In this conversation, you’ll hear me chat to Johanna Vollrath — service designer, team coach, and transformation specialist who helps organizations build high-performing product teams by applying design skills in unexpected ways.
Johanna and I care deeply about helping teams move faster — not by rushing, but by working smarter, with clarity and purpose.
This conversation reframed how I think about speed.
We talk about delivery pressure all the time — but here’s the thing:
👉 You can’t sprint your way out of systemic confusion.
👉 True speed starts with shared understanding, emotional trust, and knowing what not to build.
Johanna’s story isn’t just inspiring — it’s deeply practical with significant impact. Her team cut delivery time from 3 months to 3 weeks, not by adding velocity, but by designing alignment. That shift made me rethink what “fast” actually means.
Watch this episode on YouTube or listen on Spotify.
What stood out for me:
🗺 She used service blueprints to align people — not just map users
Johanna didn’t treat the blueprint as a UX deliverable. She turned it into a conversation map to align cross-functional teams, surface assumptions, and make better decisions, faster.
🧠 Stakeholders are users, too
This one really stuck with me. When Johanna faced stakeholder resistance, she used design research techniques — curiosity, empathy, context-gathering — to understand their fears and unlock trust.
💡 Speed is emotional
Yes, emotional. Her team wasn’t slow because of process — they were demotivated, confused, and operating in silos. By designing the team experience with the same care as the user journey, she created momentum.
🚫 Avoiding failure is an invisible win
Johanna said it best: “How do you measure what didn’t go wrong?” She reminded me that great design prevents waste — and that’s a story we need to get better at telling.
📏 Investing early = velocity later
A two-day kickoff workshop saved weeks (maybe months) of misalignment. This wasn’t just theoretical — the team’s performance visibly changed. And stakeholders took notice.
My reflection as a product leader:
We often think of design as the layer that makes things usable. But Johanna reminded me that design — especially service design — is a systems-thinking superpower.
If you want speed to value, don’t just build features faster.
Build better conditions for your team to move with confidence, clarity, and shared ownership.
Want to dig deeper? Here are Johanna’s go-to resources:
Lean Inception by Paulo Caroli
The Culture Map by Erin Meyer
IXDA Conference Talks
Service Blueprints (used as team alignment tools)
Connect with Johanna
🔗 LinkedIn: Johanna Vollrath
I’d love to hear from you:
How do you design for team speed?
Have you ever slowed down upfront — and then found your team moving 10x faster? What rituals, tools, or reframes helped you unlock clarity?
💬 Leave a comment, drop me a DM, or message me on LinkedIn.
I’m always curious to hear your stories — and share them with this growing community of thoughtful product and design leaders.
Until next time,
Sabrina 💛