01
See where the journey breaks
Use the Life of Work to capture the stages, people, systems and moments of delight or disappointment around a request.
Triage Studio
Design the way work gets started.
Most intake problems are not form problems. They start earlier: unclear channels, conflicting policy, poor questions and too many ways into the organisation. Studio brings HR, workforce and Procurement together to redesign the journey — then turns those decisions into Triage.
Part of Triage. Also available as a standalone consulting engagement.
Life of Work · working session
live workshop
Where should Triage intervene?
Map the experience before designing the intake.
Need identified
Manager knows the outcome, not the route.
Choose a path
Policy, systems and channel language collide.
Shape the request
Good questions improve the decision and the work.
Handoff
The right destination receives the right context.
Delight / disappointment
Studio in motion
Watch a workshop decision become part of the product.
These are simulated product shots built in HTML, not a video. They show the interaction at a useful pace: first the room finds the friction, then Studio turns it into a channel decision, a better question and a client-owned front door.
Welcome
Questions
Handoff
Requester
Know the outcome
Where do I start?
Procurement
Policy is elsewhere
Context gets lost
Delight / pain
+1
−2
0
QUESTIONS STAGE
How did this stage feel?
+1
0
−1
−2
TRIAGE INTERVENTIONMake the starting point obvious.
Add guidance and a clear intake intervention where the room has identified repeatable friction.
Start with the whole journey.The room can see where the experience breaks before anyone designs a new intake.
WelcomeThe questionsThe recommendationThe handoffShape the work
TRIAGE INTERVENTION
Make the starting point obvious.
The room has identified a repeatable point of friction. Add guidance and a clear intake intervention here.
Welcome
Questions
Recommendation
Handoff
Shape work
Requester
I know what I need to achieve.
Which route do I use?
Procurement
Policy sits elsewhere.
Context often gets lost.
Service owner
Clarify outcome and acceptance.
Delight / pain
How did this stage feel?
How did this stage feel?
How did this stage feel?
How did this stage feel?
How did this stage feel?
Start with the whole journey. The facilitator and room can see the entire Life of Work before they decide where to intervene.
ERP migration delivery partnerDefined outcome · 9 months · supplier accountable for delivery
PermanentBuild enduring internal capability.
ContingentTemporary individual capacity.
Service via SoWSupplier accountable for a defined outcome.
Now improve the channel.Scope quality · change control · commercial control
Make the allocation deliberate.Choose the route from the characteristics of the work — not the system somebody opened first.
Where should this work go?
Use the work characteristics — not the system somebody opened first.
Permanent
Build enduring internal capability.
Outsourced
Run a continuing service.
Contingent
Bring in temporary individual capacity.
Service via SoW
Supplier accountable for a defined outcome.
Get demand into the right channel. The workshop makes allocation deliberate. Only then does Studio define the roadmap for improving that channel.
Policy fact we need: how much day-to-day control will the client exercise?
RESPONDENT QUESTION
What type of engagement is this?
Contractor
Statement of Work
Managed service
I don’t know
Ask for observable behaviour. Let the decision model do the classification.
Spot the procedural question.The requestor is being asked to make the classification decision themselves.
What type of engagement is this?
Contractor
Statement of Work
Managed service
I don't know
Ask for observable behaviour. Let the decision model do the classification.
RESPONDENT PREVIEW
What type of engagement is this?
Contractor
Statement of Work
Managed service
I don't know
Turn policy into a question people can answer. Studio removes the classification task from the requestor and asks for the facts the decision actually needs.
Northstar · Workpreview
What do you need to get done?
Start with the work. We’ll guide you to the right route and explain what happens next.
I need someone to join my team
I need specialist capacity for a period
I need a supplier to deliver an outcome
I’m not sure — help me work it out
Triage questions→Service via SoW→Client route
Ownership agreed
Old links redirect
Managers know what changed
Put the model into the client’s world.The requestor starts with the work, not the downstream system.
Northstar · WorkClient front door · preview
What do you need to get done?
Start with the work. We’ll guide you to the right route and explain what happens next.
I need someone to join my team
I need specialist capacity for a period
I need a supplier to deliver an outcome
I’m not sure — help me work it out
Triage questions→
Service via SoW→
Client procurement route
Put the model into the client’s world. Studio designs a client-owned front door and the adoption changes that make it the obvious place to start.
Why Studio
Fix the decision before you automate the process.
A new front door cannot fix an old decision model. Studio does the human work first: understand how work moves, agree how demand should be allocated, translate policy into questions, and design the interventions that make the journey clearer.
02
Get demand into the right channel
Agree the channel map before designing the intake. The aim is not to favour a route. It is to make the allocation deliberate.
03
Turn policy into a usable experience
Build the questions, guidance and controls that let requestors describe the work without asking them to become HR, Procurement or compliance experts.
The Studio method
From workshop to working front door.
The workshops are not the product. Each one resolves a decision and creates something the implementation can use.
01
Life of Work
Map what happens from the moment someone needs work done. Find the friction, workarounds and moments where a better question, intervention or piece of guidance could change the outcome.
02
Channel mapping
Agree where different kinds of demand should go. Then define the roadmap for improving each channel — without pretending Studio is the team that implements every downstream programme.
03
Question design
Translate the agreed policy into diagnostic questions, answer choices, guidance and decision logic. Test the language with the people who actually have to answer it.
04
Front door design
Bring the journeys into one coherent, client-branded entrance. Studio designs it with you. The front door remains yours.
05
Implementation & adoption
Prepare the launch: ownership, communications, training, champions, testing, old entry points and the measures that show whether the new route is becoming normal.
Question design
Ask about the work. Not the process.
Most intake asks people to classify their own request: contractor or service, requisition or purchase order, this system or that one. That is a procedural question. It assumes the requestor already knows the answer the process is meant to establish.
Triage uses diagnostic questions. People describe the work, behaviour and intent they know. The decision model does the interpretation.
Our approach is informed by conversation analysis and our work with Professor Elizabeth Stokoe. Triage is also a member of the Conversation Design Institute.
QUESTION DESIGN · EXAMPLE
How involved will you be in the work?
The requestor describes planned behaviour. Triage can interpret what that means for the channel and controls.
Channel roadmap
Get the work into the right channel. Then improve the channel.
Allocation is the first decision. Studio then helps the client define what better looks like inside the channels that matter most.
Permanent
Use the intake to surface opportunities such as internal mobility before the organisation defaults to external demand.
Example optimisation · internal mobilityContingent
Make resource demand visible early enough to challenge location, rate and sourcing assumptions before they harden.
Example optimisation · labour arbitrageService via SoW
Start with a clearer scope, stronger controls and fewer opportunities for scope creep — improving the conditions for a successful project.
Example optimisation · scope and commercial controlFront door
Designed by Studio. Owned by the client.
The front door should feel like the organisation, not like another supplier tool. Studio designs the entry point around the agreed channels, questions, guidance and handoffs — then helps the client make it the normal way to start work.
One clear starting pointRemove the guesswork about which process or system comes first.
Learning in the journeyUse guidance at the moment it helps, instead of asking managers to read policy first.
First-line controlsPut the right checks into intake, where the decision is still changeable.
Adoption by designSupport the launch with communications, champions, testing and clear ownership.
Northstar · Work
What do you need to get done?
Start with the work. We’ll guide you to the right route and explain what happens next.
I need someone to join my team
I need specialist capacity for a period
I need a supplier to deliver an outcome
I’m not sure — help me work it out
Your brand · your policies · your channels · your ownership
What you leave with
Working assets, not a workshop deck.
Studio captures the decisions made in the room and turns them into the artefacts needed to build, launch and improve Triage.
Life of Work map
The stages, people, systems, friction and intervention moments around how work enters and moves through the organisation.
Channel map & roadmap
An agreed allocation model and a practical view of how each priority channel should improve.
Question flows
Policy-aligned diagnostic questions, guidance, answer structures and decision logic designed for the people who will use them.
Front-door design
A client-owned design for the starting point, journeys, handoffs and destinations across the workforce and services landscape.
Implementation & adoption plan
Owners, dependencies, communications, testing, training and the changes needed to move demand away from old entry points.
Measurement baseline
The starting measures for allocation, adoption and request behaviour so the programme can see what changes after launch.
How to engage Studio
Use Studio with Triage — or bring us in before you are ready for software.
Studio can form part of a Triage implementation, run as a focused consulting engagement, or stay involved as the intake model evolves. The scope depends on the decisions the organisation needs to resolve.
01
Focused design
A concentrated set of workshops around Life of Work, channel mapping or question design.
02
Implementation programme
Studio works alongside the build, front-door design, testing and adoption activities through launch.
03
Ongoing improvement
Review live request behaviour, repeated friction and changing policy to decide where the experience should improve next.
HR & workforceCWP leadersTalentServices ProcurementChange & programme leaders
Triage Studio
Before you build another intake form, redesign the decision.
Bring the people who own workforce, services and the requestor experience into one room. We’ll help turn the decisions into a front door people can actually use.