Operating Design Studio
Take your best work further.
We bring your team’s expertise and AI together to rethink how the work gets done—and help you put it into practice.
For teams ready to improve the way they work or build something new.
Less time assembling reports. More time acting on them.
Illustrative example · a team’s weekly project review
Every week, someone pulls figures from different systems, chases project updates and puts the report together. By the time it’s ready, there’s little time left to work through what needs attention.
Start with the decisions the report should help you make.
Which projects are falling behind? Where is work taking more time than planned? What needs a conversation with the client? We agree what the team needs to know and what would make an issue worth flagging.
From project updates to decisions.
Illustrative workflow · weekly project review
01 · Automation + AI
Gather updates. Prepare the summary.
Bring together project progress and time spent. AI highlights changes and links back to the sources.
Is the information clear enough to review?
Something is missing or unclear
Clarification needed
Ask the person responsible.
Confirm the update or clarify the figures. Refresh the summary before relying on it.
Sources and context are available
Ready for review
Bring the changes into focus.
Show progress, possible problems and the source information for the project lead to check.
02 · Project lead
Review the report. Decide what happens next.
Check the summary, add context and name who will resolve a delay, review costs or speak with the client.
Put the team’s time where it makes a difference.
The aim is less time copying, chasing and formatting—and more time resolving delays, managing project costs and keeping clients informed.
We test that on real work: does preparation take less effort, are the flags useful, and can the team trust the report enough to act?
What would you like to change?
Good work takes too much effort.
Preparation gets repeated. The same details need correcting. You want to spend more of your team’s time on the work that makes a difference.
Useful AI practices stay with individuals.
People have found approaches that work for them. You want to make those approaches useful across the team, with shared knowledge and clear standards.
You have an idea for something new.
A service you could offer. A product you could develop. Something your business could do if you found the right way to bring your expertise and AI together.
You’re deciding how to grow.
Before hiring or investing in another system, you want to understand how the work could change—and what your team will need to take it on.
Design how people and AI work together.
Operating Design shapes how people and AI work together to improve business performance and build new capabilities. It defines how expertise guides the work, who does what, who decides what, and how the work gets done.
Start with what the business needs.
We work through what you want to improve or make possible, then explore where AI could help.
Bring your expertise into the work.
We make your team’s knowledge, methods and standards usable in the way the work runs. That includes what AI can handle, where a person’s judgement matters, and who is responsible for the result.
Test the approach on real work.
We use real tasks to check whether the approach works, where it needs changing and what it asks of your team. A prototype can help us test an idea before committing to a full build.
Help your team put it into practice.
When we implement, we build and connect the systems and help your team use them. We agree who looks after them and what support is needed.
Ways to work together
Engagements can focus on design, implementation, or both. We start with what needs to improve or what your business needs to be able to do, then agree the work needed to get there.
Design
Work out how this part of your business should run: what people need to know, who does what, where AI helps and how the work moves forward. The result might be a practical plan, a prototype to test an idea, or a clearer decision about what to build.
Make the way forward clear.
Bring your expertise into the work.
Where AI helpsWhat AI can handle and how the work moves forward.
Where judgement mattersWhat a person decides and who is responsible for the result.
Implementation
Put the design to work in your business. We build and connect the systems, test them on real tasks and help your team use them. If you already have a clear direction, we can start here.
Put the design to work.
- Build and connect
- The systems the work needs.
- Test on real tasks
- Check the approach with the team who will use it.
- Agree ongoing care
- Who looks after the systems and what support is needed.
Assessment, when you need a starting point
Decide where AI could make a worthwhile difference and what to do first. An assessment is paid work with a useful answer of its own, whether or not we go on to design or build together.
Find a useful starting point.
- What needs to improve?
- The work you want to change or make possible.
- Where could AI help?
- Where it could make a worthwhile difference.
- What should happen first?
- A useful answer, whether or not we go on to build together.
Know what you’re committing to.
Before work begins, we agree the scope, price, timing and what we’ll need from your team. We also make ownership, access and ongoing support clear.
Start a conversation
Meet Ronnie Parsons.
I’m Ronnie, founder of Mode Lab. For more than two decades, I’ve helped businesses rethink how they design, develop and deliver their work—from new products and manufacturing methods to workflows and team training.
That experience shapes how I approach AI today. I look at the work people need to do, the expertise they bring, and what would help them do it better or take on something new.
Tell us what you’d like to change.
You might have a clear problem, a new idea, or a decision you’re still working through. Tell us a little about your business and what you want to make possible.