Introduction
Service management frameworks like ITIL are packed with powerful concepts, but they can sometimes feel abstract and disconnected from reality. Remembering definitions is one thing; applying them to messy, unpredictable real-world situations is entirely another.
To bridge that gap, we can look at a familiar, grounded scenario: adopting a pet. By walking through the journey of bringing a cat home, we can see how the seven ITIL guiding principles operate not as rigid rules in a textbook, but as practical tools for solving real problems and delivering genuine value.
The Core of Service Management: Why Value Is Defined by the Customer
Imagine a customer walking into a rescue shelter and stating a simple request:
“I want to adopt a cat.”
In this scenario, identifying the customer is straightforward—they are right there in front of us, explicitly defining their immediate need. In the real world of service management, identification is rarely that simple. Especially when dealing with internal customers, figuring out who holds the authority to define requirements, authorize budgets, and take responsibility for outcomes requires real discovery.
Regardless of whether the customer is internal or external, a provider cannot just take an initial request at face value, check what is available, and hand over a solution. Recognizing Focus on Value means seeing that initial request as the start of a conversation, not the end of the discovery process.
Our job is neither to dictate what the customer should want nor to ignore what they have asked for. Instead, we must uncover what they are trying to achieve and why it matters.
The Customer Defines Value
Value is determined by the consumer; it is never something a provider can define based purely on technical capabilities, feature lists, or internal judgments.
If we ask our customer:
“Why do you want to adopt a cat?”
And they answer:
“For companionship.”
We are getting closer. Digging deeper reveals specific drivers:
- “I don’t have time to take a dog for walks.”
- “I like that cats have fur.”
- “I like when they purr.”
- “I want to come home and not feel so alone.”
Now we understand what the customer values. Our role as the service provider is to bring our expertise, resources, and capabilities together with the customer’s goals to co-create value.
Outputs, Outcomes, and Value: Knowing the Difference
One of the easiest ways to lose sight of value is to confuse what we deliver with what the customer actually achieves.
- Output: What is produced or delivered (e.g., A cat is provided).
- Outcome: The result achieved by the stakeholder through the use of that output (e.g., The customer gains the companionship they were seeking and feels less lonely).
- Value: The customer’s perception that achieving that outcome is beneficial and important to them.
Delivering the correct output does not automatically guarantee the desired outcome. If a customer wants an interactive companion and adopts a cat that spends most of its time hiding under the bed, the output was delivered, but the customer may not achieve the outcome they wanted.
Utility and Warranty: Fit for Purpose and Fit for Use
Utility and warranty help us evaluate whether a service can actually deliver expected value:
- Utility (Fit for Purpose): The functionality offered by a product or service to meet a particular need. It describes what the service does by supporting performance or removing constraints. For our cat example, utility includes companionship, interaction, affection, and play.
- Warranty (Fit for Use): The assurance that a product or service will meet agreed requirements. It describes how the service performs, including factors such as availability, capacity, security, and continuity. For the cat, this means considering questions such as: Is the cat available when the customer wants companionship? Does the customer understand its temperament? Is the cat comfortable enough in its environment to come out and interact? Does the customer understand that an adjustment period may be necessary?
Cost, Risk, and the Value Trade-Off
Cost and risk are important considerations when evaluating value. A cat that is free to adopt may still involve veterinary expenses, sterilization, food, and ongoing care. Something that costs less initially does not automatically provide more value.
Likewise, an option that costs more may create more value for that particular customer by reducing effort, time, or risk that matters to them. For example, an automatic litter box costs more, but the customer may decide that reducing ongoing maintenance effort is well worth the extra cost. The provider’s job is to help the customer understand those trade-offs so they can decide what creates value.
Focus on Value Requires Continual Validation
Value isn’t something we establish once and forget about. Because customer needs, priorities, and circumstances change over time, service providers must continually validate that their services are still delivering outcomes stakeholders actually care about.
Summary: Co-Creating Value Together
Focus on Value doesn’t mean blindly giving the customer whatever they ask for, nor does it mean the provider knows best.
When a customer makes a specific request—such as wanting a pedigree cat because they believe it will be healthier—we can use reliable information to help them examine that assumption, explore options, and understand potential risks.
Ultimately, the customer defines the value, and the provider helps make it achievable. That ongoing collaboration is the heart of Focus on Value.
How does your team actively validate that your services are delivering the outcomes your stakeholders actually experience—especially internal ones—rather than simply checking off completed outputs?
Start Where You Are: Don’t Throw Away What You Already Have
Too often, service providers treat every new request like a blank slate—wasting established knowledge, existing resources, and past lessons just because a new interaction has begun.
Instead of automatically asking, “What do we need to provide?” a much better starting question is:
“What do we already have?”
In our rescue shelter scenario, the customer is not a first-time pet owner; they have cared for a cat before. Recognizing this changes the entire dynamic. We ask:
“Tell me about your previous cat.”
The customer explains that their previous cat was fairly easy to care for. She used the litter box, enjoyed sitting on the couch, and loved her scratching post, though she wasn’t particularly interested in sitting on laps.
When we dig deeper into what worked and what didn’t—such as struggling with nail trimming and administering medication as the cat aged—we capture vital historical context. We are not guessing; we are learning from established experience.
Next, we ask:
“What do you still have from your previous cat?”
The customer reveals they still have a cat tree, a litter box, a scratching post, toys, and blankets in good condition. Because the previous cat passed away of old age, there is no logical reason to automatically discard perfectly functional equipment and force the customer to buy everything brand new.
This is Start Where You Are in practice: evaluating the current state objectively before deciding what needs to be added, changed, replaced, or left alone. It ensures we do not throw away useful knowledge, resources, capabilities, or practices simply because we are starting something new.
Furthermore, we learn that the customer now works from home and is around much more often. When asked what they would do differently, they share:
“I’d probably look for a cat that enjoys sitting with me. I didn’t realize how much I would miss that.”
This highlights how the ITIL guiding principles interact. We didn’t finish Focus on Value and then neatly close that box before opening Start Where You Are. The principles overlap and reinforce one another.
Exploring what the customer wants helps us understand value, while examining their past history, existing gear, and changed work-from-home circumstances reveals their current state. Together, these insights prevent redundant spending, honor past experience, and ensure that our next steps are based on what we already know.
Optimize and Automate: Make What You Have Work Better
By this point, we already know something important about our customer: they have resources they can use. They still have the cat tree, litter box, scratching post, toys, and other equipment from their previous cat.
We don’t automatically replace those things. We look at what we already have and ask:
“How can we make this work as effectively as possible?”
The house is cleaned and prepared before the new cat arrives. The first room the cat will occupy is quiet and has everything the cat needs while it adjusts to its new environment.
That’s Optimize. We’re not starting over. We’re improving the way the existing resources are arranged and used.
Then we look at the equipment we already have that can perform routine tasks automatically.
- The automatic feeder is configured to provide dry food twice a day.
- The automatic water fountain is maintained on a regular schedule.
- The automatic litter box is configured to rake five minutes after the cat is no longer detected, and the unit is serviced regularly.
That’s Automate.
The important distinction is that we didn’t start by saying, “Let’s buy automation.” We started with what we already had, optimized how it was being used, and then made appropriate use of automation to reduce repetitive effort.
Optimize and Automate work together. We first make sure the activity, environment, or process is working effectively. Then, where appropriate, automation can handle repetitive or routine work.
The goal isn’t automation for its own sake. The goal is to improve the way work is performed and reduce unnecessary effort while continuing to deliver the value the customer expects.
The Automation Caveat: Don’t Automate a Broken Process
There is an old, reliable axiom in service management: Automating a broken process only makes a bad process run faster.
If our environment is chaotic, our equipment is poorly maintained, or we haven’t first optimized how things work, introducing automation can simply amplify the dysfunction.
Imagine configuring an automatic feeder or a self-cleaning litter box without first checking whether they actually fit the new cat’s needs, or setting them up in a noisy, high-traffic hallway where the cat refuses to go. The technology may function exactly as designed, but the overall experience can still fail.
Automation is a force multiplier, not a magic fix. Before handing tasks over to technology, make sure the underlying process, environment, and setup are working effectively. Then automation can reduce repetitive effort while continuing to support the value the customer expects.
Collaborate and Promote Visibility: Everyone Needs to Be Part of the Conversation
Bringing a new cat into the home doesn’t involve just the person adopting the cat. Everyone who interacts with that cat—or whose activities could affect the cat—needs to be considered.
In our baseline scenario, there aren’t any other pets in the house. But what if there were?
The Dog-and-Cat Introduction Example
Suppose the customer already owns a resident dog. We couldn’t simply bring the new cat home, drop it in the living room, and expect everything to work itself out.
Introducing a cat to a home with an existing dog requires careful collaboration and visible planning:
- Assessing compatibility: We must evaluate the dog’s temperament, prey drive, and previous history with cats.
- Managing the environment: We need to set up physical barriers—such as baby gates or separate sanctuary rooms—so the cat and dog can smell each other safely without direct, high-stress contact.
- Staging the rollout: We control the pace of the introduction, using scent swapping and slow, supervised visual sessions over days or weeks.
Those animals are active parts of the environment and must be factored into how the household will operate.
The same applies to people. All stakeholders should be considered, but they don’t necessarily have equal influence or responsibility. The person adopting the cat may have primary decision-making responsibility, while other household members, regular visitors, and external service providers have different needs and responsibilities that must be addressed.
Make Sure Everyone Has the Information They Need
Suppose the customer’s grandchildren regularly visit. They don’t get to decide what cat to adopt, but they are still stakeholders in the experience. They need to understand clear boundaries for interacting safely:
- Be gentle.
- Don’t pick the cat up unless the owner says it’s okay.
- If the cat goes into the bedroom, don’t follow it.
- Give the cat space when it wants to be alone.
This is Promote Visibility in practice. Information isn’t useful if it stays trapped with one person; the people who need to know must have access to the details that affect them.
The same principle applies before the cat even arrives. The customer should talk to friends and family. Someone may have severe allergies. Someone else may dislike cats entirely. Another person might love cats and want to crowd the doorway immediately. Knowing this in advance prevents unexpected crises.
Collaboration Extends Beyond the Household
The customer also needs to communicate with external service providers.
For example, if the customer has an upcoming trip, they must talk with the cat sitter well in advance. The sitter needs to know the cat’s routine, where supplies are located, what the cat is comfortable with, and any special medical or behavioral needs.
The customer shouldn’t assume that everyone involved automatically knows what is happening. Collaboration means involving the right people, and Promoting Visibility means making sure the necessary information is clear, shared, and accessible.
In service management, we rarely create value alone. Different stakeholders hold diverse roles, perspectives, and information. Effective collaboration brings those perspectives together, ensuring that the insights needed to support the service are fully visible to everyone who relies on them.
Think and Work Holistically: Consider the Whole Picture
Adopting a cat might sound like a simple transaction: choose a cat, bring it home, and provide food and water. But if we look at the situation holistically, there are many interconnected pieces that have to work together.
We need to consider:
- Choosing the cat: What cat is appropriate for this household, considering age, temperament, activity level, and the customer’s expectations?
- The initial environment: Where will the cat stay when it first arrives? Is the room prepared with food, water, litter, hiding places, and somewhere comfortable to rest?
- Introducing the home: When is the cat ready to explore additional rooms? Are there other people or animals that need to be considered before expanding its access?
- Daily care: How often will the cat be fed? When will water be refreshed? How will the litter box be cleaned and maintained?
- Health care: Who is the veterinarian? When does the cat need veterinary care? What ongoing health needs might need to be planned for?
- Age and life stage: A kitten, adult cat, and senior cat may have very different needs, routines, and levels of care.
- Costs: What does adoption cost, and what are the ongoing costs for food, litter, veterinary care, medications, supplies, and unexpected expenses?
- Environment and enrichment: Does the cat have appropriate places to scratch, climb, hide, sleep, play, and observe its surroundings?
- Household routines: Who feeds the cat? Who cleans the litter box? Who notices when something changes? What happens when the owner is away?
- Future changes: What happens if the customer travels, moves, changes work schedules, brings another animal into the home, or the cat’s needs change with age?
None of these things exists completely independently.
Choosing an energetic young cat affects the type of enrichment it needs. The cat’s age can affect its feeding routine and veterinary needs. The household’s schedule affects how care is organized. The available space affects how the cat is introduced to the home. Costs affect which options are sustainable over time.
This is Think and Work Holistically. Instead of optimizing one piece of the experience in isolation, we consider how the different components interact and whether the entire system works together.
A perfectly functioning automatic feeder doesn’t solve the problem if nobody notices that the cat has stopped eating. A beautifully prepared room doesn’t solve the problem if the cat cannot safely access the litter box. A low adoption cost doesn’t mean the overall solution is affordable if the ongoing costs haven’t been considered.
Thinking holistically means looking beyond the individual activity, process, or technology and considering the entire system, its relationships, and the outcomes it is intended to achieve.
Progress Iteratively with Feedback: Learn, Adjust, and Keep Moving
We planned carefully. We considered what the customer wanted, looked at what they already had, prepared the room, purchased what was needed, and brought the cat home.
And then things didn’t go according to plan.
The cat is terrified.
We knew the cat might be shy, but after a week, it is still hiding under the bed. The plan was reasonable, but the results are telling us that something needs to change.
This is where Progress Iteratively with Feedback becomes important. We don’t simply continue following the original plan because that’s what we decided to do. We observe what is happening, gather feedback, make a small adjustment, and see what happens next.
Start Small and Learn From the Results
We go back to Collaborate and Promote Visibility. We talk to other people who may have useful information or experience. We research the situation and learn that, for now, it may help to take the cat off the automatic feeder and have the owner provide the food directly.
The goal isn’t to completely redesign our approach. We’re making one change and watching the response.
The owner begins feeding the cat personally, talking calmly to the cat while putting the food down. They spend time in the room but don’t approach or force interaction.
Then we observe.
- Day 1: The cat eats while watching the owner in obvious fear.
- Day 2: The cat still watches closely but isn’t quite as frightened. It is beginning to learn that the owner isn’t going to bother it.
- Day 3: The cat watches the owner with curiosity rather than simply fear.
- Day 4: The owner introduces a feather toy. The cat stays under the bed, but a paw reaches out to play with the feathers.
That’s feedback.
The cat isn’t ready to come out, but its behavior is telling us that the approach is working. So we continue rather than forcing the next step.
- Day 7: For the first time, the owner is able to touch the cat.
We didn’t know on Day 1 exactly how long this was going to take. We didn’t need to. We established a manageable approach, observed the results, learned from the feedback, and adjusted as we went.
That is the essence of Progress Iteratively with Feedback.
The goal isn’t to create a perfect plan upfront. It is to make meaningful progress in manageable steps while continually using what we learn to determine what should happen next.
Keep It Simple and Practical: Don’t Overcomplicate the Solution
When preparing for a new cat, it is easy to overcomplicate things just because options are available. We can quickly fall into the trap of building an overly complex system when a straightforward approach is much more effective.
Using the cat scenario, keeping things simple and practical means focusing on what actually matters:
- Don’t buy everything: The customer already has useful supplies, toys, and furniture from their previous cat. We only replace what actually needs replacing, avoiding unnecessary purchases.
- Don’t over-engineer the routine: A cat doesn’t need a 14-step daily care process. The essentials are straightforward: food, water, litter, health, safety, and interaction.
- Make instructions easy to follow: If grandchildren, a cat sitter, or other visitors need to help care for the cat, expectations should be clear, concise, and easy to understand.
- Solve the actual problem without bloat: When the cat is hiding under the bed, we don’t immediately introduce five different toys, three new foods, and an elaborate behavioral program. We start with one simple, practical change—like feeding the cat personally and talking softly—and see what happens.
- Avoid unnecessary technology: Automation is useful when it genuinely reduces effort, but not every activity requires an app, a sensor, or a smart device.
- Use the simplest solution that achieves the desired outcome: The goal isn’t to build the most sophisticated, high-tech cat-care operation imaginable. The goal is a healthy, comfortable cat and a manageable, low-stress experience for the owner.
When faced with a challenge, the best solution isn’t necessarily the most complex one. By removing unnecessary steps, tools, and technology, we can keep the solution practical and sustainable while still delivering the value the customer needs.
Conclusion
The seven ITIL 5 guiding principles aren’t a checklist to work through one at a time. They are lenses we use throughout service management to help us make better decisions.
In our cat adoption example, we focused on what the customer valued, considered what already existed, optimized and automated where appropriate, involved the people and information that mattered, looked at the entire system, adjusted our approach based on feedback, and kept the solutions practical.
These principles overlap constantly. A single conversation, decision, or improvement may involve several of them at once. The goal isn’t to force every situation into seven separate boxes. It’s to use the principles together to help create, protect, and improve value.
Whether you’re managing an enterprise service or helping a very nervous rescue cat settle into a new home, the same fundamental idea applies: understand what matters, look at the whole situation, learn from what happens, and make thoughtful decisions based on what you know.
Continue Exploring the ITIL 5 Guiding Principles
For a deeper look at the seven principles, see The Seven Guiding Principles of ITIL 5.
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