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. But also how to recognize the warning signs when the time has come to move on and find a different challenge. If you want to better prepare yourself for the rocky ride called service design, this is an episode you don't want to miss. This conversation contributes to a deeper understanding of the mental aspects required to deliver change successfully. A much-needed addition to all the books we have focused on practical tools and methods if you ask me. --- [ 1. GUIDE ] --- 00:00 Welcome to episode 148 05:15 Who is Burcu 06:00 60 second rapid fire 09:00 What's in store 14:00 Misconceptions about design 17:45 Evolving expectations 20:30 Stepping into leadership 23:30 Keeping the spirit up 29:30 Signs of success 33:15 The value of reflection 36:00 Starting out in your career 37:30 The lasagne story 40:30 Challenging top management 42:30 Ask important questions 46:45 Where to draw the line 50:30 Lessons learned 53:00 Closing thoughts --- [ 2. LINKS ] --- https://www.linkedin.com/in/burcuarsoy/ The High House (book) - https://amzn.to/37NGUdt --- [ 3. THE PROGRAM ] --- Take your career to the next level and get to work on more fulfilling challenges. Learn how to communicate the benefits of service design to your clients, colleagues, and CEO. Apply for the Selling Service Design with Confidence program. https://servicedesignshow.com/confidence

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 goal of experimentation 11:15 What should you test 15:45 The common barriers 23:15 Organisational capacity 30:30 Empathize with stakeholders 35:30 Key uncertainty 43:45 The right time and people 46:30 Bonus best practice 47:45 Circle take-aways 51:00 Closing thoughts --- [ RESOURCES ] --- Understanding Organizational Capability: Touchpoint Vol 10 10 AUGUST 2018 - Daniel Gomez Seidel https://www.service-design-network.org/touchpoint/vol-10-1-from-design-to-implementation/organisational-capability-and-the-hbto-model Why your company needs rapid experimentation, Growth Tribe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBqM17MKz6U  Definition of Experiments and discussion of what how prototypes change depending on the position of the work: Touchpoint Journal, vol 11 number 2, October 2019, Mauricio Manhaes --- [ CIRCLE ] --- The Circle is a community for in-house service design leaders who want to grow as a professional. We host a community session on topics that go beyond the basics every month. If you'd like to be part of these conversations then I encourage you to join us. servicedesignshow.com/circle/

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 get way more done inside the organization.  Once you see what they are, it all makes sense as it goes with these things. But it can take years before you gain this clarity. What I found really valuable is that Markus brings the agency and in-house perspective. As you'll hear, both have their advantages and drawbacks. As always, enjoy and keep making a positive impact :) --- [ 1. GUIDE ] -— 00:00 Welcome to episode 147 04:50 Who is Markus 05:20 60 second rapid fire 08:00 The journey 14:00 Roles and responsibilities 19:15 How do you know you're winning 23:45 It doesn't go anywhere 27:30 When service design works 30:00 Benefit of the doubt 35:00 Selling the work 41:00 The biggest hurdles 44:15 This gives confidence 47:00 The future of agencies 49:15 Closing thoughts --- [ 2. LINKS ] --- https://www.linkedin.com/in/markushohl/ Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (book): https://amzn.to/3veH2dD --- [ 3. SELLING SERVICE DESIGN WITH CONFIDENCE ] --- For more information and instructions on how to apply head over to: https://servicedesignshow.com/selling

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 really should try to avoid. Unless you don't mind being the last one invited to the party of course. This is one of those conversations that you wish you had heard earlier :) Knowing how to get a seat at the table is skill that **every** service design professional should master. That's why in this episode you'll hear tips from someone who runs an agency, someone who's in-house, someone who's at a product focussed startup and others! [ 1. Episode Guide ] 00:00 Welcome 04:00 The professionals 05:00 Marloes (in-house) 12:45 Hanna (scale-up) 21:30 Poorva (agency) 29:45 Ben (start-up) 39:00 Sue (independent) 51:15 Jules (founder) 1:00:00 Closing thoughts [ 2. Selling Service Design with Confidence ] For more information and instructions on how to apply head over to: https://servicedesignshow.com/selling/

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 conversation with Bisi was super inspiring with many encouraging examples of what's possible. Especially considering what's going on in our world right now. I'm confident that through this episode you'll discover how thinking about the next 7 generations helps you to design better solutions today. This is one of those topics that you don't get exposed to often in your day to day. For me conversations like this are the most valuable ones as they expand my horizon of what's possible. --- [ GUIDE ] -— 0:00 Welcome to episode 146 05:30 Who is Bisi 10:00 60 second rapid fire 12:45 A platform for massive change 15:15 The journey 18:45 The current state 25:15 Leaving space for possibility 28:15 What's the biggest difference 32:45 Making it actionable 37:45 Learning to dream again 42:45 Be humble 46:45 Commercial interest 52:00 What does it take 55:45 Biggest lesson 57:45 Closing thoughts --- [ LINKS ] --- https://www.linkedin.com/in/bisiwilliams/ https://www.massivechangenetwork.com https://go.servicedesignshow.com/health2049 https://www.artic.edu/artworks/196505/guateamala-posters https://brucemaustudio.com/projects/guateamala/ The Sun Also Rises (book) - https://amzn.to/3IQ6IlM --- [ SELLING SERVICE DESIGN WITH CONFIDENCE ] --- Learn what it takes to get your clients, colleagues, managers, CEOs and even grandmas as excited about service design as you are. https://servicedesignshow.com/selling

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 04:00 60 second rapid fire 08:45 How did the podcast start 13:00 What is it all about 20:00 Service design in a industrial environment 24:30 Favorite topics 29:45 It's about the blind spots 33:00 Learnings from creating a podcast 36:45 The wishlist 38:15 How can we help 41:45 Recommended resources --- [ LINKS ] --- Designing the Robot Revolution Why every service designers dream should be to work in manufacturing David (LinkedIn) Jacob (LinkedIn) The wisdom of listening (book) Nudge (book) The power of ten (podcast) Industrial IoT spotlight (podcast) Freakonomics Radio (podcast) --- [ HOW TO EXPLAIN SERVICE DESIGN ] --- Learn what it takes to get your clients, colleagues, managers, CEOs and even grandmas as excited about service design as you are. https://servicedesignshow.com/free-course

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 dumbing it down. Hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did! --- [ EPISODE GUIDE ] --- 00:00 Welcome to the Show 03:30 Who is Ben McCammon 06:15 Why would you want to cultivating influence 10:30 What is at stake 17:15 This is your job 21:00 What do we mean with cultivating influence 22:45 The mighty stakeholder map 32:45 Building profiles 45:00 Making it a habit 51:00 Connecting the dots out loud 59:00 Consider saying yes 1:03:00 Don't be shy --- [ CIRCLE ] --- Join our community of in-house service design professionals at the Circle. www.servicedesignshow.com/circle/

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 services, almost by ourselves. Well, we really need to stop that way of thinking and find better ways to share the workload. If you're interested to learn how, click the link below and find out. Be prepared. There are some very thought provoking questions in this episode :) Enjoy and keep making a positive impact! [ 1. GUIDE 📺 ] 00:00 Welcome to episode 144 03:30 Who is Clara 04:15 60 second rapid fire 06:15 How did it start 08:15 The current boundaries 13:00 Where can we grow 15:00 How did we get here 19:15 The perspective shift 22:00 The opportunities 26:45 Where are we in the chain 30:00 Organizing the house 34:30 What's missing 39:30 Taking the first step 42:30 What does this mean 47:00 Silent design 49:00 Final thoughts [ 2. LINKS 🔗 ] - https://www.linkedin.com/in/clarallamas/ - Capitalism without Capital (book) - https://amzn.to/3C5B1mH [ 3. NEXT STEP 💪 ] Looking for more? We've got you covered. Click the link below to join the Service Design Show community. https://servicedesignshow.com/subscribe/ You'll get access to inspiring stories and practical advice that helps to level up your service design career!

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 experiences with us! Enjoy the conversation and keep making a positive impact! --- [ GUIDE ] -— 00:00 Welcome to episode 143 03:45 Who is Jamin 05:15 60 second rapid fire 07:00 How to become a VP of Design 11:15 What does success look like? 15:30 Being visible 20:30 Lessons learned 25:30 Good design leadership 29:15 Agency versus in-house perspective 34:15 Operationalizing design 38:30 Sense of accomplishment 43:30 Fighting the right battles 50:00 The impact of scale 51:15 What's next 52:00 Closing thoughts --- [ LINKS ] --- * https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaminhegeman/ * Design Justice (book) - https://amzn.to/3sFzWxz --- [ HOW TO EXPLAIN SERVICE DESIGN ] --- Learn what it takes to get your clients, colleagues, managers, CEOs and even grandmas as excited about service design as you are. https://servicedesignshow.com/free-course

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 refreshing alternative to all the polished case studies we otherwise see. --- [ EPISODE GUIDE ] -— 00:00 Welcome to the Show 03:30 Who is Taylor 04:00 Who is Tim 05:00 What are cultural barriers 06:30 Evaluating services 09:45 Where are we today 12:00 The struggles 14:00 The consequences 18:15 Make it into a habit 21:00 Reframing what research is 21:30 Quantifying qualitative research 23:30 Don't ask for permission 28:15 Create psychological safety 30:45 Getting over egos 36:30 Identify your champions 41:15 Tools & budget 44:00 Closing thoughts --- [ CIRCLE ] -— Join our community of in-house service design professionals at the Circle. https://www.servicedesignshow.com/circle/