My whole life I have been surrounded by teachers, some good, some great, and some not so great, but the best one was my mother. She modeled for me what patience, kindness and guidance looks like. Though I never wanted to become a teacher myself, I seem to have found my way in through coaching, whether informally with friends or professionally with clients. It started when I was a teenager, helping students practice a foreign language, then mentoring new hires at the Apple store, eventually doing one on one training sessions and ultimately coaching in service design at Harmonic.
From family members, to best friends, teachers to gym coaches, we’ve all probably experienced some kind of mentorship or coaching relationship. In fact, one of the first questions I ask a new coachee is, have you ever been coached before? What are you expecting from coaching? We’ve all had similar experiences that we can reflect on, and it’s helpful to share what you have and have not liked, what coaching styles have been effective, and which have not.
Coaching Isn’t One-Size-Fits-All
Coaching isn’t one-size-fits-all—neither is service design, some coachees like to prepare questions ahead of a session, others want to address something that just came up, while others learn by doing together, some like to be challenged to navigate on their own and then follow up with feedback on their designed approach. How one learns and works, likes to give and receive feedback, etc. is all very important in how I show up for each coachee in a way that aligns our styles together. The first coaching session is crucial to creating alignment, setting expectations and simply getting to know one another. We like to use a framework that does just that, from sharing how you like to be recognized, to whether you’re a morning person, or not.
Coaching has become a very important focus in my career, helping me show up better for my colleagues, my clients, and myself. It requires active listening and a collaborative partnership where both the coach and coachee align on where, when, and how they show up for and with one another. It creates space for real human-to-human connection.
Embedding Coaching into The Real Work of Public Libraries
When the Program and Project Management team at Richland Library, a long-standing Harmonic client, reached out to work with us, they were looking to build their service design capabilities and cultivate a community of practice. Through a carefully curated and customized scope of work, Harmonic proposed embedding coaching into the rhythm of the team’s work.
In our engagement with Richland Library, every coaching moment is grounded in the team’s real work and adapts to each practitioner’s needs, energy, and readiness. After helping the team define their purpose, we co-created methods to integrate service design with project management and impact frameworks. Through one on one and small team sessions, we coach the practitioners as they apply those methods to messy, ambiguous projects where service design can make the greatest difference.
There are many styles, modes, and environments of coaching. This can look like asking for feedback on a research approach, best practices for facilitating a workshop, or sharing an example of a customized design framework. As coaches, we don’t give answers—we guide, teach, advise, and model. The coachees develop the solutions themselves.
From Guidance to Growth: What Coaching Looks Like in Practice
At Richland Library, I have been lucky enough to build a long standing relationship with my coachees, meeting every other week for an hour, and checking in through chat and email in between. I look forward to my one-on-ones, as I know my coachees will bring a new challenge or share a win, or even a challenge with me. We have become true thought partners and I know I have become a better coach and designer because of our work together.
When one of my coachees asked about best practices for facilitating a retro, we focused less on the “right” format and more on context—where the work sat in its cycle and who needed to be in the room.
As he facilitated more sessions, his confidence grew. So did his curiosity.
At one point, he asked: What do we actually do with the outcomes of a retro? Too often, they sit untouched. Together, we explored how to turn those insights into action—how retros can surface not just reflections, but direction.
Now, he’s implementing retros on one of his projects as a repeatable way to identify new work and uncover opportunities. It shifted my perspective too. Something that once felt routine revealed a deeper level of impact.
Another coachee took a completely different approach—one that was just as powerful.
Mid-session, she asked me to wait, then turned her camera to a slew of sticky notes and scraps of paper taped up on her wall. That physical act—writing, moving, rearranging—helped her think more clearly. It also gave us something tangible to react to as she walked me through her process.
It was a reminder that effective practice doesn’t always come from polished tools or perfect frameworks. Sometimes, it comes from making the work visible—whatever that looks like.
Curiosity as the Catalyst
As we get ready to continue into another year-long coaching engagement with the P&P team, we’re excited to continue to help them foster a community of practice of service design at the Richland Library. What makes this team so unique is how they consistently show up with intention, applying their ideas in thoughtful and practical ways. Their questions are sharp, and their curiosity pushes the work forward. Curiosity is really all you need!
