UX Fika Podcast #24: Kate Tarling on Service Organisations, Navigating Complex Realities, And Moving To What Matters
In this episode of the UX Fika podcast, I sit down with Kate Tarling, service leadership expert, author of The Service Organisation, and founder of The Service Org Group, where she helps large and complex organisations shift to a more service-oriented way of working.
We talk about what it really means for organisations to become service-oriented, and why so many still haven’t grasped what their services actually are. Kate shares how easy it is to confuse departments, technologies, and internal processes for “the service,” and why the work has to start from the outside in, from what people are actually trying to do.
Kate shares how it’s no longer about convincing people of the value of UX or service design, but helping leaders navigate the real, structural problems of scale and complexity: fragmented decision-making, siloed measures of success, and teams all “doing good work” in isolation from one another. We talk about why modern organisations need multifunctional leadership, shared accountability, and clearer ways to measure performance across an entire service. Not just within individual functions.
We also dive into how organisations actually make this shift, why small steps matter, and why waiting for permission often means nothing changes. Kate explains how teams can start contextualising their work, influencing decisions, and revealing the bigger picture, even when the organisation isn’t “ready” yet.
And we talk about our best and worst service experience, why Sheffield according to Kate is the best place in the UK and why, when in doubt, you should imagine what someone else might do.
Kate was also part of the original group who regularly met for dinners back in London, and one of the first I met on the conference scene. She is also a very dear friend and with those things combined, her episode makes a suitable ending to season 3, and bridge into the next one. More on that soon.
Plus:
☕️ Why tea and a Portuguese custard tart is one of her go to fikas
⭐ Why when you're faced with a difficult situation, or you're aware of a difficult situation coming up, or you're in a sitiation or maybe an opportunity ahead of you that you're not sure how to approach, pick somebody you admire and imagine what they would do in that situation.
Where you'll find Kate
Where you’ll find Anna & UX Fika: