How to fix broken systems - Kate Tarling (CEO, The Service Group)

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Mar 18, 2026

Kate Tarling, service design consultant, author, and CEO of The Service Group, helps large organisations fix messy service delivery. She explains why services are different from products. She talks about common signs of broken systems, how to pick cross-functional service areas, and practical principles for steering work with clear outcomes and decisions.

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ADVICE

Start Transformation With One Cross Functional Service

Start transformation in one service area rather than trying to change the entire organisation at once.
Pick a service that matters to customers, form a multi-disciplinary group, learn fast and apply lessons across the organisation.

INSIGHT

Status Quo Is Not Neutral

The first mistake is treating the status quo as neutral; staying put has hidden costs and risks.
Leaders often underestimate the cost of inertia and overweigh the apparent risk of change.

ADVICE

Don’t Say You’ll Change Without Losing Control

Beware of rhetorical support for change that avoids actual power and budget shifts.
Kate warns organisations often say they want to be customer-centred but resist sharing control or resources.

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Kate Tarling — consultant, trainer, and author of The Service Organization — joins Lily and Randy to discuss what it takes to deliver great services inside large, complex organizations. The conversation covers the distinction between products and services, why transformation so often stalls, how to make the business case for change using existing investment, and how product people can contribute to, and benefit from, a more service-oriented way of working.

Chapters

00:01:30 — Introduction and Kate's background
00:04:00 — Defining services vs. products
00:07:00 — Product organizations vs. service organizations
00:09:00 — Why service delivery is hard
00:11:30 — Transformation in practice: there is no magic process
00:13:30 — Starting with one area and cutting across silos
00:15:30 — Common mistakes organizations make
00:19:30 — Measuring progress and making the business case
00:22:30 — Redirecting existing investment: a UK government example
00:25:00 — Triage functions and portfolio management
00:26:00 — How product people can contribute in service organizations
00:30:30 — Kate's 12 principles
00:34:00 — Summary
00:37:00 — Examples of good service organizations

Our Hosts
Lily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She’s currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She’s worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath.

Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury’s. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group’s Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He’s the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager’s Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon’s music stores in the US & UK.