stakes are high, and the challenges are complex. Whether you're developing new services, crafting organizational strategy, or striving to break down silos within your organization, one truth remains clear: success demands a holistic view. The ancient Indian parable of the 6 Blind Men and an Elephant offers a timeless lesson that speaks directly to this need.

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In the story, six blind men encounter an elephant for the first time. Each man touches a different part of the elephant—one feels the trunk, another the tusk, another the leg, and so on. Based on their limited experiences, each one describes the elephant differently: one claims it’s like a snake, another insists it’s like a tree trunk, yet another believes it’s like a wall. Each is convinced they understand the whole, yet all are missing the bigger picture. This parable is a powerful metaphor for the challenges organizations face when they focus too narrowly on individual aspects of their work, missing the broader context.

To truly innovate and make an impact, organizations must embrace a systems thinking approach—a mindset that connects the dots between strategy, service development, and internal alignment. Let’s explore how this holistic perspective can unlock better outcomes across all facets of your organization.

Strategic Vision: Seeing Beyond the Parts

Crafting an organizational strategy is like trying to understand the whole elephant when each team only sees a part. Your business development team might be driven by ambitious targets, your product development team by a passion for innovation, and your operations team by efficient delivery. Each perspective is valuable, but without alignment, the overall strategy risks becoming fragmented and less effective.

Systems thinking invites us to step back and consider how these different elements fit together. By recognizing the interplay between departments, markets, and external factors, you can craft a strategy that’s cohesive, adaptable, and visionary. This approach not only helps you anticipate challenges but also uncovers opportunities for synergy— ensuring all parts of your organization are working together toward a common goal.

Service Development: Connecting the Dots

When developing services, it’s easy to get caught up in perfecting one aspect of the offering, whether it’s the user experience, the operational flow, or the marketing strategy. However, like the blind men each feeling on a different part of the elephant, focusing too narrowly can lead to solutions that miss the mark.

A systems thinking approach encourages us to connect the dots, bringing together disparate ideas to create a complete, integrated service. Imagine developing a new health service: it’s not just about medical or public health expertise, but also about technology, community input, and policy alignment. By integrating these perspectives, you can create a service that truly meets the needs of your users and stands the test of time.

Breaking Down Silos: Aligning Your Organization

One of the biggest barriers to effective strategy and service development is organizational silos. Teams working in isolation often develop their own processes, goals, and metrics, leading to misalignment and inefficiency. Just as the blind men missed the whole elephant because they didn’t collaborate, silos can prevent an organization from achieving its full potential.

Systems thinking helps break down these silos by fostering a culture of collaboration and shared vision. It’s about more than just communicating—it’s about creating a space where knowledge is shared and teams work together toward unified objectives. When alignment happens across your organization, your strategies and services don’t just add up—they multiply in impact.

How to Apply Systems Thinking to Innovating Strategy and Services, and Aligning Your Organization

1. Map the System: Start by visualizing the entire ecosystem—consider all the stakeholders, processes, and external influences that shape your strategy, services, and organization. This map should include internal teams and external partners, customers, and the broader market landscape.

2. Identify Interdependencies: Look for the connections between different parts of the system. How does a shift in operations affect customer experience? How does marketing influence service delivery? By understanding these relationships, you can design solutions that are more integrated and effective. How do they all impact your customer’s success?

3. Foster Cross-Functional Collaboration: Break down silos by encouraging collaboration across teams. Create cross-functional groups that bring diverse perspectives together. Regular check-ins and open channels of communication ensure everyone is aligned in establishing and moving toward shared goals.

4. Embrace Iteration: Systems are dynamic, and your approach should be too. Create shared success metrics. Regularly revisit and refine your strategies and services based on feedback from all stakeholders. Be ready to pivot and adapt as needed to keep pace with change.

5. Think Holistically and Long-Term: Systems thinking isn’t just about today — it’s about sustainability. Consider the long-term implications of your decisions, and think about how they affect not just your organization but the broader ecosystem. This forward-looking perspective will help ensure your strategies and services remain relevant and resilient.

Conclusion: The Power of Seeing the Whole Elephant

The parable of the 6 Blind Men and an Elephant is more than just a story; it’s a powerful reminder of the importance of seeing the whole picture. In business, as in life, focusing too narrowly on individual aspects can lead to incomplete or misguided decisions. Whether you're crafting strategy, developing services, or striving to break down silos, systems thinking is your key to success.

By embracing the whole elephant—seeing the big picture, connecting diverse ideas, and fostering alignment—you can create strategies and services that are not only effective but also resilient and adaptable. At Elephant Impact, we’re here to help organizations adopt this holistic approach, ensuring that every part of your business works together to drive meaningful, sustainable success.