Service Design Show

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 the right thing or get frustrated with the situation. Or even worse, it could take a severe toll on your health. When that happens, you couldn't be further away from the goal you were trying to achieve in the first place. So an important question here is: How can you see progress when things seemingly aren't moving forward or, even worse, look to move in the opposite direction of what you have in mind? In this episode, Burcu Arsoy takes us along her journey where she was able, through trial and error, to find an answer to this question. You'll hear strategies for keeping your spirit up and not quitting quit too soon

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 emerged were five best practices for doing better, more effective service prototypes that everyone in the session could agree on. In this episode, you'll discover what these best practices are and how you can use them in your day-to-day work. What I found interesting is that many participants didn't only use prototyping as a way to reduce the risk of expensive failures. They also used it as a very effective strategy to generate buy-in for the eventual solution. Enjoy the conversation! --- [ EPISODE GUIDE ] --- 00:00 Welcome to the Show 03:30 Who is Irina 04:45 Who is Dan 05:30 How to build experiments 09:00 The

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 they work with. This means that your work can't stop at the research or idea stage. If the recommendations aren't operationalized, that amazing journey map you've created isn't worth a lot. So how do you increase the likelihood that your work makes it into the real world? Well, in this episode, Markus Hohl, the global head of service design at JP Morgan, shares his approach. The conversation with Markus shows again that we often tend to overcomplicate things. The encouraging thing is that you should actually do less, not more, to be more impactful. Markus has found that by doubling down on just 3 simple things, he can g

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 value you can create. The holistic nature of service design requires you to be part of the "upstream" conversations. But that's easier said than done. Because how do you make sure that you get invited to the right conversations, with the right people at the right time? Unfortunately the service design textbooks don't teach you any of this stuff. You have to look in different places to find answers. Where? For instance in this episode of the Show. In this episode you'll hear 6 service design professionals share their best tips with you that have helped them to get a seat at the table. And also learn about the pitfalls you

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 take a perspective on the solutions you put into the world that doesn't just span a single service but spans... generations. Generations?! Yes, I'm talking about generations of customers, employees, citizens, children, etc. You can imagine that the first time Bisi Williams shared this idea with me I had many questions. How do you make such an audacious goal tangible? How do you get your clients to buy into this vision? Does it require a different design process? Bisi is the co-founder of the Massive Change Network and they have made it their mission to work on solutions for the biggest challenges we face today. The conv

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 Griffith-Jones share what inspired them to start a podcast about this somewhat surprising angle on service design. I would say that if you want to stretch your perspective on service design then make sure you tune into this conversation. And who knows maybe it will inspire you to start working in manufacturing after all ;) It's great how Jacob & David are exploring uncharted territory within our field. Stories like these really help us to build more and stronger bridges. Enjoy the conversation and keep making a positive impact. --- [ GUIDE ] -— 00:00 Welcome to episode 145 02:45 Who is Jacob 03:30 Who is David 0

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 community sessions. In our recent session we did a deep dive into this topic. We explored which tools and methods people actually use to cultivate influence inside their organizations. As you'll hear in this podcast episode we really get down to the most practical level, the nitty gritty stuff.  Yes, the things that actually help you do a better job the next day. So click the link below to discover what it's all about. Discussing influence can quickly feel very heavy and serious. But what I enjoyed about the conversation with Ben was that we were able to have some fun and take the heavy load off it without dumbin

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 still have many blind spots when it comes to collaborating with other business disciplines. Just think about what your relationship is to HR, IT, operations, marketing, sales, support, strategy, etc. This lack of alignment and integration with other parts of the business is unnecessarily limiting the good you can do. In this episode of the Show I talk to Clara Llamas about how we can break free from these limitations... without turning service design into a Frankenstein monster. I guess the point is that we as a community often carry a very heavy (and unhealthy) responsibility of having to deliver great servi

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 over the last few years. How he transitioned from being a design practitioner at a respected consultancy to now being a design leader at a major corporate. We talk about the need for designers to understand how things get done inside an organization. And how Jamin gained a new perspective on what success looks like. This conversation has some great insights on what it takes for design(ers) to be more impactful. Even if you're currently not a VP ;) It's a great privilege to be able to pick the brains of people like Jamin. And that they are willingly taking the time out of their busy schedule to share their expe

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 actually do proper research. Recently I sat down with the Circle community to discuss this challenge. And it quickly became clear that the struggle is real. Everyone in the community had their own story of how company culture stood in the way of them just doing their work. When started to look at the solutions and workarounds people had found to get over these cultural barriers, 6 best practices emerged. And in this episode the Show you're going to hear what these best practices are. What I enjoy about the Circle is that it's a space where people aren't afraid to share the dirty secrets of our work. It's a

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 the opportunities designing with the planet in mind brings to organizations. And how the organizations which keep on ignoring their responsibility will be left behind. Cat shares a lot of encouraging examples of services where planet was part of the design brief. But no matter how hard you want to use design to shape a better world... If the client who is hiring you doesn't care, it's going to be a very hard task. So you need to encourage and inspire your clients to make the planet part of the design brief. It's not easy, but there are some great resources that help you do this and you'll learn about them in t

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 wonder why design isn't delivering on it's promise :-/ I recently had the pleasure to interview Naomi Stanford for the Show. Naomi is an authority in the field of organization design (just published her 8th book). In the conversation you’re about to hear we discuss the role of legacy and heritage, whether embedding design should be a top down or bottom up approach and whose responsibility is it anyway. As I found out myself, if you're a service design professional and haven't been exposed to organization design then you're absolutely missing out. Naomi is a great storyteller and brings up tons of inspiring exa

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 communicated through rich stories. Until recently there wasn't a place where you could get exposed to these stories on a regular basis. That's why in the summer of 2021 I started an experiment called the Circle. The Circle is a community of and for in-house service designers. We gather on a monthly basis to learn from each other around different topics. The goal with the Circle was to create a safe space where it's okay to talk about the messy parts of our work. A place where you can go deep into the practice. Yes, nerding out on service design if you will :) Now, half a year later, it was time to evaluate this

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 discouraged about all the things you don't know yet. And you know what the worst part is when you're getting started? That you always get the answer "It depends" when you seek advice from experienced service design professionals. Of course they are right. There is no fixed recipe on how to use the tools, methods and frameworks. But that doesn't really help you move forward. So how do you figure this stuff out as a working professional who is transitioning into this field? Today I want to share a unique story with you. Usually the guests you hear on the show already have some kind of track record in service design. Y

"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 approaches. These differences create tensions. These tensions prevent both sides from achieving the best possible outcomes. What David Dunne and his colleagues are doing is creating a shared language around these tensions (they refer to them as double binds). This shared language is essential! Because that helps to make these tensions tangible. And once they are tangible it becomes much easier to create mutual understanding and find constructive ways to work with each other. In this episode David shares the 6 double binds he uncovered through his research. I'm sure you'll recognize a few ;) Want to finally break th

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 probably lead you to some interesting adventures, but it also comes with a significant risk. When you let your career be determined by the direction of the wind you might end up drifting away from the things you love to do. And the longer you stay in this position the harder it will be to let go of the lifestyle that comes with it. This is exactly what happened to Alessandra Canella, our guest in this episode. Her career took a path which is similar to many service design professionals. Starting out as a practitioner she slowly worked her way "up" to being a lead, managing a design team. But what if you discover

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 you can get buy-in and support for your work (especially from non-designers). Which, as you probably have experienced, is not a trivial task. To understand where these best practices are coming from we also discuss the challenges these professionals were running into, the lessons they learned the hard way and of course... what they are doing differently today to be more successful. Is it mostly about the small details? Or is a bigger mindset shift needed? Enjoy the episode and if you have any best practices on this topic I'd love to know! ============ Learn how to Sell Service Design with Confidence. Jo

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-digital aspects. Just think of how AirBnB deals with properties, Uber with cars and Amazon with physical goods. But it's not just these tech giants. Examples are all around us. You could say that these tech companies are going through their own analoge transformation. Coming in as a service designer into such an environment is... well, quite an interesting experience with it's own set of challenges. For instance you'll find that your work potentially overlaps a lot with product managers. Next to that you're often not tied to operation so it's hard to show tangible impact on customers. And as you start out embedded i

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 smaller interactions rather than the entire thing? Would that help to identify best practices and elements of good service design? We'll that's exactly what Daniele Catalanotto did... and he turned the principles which he found into a book. This book is a much needed contribution to our field. It sort of shows very directly the outcome of good service design. Without bothering you with how that outcome came to be. Very different from the books on tools and methods or the ones that describe the high level strategic perspective. Daniele's book helps to solve one of the biggest challenges in our work... how to

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 sometimes causes unnecessary doubt and prevents you from doing your best work. So should you get that service design degree after all? Well, Emily Winograd has had to answer this question for herself a few times. So I've invited Emily on the Show to share her story and the lessons she learned along the way with you. In this conversation you'll also hear about a simple framework. This framework helps you to uncover blind spots and learn about the strengths of your team members. If you ever had signs of imposter syndrome in your work make sure you listen to this episode as it offers some very helpful insights!