Service Design Show

There's an intriguing mystery to the backstage... Think about it for a moment. People love to see what happens inside the kitchen of a Gordon Ramsey restaurant. Or to follow a sports team into the locker room before and after a game.  We want to look over the shoulder and get an inside glimpse. See things that are usually hidden from the general public. We want to see beyond the frontstage. W...

I used to say that 50% of service design is about communication. Today I think the percentage might be even higher... Just think about all those moments where you need to collaborate with someone to get something done. Yes, that's like always. *** Learn more about the Circle: https://servicedesignshow.com/circle/ *** Sometimes what you need is the attention from your co-worker other times, it will...

Every service design project starts with an initial conversation. From there, you build trust, confidence, and the relationship to do great work. But getting that first conversation started can often be one of the hardest things. Especially when you consider that many organizations still aren't aware that service design exists, let alone how they can benefit from it. Of course, you could sit back...

Patience has been described as a secret (and a must-have) skill of any service design professional. It's not hard to understand why. When you're doing service design, you are delivering change. This means that you will meet resistance and push back a lot of the time. You have to be very careful that you don't let this get to you. Because before you know it, you could start doubting if you're doing...

How do you get the most value out of your service prototypes? That was the key question we explored in our recent Circle community session. As it quickly turned out, there's an entire field with its own set of tools and frameworks that focus on prototyping. During the session, the participants shared their success stories and common roadblocks that prevented them from doing the right experiments....

What does it actually mean to be winning in service design? A question I think we don't ask ourselves often enough. Because when you put your entire heart and soul into delivering a great project but the results aren't adopted by the organization, can you say that it was a success? Most service design professionals I know genuinely want to make a tangible impact on the people and organizations the...

Do you recognize this feeling... As a service design professional you're the last one who's invited to the party (often when it's almost over). === Selling Service Design with Confidence === For more information and instructions on how to apply head over to: https://servicedesignshow.com/selling/ ====================================== This isn't just bad for your morale but it also limits the valu...

What's one of the key ingredients of service design? It's the fact that we take a holistic view. A view which spans different channels and many touchpoints. Designing with this holistic perspective in mind is often challenging enough considering that most companies aren't organized in a way that supports it. But what if I told you that you can (and probably should) go even further. What if you tak...

There's a really interesting new podcast on the block. It's called Designing the Robot Revolution. And the first episode is titled: Why Every Service Designers' Dream Should Be To Work In Manufacturing. Yeah, I know what you're thinking :) So obviously I had to get these fellow podcasters on the Service Design Show to hear more about their story. In this episode you'll hear Jacob Magnell and David...

Okay, here's a sensitive question... How comfortable are you with strategically influencing stakeholders? If this question feels a bit creepy stay with me a bit longer. This is really important. Because what if I told you that knowing how and who to influence is a key success factor for every service design professional? So it's no surprise that this is a topic that keeps coming up in our Circle c...

Service design isn't enough... This sentiment has been expressed on the Show many times before. And I agree. The challenges organizations face these days are too complex to be solved by (service) design alone. But here's the strange thing. Although we pride ourselves on bringing a holistic user perspective to the table, this holistic perspective is often missing when it comes to our own field. We...

What does it take... How do you enable a design team to deliver their best work? As the VP of Design at Capital One, Jamin Hegeman is thinking about this on a daily basis. He is tasked with the big responsibility of making sure that his 700+ design colleagues are able to make a positive contribution to the business and its customers. In this week's episode you'll hear the journey Jamin has been on...

On episode 7 of the Service Design Show Adam Lawrence once said this.. "If you can only do one thing in the entire design process, do research." I don't have to convince you of the importance of proper user research. It's the lifeline of our work. Unfortunately in a lot of organisations research is still seen as something that just slows everything down. It can be hard to get buy-in and support to...

What would you say is one of the most daunting design challenges of our time? I hope our climate crisis at least crossed your mind. As Cat Drew argues, we as a service design community play a key role in helping to solve this crisis. Cat is the Chief Design Officer at the UK Design Council and currently championing the Design for Planet initiative. In this week's episode of the Show we talk about...

Embedding design into an existing organization often feels like... trying to cram a square peg through a round hole. Right? In our attempts we often need to bend and shape design in ways that make it lose some of its most important qualities. Just think about how the holistic nature disappears when design becomes siloed across different departments. Which almost always happens. … and then people w...

How do you keep growing as a mid / senior level service design professional? It's mostly likely less and less through formal theory and education. Once you reach a certain level of maturity in your craft suddenly the small details and nuances start to make a big difference. But you won't find those things on Google. These learnings are hidden in the lived experiences from other professionals and c...

What is it that truly matters? Let's go back to the moment you first learned about service design. You know, when you entered the rabbit hole. There is so much to learn and to explore. It can easily become very complex and overwhelming. But if you want to become a service design practitioner you have to start somewhere. Right? You have to find a way to develop your skills without getting discourag...

"Design and business only work together if there is common ground." That's one of the quotes from the conversation I recently had with David Dunne. But finding this common ground is easier said than done. These days it's still the school of management that's driving most companies. And I think you'll agree that design and management don't necessarily share the same world view, beliefs and approach...

Regardless of where you are today in your career, at some point you'll want to work on new challenges, learn new things and be exposed to new experiences. When you start to get this itch it's important to recognize that it's a pivotal moment. At this point one might take the approach where they grab the best next opportunity that presents itself on the journey. This opportunistic approach will pro...

Looking for practical service design tips and tricks? Who doesn't right :) So in this episode you'll hear four commited service design professionals open up and share their best practices with you. ============ For more best practices join the upcoming cohort of our Selling Service Design with Confidence program. https://servicedesignshow.com/selling/ ============ These best practices focus on how...

A clear pattern is emerging... You know what I see when I look at who is hiring service design professionals these days? It's product driven tech companies! When you take a closer look it's not that surprising that these companies are looking into service design. They are realizing that they need to take responsibility for a larger part of the user experience. A part which includes many non-digita...

Ever wanted to have a good service design case study? What about 100? Coming up! Read on to learn more. I still struggle when someone asks me for a case study. Because services play out over time with many micro interactions across time it's hard to capture the entire thing in one case study. So why don't we take a different approach? What would happen if we tear a service apart and look at those...

Does it matter? Can you be a good service design professional without any formal training or background? Many people I know just started doing service design without having a diploma or certificate. That's how I started in this field as well. Mastering the craft on the job and figuring stuff out as they go along. They have, what I would call, practical wisdom. But this lack of formal education som...

The answer was simple... "It gave me the opportunity to start doing things the way I really thought they should be done." That's what Todd Wilkens said when I asked him why he decided to take on a leadership role. I think that every service design professional out there wants to have more influence on the decisions that are being made. Because you are the one who is fighting to do the "right thing...

Let's talk about rituals (and design)... Rituals have the power to turn an ordinary experience into something meaningful. They can be large and community based like a family reunion dinner. They can be small and personal like writing in your gratitude journal every morning. But what are rituals exactly? And how are they different from habits and routines? Adam Cochrane has been looking into the fi...