Ben Reason, founder of LiveWork Studio and co-author on service design, teams up with Patrick Quattlebaum, founder of Harmonic Design, to discuss the future of service design. They explore its evolution and the need for deeper integration with practices like agile and product management. The pair emphasizes the importance of communication across organizations, particularly in complex industries like healthcare. They also introduce an upcoming conference aimed at inspiring a new generation of service designers with real-world case studies and innovative methodologies.
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Quick takeaways
Service design is evolving to integrate with broader organizational practices like product management and agile methodologies for greater impact.
The upcoming conference aims to showcase diverse case studies, highlighting the importance of collaboration and learning from real-world service design applications.
Deep dives
Evolution of Service Design Practices
Service design has transitioned from a niche practice to one that can enrich various organizational contexts. The speakers highlight experiences over two decades at LiveWork and Harmonic Design, emphasizing a shift toward integrating service design into broader organizational practices. They note that while early adopters still drive many initiatives, there is an increasing demand for service design to influence areas like product management and digital transformation. This evolution reflects a generational shift, where service design methodologies are now being experimented with and adapted across different sectors.
Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration
The importance of collaboration between service designers and other disciplines within organizations is a crucial insight shared in the discussion. The speakers underline the necessity of understanding different professional languages and motivations to effectively implement service design strategies. They provide examples, such as the integration of service design with agile methodologies and product management, to showcase how these intersections can lead to innovative solutions. As organizations seek holistic approaches to transformation, the ability to bridge gaps between various practices is viewed as a vital skill for service designers.
Expanding the Contexts of Service Design
Service design is being applied in diverse contexts, prompting a reevaluation of its foundational principles and methodologies. The discussion touches on how service design's roles can vary significantly between industries, such as healthcare versus manufacturing, necessitating nuanced approaches. The speakers express a desire to explore these differences further during an upcoming virtual conference, proposing that case studies in non-traditional settings can illustrate the versatility of service design. By examining these varied applications, the intention is to advance the discipline and clarify its relevance across different sectors.
Case Studies and Future Directions
The upcoming conference aims to showcase case studies that highlight effective service design practices and their impact on organizational systems. Both speakers stress the significance of learning from real-world experiences, particularly in navigating the complexities of modern environments. They emphasize the need for individuals to submit proposals that illustrate collaborative efforts and the challenges encountered when integrating service design into existing structures. By fostering dialogues among diverse practitioners, the conference hopes to cultivate a richer understanding of how service design can contribute to addressing larger systemic challenges.
Is it time to advance the practice of service design?
Ben Reason and Patrick Quattlebaum think so. They’re veteran service designers and co-authors of a pair of Rosenfeld books—Service Design: From Insight to Implementation and Orchestrating Experiences respectively.
Ben, founder of LiveWork Studio, and Patrick, who founded Harmonic Design in Atlanta, join Lou to talk about launching a new Rosenfeld conference—Advancing Service Design—designed to highlight the service design’s potential for a new generation. They see opportunities for service design to go deeper—by integrating with and strengthening existing practices, like product management and agile, and broader—by better connecting systems that span multiple organizations (think healthcare).
Working with the Rosenfeld team, they’re creating a conference program that you can be a part of—they describe the kinds of presentation proposals they’re looking for from prospective speakers. Patrick and Ben hope you’ll join them in advancing service design; the conference will take place virtually December 3-4.
What You'll Learn from this Episode:
- The real meaning of service design
- How service design is evolving
- Some crucial differences between work in the North America and Europe
- Why communication between organizations is so important
- How the upcoming conference will inspire and support you
- How to contribute and become part of the upcoming case studies
- How the panel discussions at the December conference will be different
Quick Reference Guide:
0:15 - Introduction to Ben and Patrick
1:50 - Being change agents to take Service Design to the next level
5:03 - Announcing a new conference: Advancing Service Design– Looking at Service Design Through Different Lenses
6:05 - Perspectives on different sides of the Atlantic
11:30 - Why service design exists in the first place
12:38 - More about the upcoming December virtual conference
17:40 - Call for proposals for the case studies and what they are looking for
19:00 - Ben’s ideas for the conference: The next iteration of service design going from within an organization to between multiple organizations
21:09 - Patrick’s ideas for the conference: Getting the people who want to transform things to communicate and the complexity of partnering together
23:05 - Bringing success from the inside
24:45 - Commercial break
27:10 - Personal story from Patrick about communication highlighting the broader concept of the case studies for the conference
32:30 - Personal story from Ben about connection across systems
37:16 - A different type of panel discussion to be at the conference
40:15 - Gifts for listeners
Resources and Links from Today's Episode:
Apply to speak at ASD2024 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/apply-to-speak-at-advancing-service-design-a-new-conference-from-rosenfeld/
LiveWork Studio https://liveworkstudio.com/
Harmonic Design https://thisisharmonic.com/
Service Design: Form Insight to Innovation by Andy Polaine, Ben Reason & Lavrans Løvlie https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/service-design/
Orchestrating Experiences: Collaborative Design for Complexity by Chris Risdon and Patrick Quattlebaum https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/orchestrating-experiences/
Movie: Clueless https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112697/
The Ready https://www.theready.com/
Brave New Work by Aaron Dignan https://www.bravenewwork.com/
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