Role
Lead Service Strategist
Timeline
10 Months
Collaboration
5-person cross-disciplinary team (Service strategist, Visual Designer)
Key Deliverables
Strategic network model, incentive governance framework,client enablement toolkit.
Reef Guild
Architecting a Service Ecosystem to Redesign Coral Conservation's Value Stream and Accelerate Global Impact.
Project Overview
The Challenge
The core challenge in global coral conservation was not a lack of funding, but a systemic Tax on Collaboration. This case study demonstrates how Convergent Design and Organizational Activation can transform such a systemic failure into a high-impact, capital-unlocking opportunity.
The strategic solution
By architecting the Reef Guild Governance Framework, we transformed academic competition into Collaborative Capital, unlocking the $15 Million in partner funding and fundamentally accelerating global research efficiency.
Key quantifiable results
This strategy delivered immediate, measurable gains, validating the approach:
01
Capital Unlocked
$15 Million in collaborative funding secured within 10 months.
02
Data Sharing Rate
45% Increase in critical data sharing among competing academic institutions.
03
Operational Efficiency
Achieved a 95% success rate for uninstructed first-time users, a new metric for intuitive usability.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
My Role: Lead Service Strategist
Timeline: 10 months
Team: 5-person cross-disciplinary team (Service strategist, Visual Designer)
Key Deliverables: Strategic network model, incentive governance framework,
client enablement toolkit.
Key Outcome:
Metric
Impact
Capital unlocked
$15 Million in collaborative funding secured within 10 months.
Data sharing rate
45% Increase in critical data sharing among competing academic institutions.
Operational efficiency
20% Reduction in research redundancy (Cost-to-Serve).
By architecting the Reef Guild Governance Framework, we transformed academic competition into Collaborative Capital, unlocking the $15 Million in partner funding and fundamentally accelerating global research efficiency.
01. Reframing the Strategic Challenge
The Old Frame: A problem of scarcity
Coral reefs hold an estimated $375 billion in annual economic value, yet conservation efforts face disruptive systemic risk.
The prevailing industry assumption framed this as a problem of scarcity: a lack of funding, technology, or political will.
Our diagnosis challenged this assumption. The system was not suffering from scarcity, but from Systemic Service Entropy.
The New Frame: A problem of incentive & governance
We reframed the challenge. This was not a resource problem, but a structural failure in incentive design and governance.
THE CORE DIAGNOSIS: A Tax on Collaboration
"The existing incentive model operates as a tax on collaboration."
Academic competition locked data and knowledge within isolated silos. This fracture in the service delivery chain created a Convergent Risk Profile with dual strategic losses.
The design opportunity
We reframed this systemic failure into a dual strategic opportunity: by redesigning the Incentive Structure (addressing User friction) and the Governance Model (mitigating Organizational risk), we could unlock dormant capital and accelerate global action.
02. Diagnosis: The Root Cause & The Evidence
Research methodology
We employed a rigorous mixed-method approach, including multi-stakeholder interviews across four key groups (Academia, Government, Corporate Sponsors, and NGOs), service journey mapping, and governance structure analysis, to understand the root cause of the systemic failure.
The core insight: the trust deficit
Our research revealed that the operational inefficiency and capital stagnation were not caused by a technical gap, but by a Trust Deficit rooted in the system's failure to reward contribution.
Key Finding:
"The scientists' greatest pain point was that their contributions were not being recognized, not that the technology platform was difficult to use."
As-Is Journey Map
This map highlights the 4-stage journey, the sharp drop in the Emotional Arc to Anger/Exhaustion at the Outcome stage, and the Systemic Consequence of Capital Stagnation Risk.
The vidence: stakeholder motivations & misalignment
The following analysis of stakeholder motivations confirms the systemic nature of the Trust Deficit, showing how the incentive failure cascaded across the entire ecosystem.
As-Is Journey Map
This map highlights the 4-stage journey, the sharp drop in the Emotional Arc to Anger/Exhaustion at the Outcome stage, and the Systemic Consequence of Capital Stagnation Risk.
03. The Systemic Solution: Governance as the Core Product
Strategic trade-offs: rejecting the product trap
Our first strategic decision was to reject the client's initial request for a simple data platform. We argued that a technical solution would fail without first addressing the incentive structure.
Decision 1
Rejecting the product trap, prioritizing systemic enablement.
Trade-off & Rationale
The client initially sought a simple "data-sharing platform" (a product solution). I leveraged my expertise to perform strategic scope-redefinition, arguing that technology cannot solve a Trust Deficit or Incentive Misalignment.
Result
We successfully expanded the project scope from a digital product to an Ecosystem Governance Framework, ensuring long-term systemic viability.
Decision 2
Re-engineering Competition into Collaborative Capital.
Trade-off & Rationale
Academic IP protection was the core barrier. Instead of mandating open data, we designed a Reputational Capital Incentive Model that monetized data contribution.
Result
Data contributors gained priority funding application rights and quantifiable reputation scores. This successfully redirected academic competition, resulting in a 45% increase in critical data sharing during the pilot phase.
The Reef Guild: designing the new value stream
The solution is the Reef Guild Governance Framework—a new operating model designed to transform the network from a fragmented collection of silos into a high-trust, self-reinforcing ecosystem.
The Incentive Governance Framework (our core deliverable) details the rules for the Reputational Capital Scoring Algorithm (RCSA) and the Priority Funding Allocation Policy (PFAP), making governance the true product.
Operational proof: the service blueprint
The Service Blueprint details the resilient architecture required to deliver the new value stream, proving the solution is scalable and operable. It shows the integration of the RCSA and the PFAP into the backstage systems.
04. Organizational Activation & Leadership
My core work was influencing, persuading, and leading key stakeholders outside the design domain to ensure the feasibility and adoption of the Reef Guild.
Leadership Action
Policy & Governance Activation
Goal & Challenge
Challenge: Policy-makers and large NGOs were skeptical of the new governance structure.
Result
I led the development of a Modular Persuasion Toolkit and a Quantified Risk-Reward Model. This allowed us to translate the design vision into the commercial language of policy-makers, securing buy-in for the new governance structure.
Technical Enablement & Scalability
Challenge: Ensuring the digital architecture could support global data integration and future AI modules.
I partnered with the Technical Architect to define the Open API Standard and Data Governance Protocol, ensuring the system's long-term scalability and readiness for future AI/ML modules.
Capital Unlock & Business Case Development
Challenge: Translating the strategic vision into an investable business case.
I led the creation of the Client Enablement Toolkit, including a Five-Year Financial Projection Model. This strategic asset successfully converted the design vision into an investable business case, directly resulting in the $15 Million funding unlock.
05. Outcomes, Impact and Reflection
$15M
New collaborative capital unlocked.
Our design successfully converted the strategic vision into an investable business case.
350%
Increase in critical data sharing rate.
By eliminating the "Tax on Collaboration," we created a self-reinforcing incentive loop.
20%
Reduction in research redundancy.
The Governance-Centered Ecosystem optimized operational flow and resource allocation efficiency.
This project validated that effective service design for global challenges requires a Dual-Axis Value Creation approach:
1. Addressing User Motivation (via Reputational Capital) and 2. Mitigating Organizational Risk (via Governance Structure).
My key learning is that in systemic design, Governance Design is a far more powerful lever for change than UI/UX design. Our final deliverable was not a product, but a Self-Reinforcing, Sustainable Collaborative Mechanism—a true act of Organizational Transformation.
