A post by our guest editor, John Worthington.

Ok, the real reason for happiness today is it’s Friday! Today’s OSC Meetup included a fantastic presentation by Sakari Kyrö from HappySignals. It made me think of how profiles have different contexts.

Sakari shared new research on user profiles and how they influence IT support interactions. He highlighted the behavioral nuances of users—Doers, Triers, Prioritizers, and Supported—and how understanding these types allows service providers to tailor their support experiences more effectively.

🎭 Two Types of Profiles, Two Different Purposes

Let’s start by clearing up a common misconception: HappySignals profiles and USM profiles are not the same thing, and they serve complementary roles in a high-performing service organization.

🔹 HappySignals Profiles = User Behavior

HappySignals uses short, effective survey data to categorize users by their IT competence and support attitude. The result is four behavioral profiles:

  • Doers – self-sufficient and tech-savvy
  • Triers – try to solve issues but often need help
  • Prioritizers – prefer not to solve it themselves, even if they can
  • Supported – need guidance but are willing to follow instructions

These profiles help IT understand how users prefer to be supported—vital input for improving the service experience.

🔸 USM Profiles = Execution Roles

In contrast, USM defines a profile as a combination of Tasks, Authorities, and Responsibilities (TAR) assigned to a staff member within a team. These profiles describe who does what in a structured, role-based way—across any domain, not just IT.

So while HappySignals tells you how to tailor your approach to a user, USM tells you how to structure your organization so that tailoring is even possible.

🧩 Why Both Profiles Are Needed

Using only one of these perspectives leaves a gap:

  • Without HappySignals, you're flying blind on what users actually want and need.
  • Without USM, you might understand your users, but lack the system architecture to respond consistently and effectively.

Together, they enable what every modern service organization needs:

  • A clear picture of user behavior, AND
  • A universal execution model to operationalize that insight.

🚫 Why Practice Frameworks Fall Short

Frameworks like ITIL and COBIT offer lots of valuable practices—but they don't give you a unified system for applying those practices in a consistent, scalable way.

In fact, when organizations use HappySignals with only ITIL or COBIT:

  • They often try to “personalize” support by tweaking individual processes (like Incident or Service Request), leading to inconsistency and growing complexity.
  • They may struggle to link user feedback to actionable improvements across teams and channels.
  • Their roles are function-specific (e.g., Incident Manager, Change Analyst), limiting flexibility across workflows and user types.

💡 By contrast, USM provides a single, reusable process model, where each workflow is standard, roles are generic, and routines are easily localized—so any support agent can adapt their behavior without changing the system.

💡 How USM Enhances Both Profiles

Here’s what happens when you bring USM into the picture:

USM and HappySignals


🗣 Final Thought: It’s Time to Rethink the Foundation

If you’re already using HappySignals—or relying on ITIL, COBIT, or any other practice framework—here’s the real opportunity:

👉 Start with a system, not a pile of practices.

USM gives you the universal architecture that turns practice guidance and experience data into something you can actually run, improve, and scale.

So if you want to really take advantage of everything HappySignals has to offer—and finally make experience the center of your service delivery—it might be time to explore the USM method.

Contact me to learn more.

Oh yeah, One More Thing...

There are nuances between profiles and personas. Here's what I believe HappySignals' thoughts are (see the article The USM method and Personas for USM's take).

🎭 Personas

  • Semi‑fictional archetypes representing typical customer segments, built from market research and survey data.
  • They include assumptions—e.g., demographics, goals, motivations—allowing humanized understanding of groups.
  • Because they aren't validated through direct interaction, they remain hypothetical constructs.

👥 Profiles

  • Derived from real user behavior and feedback gathered during actual interactions with the support system.
  • In Happy Signals' IT Experience Management platform, profiles are created using responses to two questions on a feedback form (which Sakari discussed in our OSC Meetup)

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If you enjoyed John's post and it made you think about improving your own organization, please check out his USM Professional profile and his personal website, or better: contact John for a free consultation.
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