The Wreckage of Wrong Processes: 1992 London Ambulance Service Fiasco

What happens when bad processes, bureaucracy, and overconfidence combine? Look no further than 1990s London for one of the most catastrophic software launches of all time. Join us as we delve into what happened and discuss the processes that could have prevented it all.

In the late 1980s, the London Ambulance Service devised a bold plan to revolutionize ambulance response time. They planned to use cutting edge hardware and software to make ambulance dispatching largely automated, more efficient, and able to mobilize in less than 3 minutes. Unfortunately, their processes and practices did not support such a profound endeavor. After the first failed product launch that died behind the scenes, they had renewed vigor to make something even bolder. Though, they didn’t learn many lessons for their first failure. Instead, the resulting product launch ended in catastrophe, loss of life, and millions of pounds in damages. What went wrong? What could have prevented this? What can you do to make sure this doesn’t happen to your products? Join me as we uncover the Wreckage of Wrong Processes.

I have been in UX and Product Ownership roles for well over a decade. I’ve been doing conference talks and keynotes in both North America and Europe, and am consistently rated as a top conference speaker by participants and conference organizers alike. This is a brand new talk practiced in meetups, about how design thinking practices impact software development. In this abridged 30-minute format I zoom in specifically on the London Ambulance Service from 1987-1993 and how we can learn to apply design thinking practices to prevent this form of failure in the future.