Service Design Show

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 keeps going on too long you will eventually becoming irrelevant. And fail to achieve your mission. Tricia Wang, our guest this week, has an interesting take on why this is happening... Designers have the tendency to get in their own way. What does this mean? It means that we've adopted anti-patterns that actually prevent us from achieving success on the level we desire. According to Tricia we need to uncenter ourselves and transition from being a guru to being a guide. If this sounds abstract don't worry. Tricia provides some very practical things you can do in your day-to-day work to make this happen. Thi

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 there are so many parallels between games and service, really! Andy gives some great examples of how game design can for instance be used to prototype interactions on a small scale before going large. But there's much much more. Yes, as service designers we borrow a lot of tools and methods from other disciples. And after this conversation with Andy I'm 100% convinced that game design should be part of our vocabulary as well. I highly recommend this episode if you're interested in designing better -and more playful- services! --- [ GUIDE ] -— 00:00 Welcome to episode 122 04:45 Who is Andy 05:35 60 second rapid

"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 risk that your contributions will be seen as insignificant or irrelevant. So an important part of doing good service design is following up and making sure your work is actionable for other people. Now how can you do that? What Jim had found is that we are in a very good spot to facilitating meaningful conversations. Often these conversations are the way do drive initiatives forward. After watching this episode you'll walk away with a better understanding of how you can make great design happen. I really enjoyed the chat with Jim. It's filled with practical tips and with entertaining one-liners as you'll hear

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 towards the people you work with as you do towards the end-users in your projects? According to Emma this increases productivity, engagement and overall well-being. But there’s a challenge… Showing empathy means that you need to slow down and listen. Truly listen to the people around you. When you work in an environment where everything is driven by deadlines slowing down requires a lot of courage. In this conversation Emma shares some inspiring stories of how Workplace Empathy has transformed teams and what potential it holds for you. After this episode you’ll know how to take the first steps to get this m

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 working in-house. I think that you'll find these tips helpful even if you're currently not embedded inside an organisation. The doors for the next Campfire have just opened. You can find detail on how to apply on the page below.

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 up to these expectations. You might even start to think that something is wrong with you. The good news is that most likely that’s not the case. Usually the problem is a lack of common language and understanding. In this episode with Ryan Rumsey you’re going to learn how you can close this classic gap between business and design. Metaphorically speaking you need to become a true local in the village of business. Without losing your design soul of course. As you’ll hear in this episode the pay off is high. Get this right and you’ll have a much greater influence on how important decision are made. Allowing yo

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 long term perspective. Now imagine that you're just a small service design team in a large traditional organisation. How do you make this happen? How do you even make any meaningful progress? Well that's the theme for this week's episode with Iran Narges. Iran is the service design lead at the city of San Francisco. We talk about how to be successful as a service designer in challenging conditions, including covid. I think you'll be surprised which things make the biggest difference according to Iran. So if find yourself in a siloed organisation that's primarily focussed on short term results I'm sure you'

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 you bring is crucial. You might be wondering what is it that makes explaining service design so challenging? Well, combine two intangible concepts that not a lot of people really understand and you end up with service design. But there's hope! One very effective way to help people understand service design is by tapping into something the other person is already familiar with. How? By using a metaphor. In the past I've explained service design by comparing it things like a jazz band, organisational fitness and the operating system of your computer. There's an endless number of metaphors you can use to get the

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 standardised set allows you to deliver results more efficiently and with more consistency. In an online environment a component might be a button and a pattern might be the steps in the ordering process. Now I hear you thinking... I don't work with buttons and checkout flows. So how can I as a service designer benefit from a design system? That exactly the question I had as well! Fortunately, good friend of the Show and design systems ninja, Dan Mall was willing to come on and lay it all out for us. --- [ GUIDE ] -— 00:00 Welcome to episode 116 02:05 Who is Dan 03:45 Getting started with design systems 07

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 emerged from the data. And of course how you can use the report to find the answers to the questions that are most relevant to you! --- [ LINKS ] --- https://www.servicedesignjobs.com/salary-report/ --- [ ENJOYED THE SHOW ] --- Take a look at some of the other episodes. https://go.servicedesignshow.com/spotify --- [ YOUTUBE ] --- Every episode of the Service Design Show is also available as via the official YouTube channel. https://go.servicedesignshow.com/youtube --- [ FREE COURSE ] --- HOW TO EXPLAIN SERVICE DESIGN Learn what it takes to get your clients, colleagues, managers, CEOs and even grandmas as exci

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. Otherwise you will get stuck at running superficial projects that don't really change the system. An external agency might be the fire starter at first but eventually the design and delivery of great services needs to be a core competence of every company. I know what you're thinking. Learning service design on the job through projects is a great idea in theory. In practice its a lot easier said then done though. For one, you will have to deal with the middle layer of the organisation which in most situations has quite a short term mindset. So when you advocate to build internal capabilities that will benefit

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 use design from strategy to implementation. The truth is that I often got quite frustrated about this process. Many clients weren't ready for this. And navigating through the organisational layers and the internal politics isn't what I signed up for (or at least I thought). But I also didn't want to get stuck doing work on the margins. Especially when you know which value you can contribute. This seems to be a common channel for many service designers out there. If this sounds familiar than this week's episode is just for you! I sat down with Homaxi Irani to discuss what you can do to successfully grow the infl

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 looking up to. So what do you do? You join a campfire group of course. A what?! A campfire brings in-house service designers from different organisations together to help them grow as professionals. I've invited 5 people who are are part of such a campfire group to share their stories with you. In this episode they openly talk about challenges they face and also their tips on how to successfully navigate around them. Even if you're not working in-house I'm sure you'll get a lot of insights out of these stories! The registration for the next campfire group has just opened. So if you’d also like to be part of a s

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 about the local context, culture or environment. Even if you're designing something which is close by like a service for the internal department next door. So designing a solution that fits is not easy. Of course doing good design research helps. But that's not enough. You need something else to make sure your solution fits into the context. In this episode Priyam Sharda shares what that is. I invite you to listen to the stories Priyam shares and think about how the lessons translate to your world. Think you'll be surprised how many parallels you'll be able to find. --- [ GUIDE ] -— 00:00 Welcome to episode

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 the desired solution. Sounds impossible? Well that’s what Gonzalo Rodion and Phearak Mak are up against every day. In this episode you’ll learn how they do it. How they successfully design solutions that are embraced by the end users in this challenging context. I know that at first this might sound like a very distant world from your reality. Especially if you’re in a corporate environment. But trust me at the end of the episode you’ll be surprised by just how many similarities there are. If anything the stories Gonzalo and Phearak share helped me to get out of the design bubble we sometimes tend to get ca

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 feel very distant to others. But giving too much guidance means that people won't take ownership of the process. Give too little guidance and you'll lose people along the way. In this episode we're going to explore how you can find that perfect balance. After listening you will be better equipped to facilitate the transition to a more designerly way of working. Even when your organisation is traditional, heavily regulated or not open to change. --- [ GUIDE ] -— 00:00 Welcome to episode 111 02:10 Who is Angela 03:00 60 second rapid fire 05:40 The need for better services 12:25 This is holding us back 19:10

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... "The people around me haven't even grasped the concept of service design. And now you want me to start telling them about organisational design? Give me a break!" I totally get it. But there's a very simple reason why it's designers who need to and are driving this. I'll give you a clue. The answer lies in the shift that happens when you move from value creation through products to value creation through services. I promise that after watching the episode it will make complete sense why you need to be thinking about organisational design as well. And how that makes your work easier, not harder! At the end of

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-house service designers can listen, share and connect with fellow practitioners. Next to talking about the challenges they face Karri, Jacquelyn and Rachel will also give you some practical advice on how to be more successful as an in-house service designer. I feel that you'll learn a lot from the stories in this episode. Even if you're not working in-house (yet). If you're inspired by this episode inspires and think about joining the next campfire group head over to... https://servicedesignshow.com/campfire

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 designer are too big to be solved through design alone. You need a team! So what kind of team exactly is the most effective one at succesfully "shipping" services? Well, that's what this episode of the Show is about where I'm joined by Lauren Serota. In her last role as the head of service design at a major bank in Myanmar Lauren worked on developing and delivering microfinances services. We talk about Laurens experience forming a team that was able to succesfully pull this off and the lessons she took away from that. I feel that if you're facing challenges which are too big to be solved through design alone...

Your work as a service designer is not just about successfully finishing a single project. The goal is to contribute to long lasting change and influence the way of thinking within organisations. Ben Reason makes the argument in this episode that "service design makes things more humane". If this is the case it's far too important to be driven you all the time. So there is a lot at stake to change organisations through your work. Otherwise an organisation will quickly revert to their old ways of working once you're going. But as you've probably experienced, creating long lasting change is not an easy task by any means. On your journey you have to deal with a lot of organisational legacy which is fighting against this new approach called service design. What this means is that as a modern service designer you need to be playing chess on 3 boards at the same time! Just focussing on successfully delivering a project isn't enough anymore. In this episode you're going to learn from Ben Reason what these