Service Design Show

Polestar is the manufacturer of one of the most iconic electric cars at this moment. So you can imagine that I was really excited when the opportunity came along to have a conversation with Christian Appelt, their head of service design. Making service design work within a company that is organized around a strong product is a challenging task for sure. But when I heard that their ambition is beco...

Everything in service design starts with user research. But as you've probably experienced often it's challenging to get the time and resources to do proper research. And when research is already being done by an organisation it's often not the type of research that we'd like to see. It can be frustrating to see that user research isn't making the difference you know it can. So what does it take t...

Take a guess... How much time do you invest to learn something during your week? It's a lot. We learn all the time in order to grow as a professional, a team and an organisation. Heck by reading this email you're learning something (hopefully). Most learning happens organically and on the fly. Which is totally fine. But when you deliberately want to bridge a gap in knowledge, skill or experience i...

Here's a question that makes every service designer cringe... Can you show (prove) the impact of your work? So what makes this such a tough question? Well the value created through design is emergent and appears in shapes and forms that you didn't expect upfront. It's often hard to capture the benefits and outcomes using traditional ways of measuring successes (excel sheets). Nevertheless it's not...

Design is often described as a problem solving approach. But what if you didn't have to solve problems... What if you could let problems disappear by dissolving them? Let me give you an example. Now that we can't do regular school exams due to the pandemic we look for new ways to still do exams. That's solving problems. Dissolving problems is about figuring out how we can achieve the same goals wi...

What's it like to be an in-house Service Designer the Swedish Tax office or the fashion giant Zalando? In this episode of the Service Design Show you're going to get a sneak peak behind the curtains. You'll hear about the challenges in-house service designers face. And of course get some practical tips on how to navigate around them! Even if you're currently not working in-house I think you'll fin...

How can I as a service designer, be of more value to my organisation? That's the question we're exploring in this weeks episode of the Show. And the answers we find will surprise you! So yeah, of course you want to work on challenges that matter. You want to make a difference. But all too often designers are still not heard within enterprise environments. And you know what that means. When this ke...

Now be honest with me... What is the first thing you think about when you hear game design? Badges, points, rewards? Gamification? Minecraft? Well, in this weeks episode you're going to hear a completely different story. Together with Andy Morales I explore how game dynamics can be used in the word of service design. It's quite amazing that this topic hasn't been covered on the Show before as ther...

"I didn't sign up to be making wallpaper." That's a quote I can strongly relate to from this conversation with Jim Kalbach. As service designers we want to make a tangible impact on the world around us. For that you need to make sure that your work gets "shipped". If you fail to do that you're often just making wallpaper as Jim said. And the stakes are high because if you fail to ship you run the...

Have you heard about Workplace Empathy? It’s a powerful movement championed by dr. Emma Jefferies. The idea is that too often we leave ourselves at the (remote) door when we put our professional hats on. This is a recipe for a lot of nasty things like work related stress and burnouts. The antidote to this might be closer than you think. What would happen when you employ the same levels of empathy...

Does your life get easier when you're embedded within an organisation as a service designer? Or do you run into the same challenges as the rest of us? In this special episode of the Show you'll get a unique "behind the scenes" look from 8 in-house service designers who participated in the recent Campfire. Next to this you'll also get some very practical tips on how you can be more successful when...

Expectations of design. Everyone has them. What it is. How it works. The value it can create. Often these expectations are implicit. This is especially challenging when you’re working with business people who don’t necessarily think like a designer. Of course you believe in the power of design and want to live up it’s promise. So it can get really frustrating when you feel you’re not able to live...

A big part of your job as a service designer is to make services easier. Easier to find. Easier to navigate. Easier to use. Why? Because this not only makes the life of your customer easier but also yours. As you know creating services that offer a coherent experience across the board comes with some implications. In order to accomplish this organisations have to work across silos and have adopt a...

How can you explain service design in a way that it actually clicks for other people? I know some people have give up on this but I don't think that's a smart strategy. Here's why. The multidisciplinary nature of service design requires you to collaborate with other people. You're not going to design a service on your own... So being able to get the message across about what you do and the value y...

Have you heard about design systems? It's a catchy concept that's been getting quite some attention lately from our friends at the digital UX community. And I think we as a service design community can get a lot of value out of it as well! Here's my simple understanding of a design system... The main idea is that a design system provides you with a standardised set of components and patterns. This...

How much does a service designer earn? That's what you can find out in the first global service design salary report. The report contains salary data from over 1000 participants across 53 countries. In this podcast exclusive episode you'll hear Linn Vizard and Marc Fonteijn talk about how and why the report came to be. You'll learn about some of the most interesting findings and patterns that emer...

Is it possible? Can you win a game of checkers while playing chess at the same time? What on earth do you mean Marc? Okay, let me rephrase the question. Can you deliver short term results through service design projects while at the same time helping your client to build the capabilities that will benefit them in the long term? I do strongly belief that you have to bring service design in-house. O...

Here's a challenge I think you'll recognize... How do you move design up the maturity ladder in an organisation? Back in the day when I would get called in for a project I knew the client wouldn't get a lot of value out of the design approach when we would just apply it on the superficial layers of a service. No surprise here. To have any meaningful impact on business and customers we needed to us...

As an in-house service designer you see so much potential to do good but often it feels like organisation is working against you. Preventing you to do the job you were hired for in the first place. You want to ask for objective advice, get someone's opinion or just share your frustration for a moment. But in many cases all the weight falls on your shoulders. You're the expert that everyone is look...

Most service designers will say that their goal is to design solutions that have a natural fit in people's lives. Because those are the solutions that will be embraced by the users and thus make the impact we're seeking to create. One challenge you probably already have faced is that as a service designer you always come in as an outsider. Usually at the start of a project you know very little abo...

Okay, here’s a thought experiment. Let’s move away for a moment from thinking about designing the next service that’s delivered through a fancy mobile app… What if you had to design service that literally help to save children's lives? And you have to do it in a low tech environment with very limited resources. While at the same time managing traditional stakeholders with their own perspective on...

Embedding design in an organisation isn't easy. Especially if that organisation is quite traditional, heavily regulated and not very open to change. But the guest in this episode still found a way to do that. The secret to success? Take people by the hand and gently guide them through the process in small steps. This might sound obvious but we tend to forget that the things that come natural to us...

I'm deeply fascinated with the topic of organisational design. Why? I've often said that the organisation is the design material of service designers. Our job really is about shaping the environment from which great services can be delivered. The guest in this weeks episode (Peter Merholz) even wrote an entire book about it titled: Org Design for Design Orgs. Now I know what you're thinking... "Th...

The challenges in-house service designers face are quite unique. In this episode you'll hear the stories from Karri, Jacquelyn and Rachel. All of them work in-house and are championing this field within their organisations. What also connects Karri, Jacquelyn and Rachel is that the participated in the campfire sessions that took place in the summer of 2020. The campfire is a safe place where in-ho...

What is ultimate goal of service design? One could say that it's about making a positive impact on people, business and the planet. If this is the case then you'll need to make sure that the solutions you design actually get into the world. Design isn't just a research practice. It's a practice where creation and delivery is equally important. But often the challenges you face as a service designe...