This thesis explores the processes of value co-creation and their application in scaling up a non-profit service. The case analysed is the Finnish Red Cross’s pilot service, retirement coaching. The paradigm shift from highly structural service systems to enabling value co-creation on a platform, worked as a framework and affected the choice of methods. Ethnographic tools, such as participatory observations, were used to help understand how the infrastructure of the service could be designed, and diffuse design tools to discuss the values created.
The challenges in designing the service were especially in understanding the target group and aligning roles inside the service. The use of collaborative design efforts and interaction analysis were presented to offer new solutions for issues of participation and scalability. For future service development the perspectives of controlled and open services was presented.