We think we know services — not a day goes by without using them — until we have to design them. It is then that their realities confront us, teasing us sometimes. While services have always been ‘designed’, the qualities of their designs are more important than ever, given how much more we depend on them. Thus the need for deepening our understanding of what services are, what they can be, and why they fail — often in unexpected ways. This book reveals the surprising design of services — their internal structure or ‘DNA’ — through simple diagrams. It introduces a language and format for describing the concept of a service with clarity and depth. And, it provides the principles for implementing strategy through design.