Did you know that people are looking up to you? *** LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CIRCLE https://servicedesignshow.com/circle/ *** Sure, part of the identity of a service designer is to stay in the background, act as the facilitator and let co-creation guide the way forward. Humbleness could be our middle name. These are great traits that we definitly shouldn't lose but they aren't enough… Because when you're the only service designer in the room (or one of the few), people do look up to you for answers....
Aug 26, 2021•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast There is a dangerous trap in the ways you use to capture the needs of the people you're designing for. Of course, you have constraints and need to make design decisions. And the saying is true that if you're designing for everyone you're essentially designing for no-one. So there are a lot of tools and methods to describe who it is that you're designing for. Personas, empathy maps, customer avatars, user profiles, etc. But when not used mindfully and with care these tools can do more harm than g...
Jul 29, 2021•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Okay, we all know that delivering tangible value in service design can be hard. You often have to deal with a lot of constraints that you have no control over and the distance to the end-users can be immense. So how do you, despite these obstacles, still make progress? And at the end of the day feel that you're actually contributing something valuable. This was exactly the question that was discussed during our recent Circle session. In this (podcast exclusive) episode you'll hear Jacquelyn Brio...
Jul 22, 2021•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast I'm sure you've experienced it... You put your heart and soul into your work, you try to create value through design, you have an optimistic mindset. But whatever you do, you always feel like there's a mysterious organisational force pushing against you. It's the "organisational dark matter" that makes your life as a service designer so much harder. But there's hope. As the design director at Livework tasked with bringing service design to many different organisations, Marzia Arico has experienc...
Jul 15, 2021•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Are you an in-house service design professional? Have you ever wondered... * How can I show evidence of progress in my work? * How do I set the right expectation about what I do? * Where can I have the most impact? Well, you're definitely not alone. In this video 5 in-house service designer who participated in the Campfire, openly share their thoughts on these questions (and more) with you. Even if you're currently not on "the inside" I'm confident that you'll get some new insights out of these ...
Jun 17, 2021•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 become a role model for how service design is embedded within organisations I knew this was going to be ...
Jun 10, 2021•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 to push user research beyond it's current limitations? Author and industry icon, Steve Portigal has b...
May 27, 2021•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 it's smart to design that journey. That's where learning design comes in. According to Andre Plaut le...
May 13, 2021•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 smart to ignore this question. When you can't show the impact of your work, you will eventually bec...
Apr 29, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 without exams entirely. It might sound like a small nuance but the impact is huge. The way to dissolve...
Apr 15, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 find these stories very useful. [ Join the Campfire ] https://servicedesignshow.com/campfire/
Apr 08, 2021•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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. Tri...
Apr 01, 2021•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 gam...
Mar 18, 2021•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast "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 do...
Mar 04, 2021•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Feb 18, 2021•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ...
Feb 11, 2021•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 n...
Feb 04, 2021•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 traditio...
Jan 21, 2021•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 chall...
Jan 07, 2021•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 on...
Dec 24, 2020•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 tha...
Dec 17, 2020•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ...
Dec 10, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ...
Nov 26, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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-hou...
Nov 19, 2020•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 l...
Nov 12, 2020•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 agai...
Oct 29, 2020•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Oct 15, 2020•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ...
Oct 01, 2020•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Sep 24, 2020•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 th...
Sep 17, 2020•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
