Service Design Show
249 episodes - English - Latest episode: 10 days ago - ★★★★★ - 11 ratingsGo beyond the basics of service design and learn what it truly takes to deliver services that make a positive impact on people, business and planet.
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Episodes
Crafting the perfect elevator pitch for service design
September 09, 2021 06:00 - 35 minutes - 32.6 MBOkay, I know it sounds almost impossible but it really happened… A fellow service designer named Delia told me that she has crafted an elevator pitch for service design that is really effective for her. How effective? Well she used this pitch and it landed her a speaking opportunity on the first encounter with someone at a random networking event. Pretty amazing. ============ Build your own perfect elevator pitch! Join the upcoming cohort of our Selling Service Design with Confidence progr...
Unlocking the power of beautiful questions / Warren Berger / Episode #131
September 02, 2021 06:00 - 1 hour - 61.7 MBIf you're asking really good questions, you're going to get better results. This is a quote from the conversation with Warren Berger. Warren is the author of The Book of Beautiful Questions. Definitely one of my favorite books from 2021 that I'm sharing left and right. So I was really excited that Warren agreed to come on the Show and share his thoughts with us. Of course we address a lot of questions during this episode. Here are a few of my personal highlights: * How do we bring more a...
Service Design Leadership Best Practices / James Field / Circle #02
August 26, 2021 06:00 - 49 minutes - 45.7 MBDid 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...
How to bust the harmful myth of the average user / Indi Young / Episode #130
July 29, 2021 06:00 - 58 minutes - 53.8 MBThere 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 ...
Progress over perfection / Jacquelyn Brioux / Circle #01
July 22, 2021 06:00 - 54 minutes - 50 MBOkay, 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 Jacquely...
How to manage the organisational dark matter / Marzia Arico / Episode #129
July 15, 2021 06:00 - 55 minutes - 50.5 MBI'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 ex...
The big challenges of in-house service design
June 17, 2021 06:00 - 32 minutes - 30.1 MBAre 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 ...
Shaping service design as a strategic business tool? / Christian Appelt / Episode #128
June 10, 2021 06:00 - 52 minutes - 47.6 MBPolestar 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 ...
User research - what to do when your company doesn't get it / Steve Portigal / Episode #127
May 27, 2021 06:00 - 59 minutes - 54.3 MBEverything 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 Porti...
What learning design teaches us about growth / Andre Plaut / Episode #126
May 13, 2021 06:00 - 52 minutes - 47.8 MBTake 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...
How to meaningfully evaluate the impact of service design / Joyce Yee / Episode #125
April 29, 2021 06:00 - 1 hour - 56.7 MBHere'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 event...
Using systemic design to dissolve problems / Arash Golnam / Episode #124
April 15, 2021 06:00 - 1 hour - 58.7 MBDesign 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 t...
What's life on the inside? Real-life stories from 7 in-house service designers.
April 08, 2021 09:50 - 41 minutes - 37.9 MBWhat'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/
The reason why designers fail in organisations / Tricia Wang / Episode #123
April 01, 2021 06:00 - 46 minutes - 42.7 MBHow 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 miss...
How to apply game dynamics in service design / Andy Morales / Episode #122
March 18, 2021 07:00 - 55 minutes - 50.7 MBNow 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 design can lead the conversation / Jim Kalbach / Episode #121
March 04, 2021 09:24 - 1 hour - 55.1 MB"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 pa...
The secret power of empathy at work / Emma Jefferies / Episode #120
February 18, 2021 07:00 - 46 minutes - 42.9 MBHave 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...
8 tips on how to be more successful as an in-house service designer
February 11, 2021 07:00 - 51 minutes - 46.9 MBDoes 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 em...
How to grow your influence on business decisions as a designer / Ryan Rumsey / Episode #119
February 04, 2021 07:00 - 56 minutes - 51.8 MBExpectations 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. Th...
Pioneering Service Design in traditional organisations / Iran Narges / Episode #118
January 21, 2021 06:59 - 49 minutes - 45.6 MBA 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 ...
7 powerful metaphors that explain service design / Robert Bau / Episode #117
January 07, 2021 07:00 - 54 minutes - 49.7 MBHow 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 s...
Exploring design systems for services / Dan Mall / Episode #116
December 24, 2020 07:00 - 51 minutes - 47.3 MBHave 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...
Service Design Salary Report 2021
December 17, 2020 09:31 - 36 minutes - 33.3 MBHow 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 questi...
Deliver projects. Build capabilities. At the same time!?/ Patrick Quattlebaum / Episode #115
December 10, 2020 07:00 - 1 hour - 59 MBIs 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 syst...
How to get design in to the boardroom / Homaxi Irani / Episode #114
November 26, 2020 07:00 - 1 hour - 60.3 MBHere'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...
How to be an in-house service designer without going crazy
November 19, 2020 09:24 - 27 minutes - 24.8 MBAs 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 bring...
How to design services that always fit the context? / Priyam Sharda / Episode #113
November 12, 2020 07:00 - 48 minutes - 44.1 MBMost 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 clo...
Simple solutions with major impact / Gonzalo & Phearak / Episode #112
October 29, 2020 07:00 - 51 minutes - 46.9 MBOkay, 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...
Getting people to embrace the design approach / Angela Obias-Tuban / Episode #111
October 15, 2020 06:00 - 49 minutes - 45.6 MBEmbedding 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 owner...
The organisation is just another design problem / Peter Merholz / Episode #110
October 01, 2020 06:00 - 52 minutes - 48.5 MBI'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 t...
Finding success as an in-house service designer
September 24, 2020 06:00 - 37 minutes - 33.9 MBThe 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 talkin...
Redesigning the design team / Lauren Serota / Episode #109
September 17, 2020 06:00 - 47 minutes - 43.3 MBWhat 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 exact...
What makes service design work / Ben Reason / Episode #108
September 03, 2020 06:00 - 46 minutes - 42.7 MBYour 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 w...
How to put a price on service design / Dan Mall / Episode #107
August 20, 2020 06:00 - 44 minutes - 40.8 MBWhen it comes to putting a price tag on service design many people struggle. It can be hard to articulate the value that you create through your work. Therefor many service designers just avoid the topic in general. What if you would treat the pricing of service design as a design challenge in itself where the goal is to come up with a solution where all parties benefit? The conversation about value, price and money becomes much less uncomfortable! In this episode. Dan Mall explains how you...
Redesign systems to address complex challenges / Penny Hagen / Episode #106
August 06, 2020 06:00 - 54 minutes - 50 MBAs a customer you've probably already experienced that most services don't fail because of bad intentions. Often services fail because they run on top of systems that don't support a different outcome. The classics "The computer says..." statement is just one of the many example. This isn't just a major frustration for us as ordinary customers but also for us as professionals trying to make things better. Let me ask you a question: How often have you been in a project where you had the man...
Overcoming the biggest fear in design / Natalia Agudelo / Episode #105
July 23, 2020 06:00 - 39 minutes - 36.2 MBTaking risks is an inherit part of design. Trying things you haven't done before. Doing experiments. Exploring uncharted territory. It's exactly these things that give us fulfilment and that we're frankly just very good at. But doing this type of work has its price. And that price can be high. When you're in the business of putting new things into the world you never know what the response will be. The response might be praise but it also might be total rejection. We just don't know until...
The service design renaissance / Jonathan Kalinowski / Episode #104
July 09, 2020 06:00 - 51 minutes - 47.5 MBInnovation has a long heritage. There are many proven innovation methods which have been around for decades. Methods like Quality Function Deployment which was developed in 1966 and already promoted a user centered approach. If you like just look it up on Wikipedia. The benefits of these innovation methods are crystal clear. They have a track record of delivering reliable results in certain situation. Strangely these proven innovation methods haven't made it into the practice of service de...
How bridge the gap between strategy and design / Leon Hovanesian / Episode #103
June 25, 2020 06:00 - 43 minutes - 39.4 MBIn order to make real impact on customers and business you need to have influence on the strategy of an organisation. The truth is that strategy isn't necessarily associated with the practice of design. So once you do start working on strategy it's very easy to get sucked into the traditional corporate culture and mindset. You'll tend drift away from the core values of design. An important part of your job already is figuring out what the right thing is to do. So not getting involved with s...
How to balance leadership and facilitation / Linda Pulik / Episode #102
June 11, 2020 06:00 - 32 minutes - 29.8 MBThere's no doubt that your service design skills are needed more than ever these days. Many pressing (social) challenges have emerged over the last months. Challenges that just scream for a design approach. The big question though is what's the most effective application of design in this context? Rushing in with our tools and methods isn't the best way to contribute to sustainable solutions. In this episode Linda Pulik shares here experience with designing solutions for the social sector. ...
How systemic thinking helps to design better solutions / Tristan Schultz / Episode #101
May 28, 2020 06:00 - 40 minutes - 37 MBImagine for a moment that you're playing a board game. A game that requires some strategic thinking. Let's go for one of my favorites: the settlers of Catan. After having played that game a few times you pretty quickly understand how to play in order to win. So it's time to make things a bit more interesting. Let's add some expansion sets to the game (Catan has 4). Whoah, now with these expansions you suddenly have a ton more options to find a winning strategy. Yes, the game becomes more...
Everything you wanted to know / Marc Fonteijn / Episode #100
May 14, 2020 06:00 - 28 minutes - 26.2 MBWhat do you learn from talking to 99 service design leaders over a course of 4 years? Find out in this 100th episode of the Show! I invited you, the Service Design Show community to send in your questions. And you did. From all over the world! So in this episode I’ll be answering your questions about service design, about the Show and even some questions about me. You’ll also learn about the change that’s going to happen on the Show in the coming weeks. Because after 4 years it’s also ti...
The 7 roles of a service designer / Robert Bau / Episode #99
April 30, 2020 07:15 - 50 minutes - 46.2 MBHow can you successfully drive, facilitate and guide change as a service designer? It helps when you're aware of the type of change process you're involved in. Your classic top down change process requires a significantly different approach than a bottom up crowd driven movement. In this episode Robert Bau talks about the 4 main change processes in an organisation and how service designers relate to them. Over the years Robert has identified 7 key roles a service designer can play. When...
Who can say no to good design? / Yoko Akama / Episode #98
April 16, 2020 06:00 - 41 minutes - 38.1 MBThe dominant form of design privileges certain, often western oriented norms and values. This has big ethical implications and a direct impact on the people we are designing for. In this episode Yoko Akama shares her thoughts about how we can embrace diversity and make service design a more inclusive practice. It's a healthy and important conversation we need to have as a community. The topic of ethics within (service) design falls into a larger discussion about the future of our field. Y...
What is a service at it’s core? / Majid Iqbal / Episode #97
April 02, 2020 08:00 - 40 minutes - 37.1 MBWhat is a service? No really, what is it? As you might imagine it's quite an instrumental question a service designer. But as it turns out, surprising little knowledge about services is embedded in our practice. So in this episode Majid Iqbal talks about service design from the service rather than from the design perspective. We often feel that service design is a strategic practice. Majid has a different take on that. So we talk about how strategy translates into services. And how designer...
A lean(er) service design approach / Lincoln Neiger / Episode #96
March 19, 2020 07:00 - 36 minutes - 33.4 MBHave you been following the classic design process in most your projects? Moving from research to insights and from opportunities to prototypes. Well you're not alone because most service designers do. It's the process that has been described in many books over the years and become the de facto approach. But what if this isn't the most efficient way to design good services? What if you could tweak the design process so that you get better results in less time? Would you be interested in tha...
Designing with the invisible glue that holds us together / Josina Vink / Episode #95
March 05, 2020 07:00 - 33 minutes - 30.5 MBIf the service you've designed goes against the existing socials structures it's bound to fail. That's why it's essential that from the very first moment you're aware of these social structures and use them in your design process. But how you might wonder... Josina Vink has done a lot of research on this topic and in this episode she shares her most important learnings. One of the reasons social structures are so important in service design is that they dictate interactions between people....
How much empathy is enough? / Maike Klip / Episode #94
February 20, 2020 07:00 - 33 minutes - 30.9 MBEmpathy, understanding and compassion. These words are not commonly used in many large organisations. But why? That's what we're going to find out. Our guest in this episode, Maike Klip, has embarked on an inspiring research project to learn what it means to be a compassionate civil servant. As an employeed of the Dutch Government herself Maike recognized the stories about organisations not having enough empathy for the people they serve. So she got curious and wanted to understand how mu...
Design 101 for CEOs and business leaders / Audrey Crane / Episode #93
February 06, 2020 07:00 - 40 minutes - 37 MBWhat do CEOs need to know about design? This was the question Audrey Crane tried to answer in her latest book which carries exactly that title. Make sure you stick around till the end of the episode because there's a little surprise... Sometimes it might seem that design is already a well established practice and field for most organisations out there. But the reality is that it's far from. There are still (many) business leaders out there who don't have a clue what design is and more impor...
The organisation as your design material / Linn Vizard / Episode #92
January 23, 2020 07:00 - 41 minutes - 37.8 MBWhy is it that so many service design projects still get stranded before they have been able to make an impact on customers? In this episode Linn Vizard shares her experience with what it takes to make service design real. Linn has an interesting perspective on how we might start looking at the outcomes of service design. Because the outcome of our work almost never is an actual service... So what are the outcomes we create as a community? And how can we do a better job at communicating thos...
How sharing makes you a better service designer / Daniele Catalanotto / Episode #91
January 09, 2020 08:22 - 36 minutes - 33.6 MBCould you become a better service designer by just sharing more? According to the guest in this episode that's definitely the case! Daniele Catalanotto has been writing and sharing a lot about what he knows (and doesn't) related to service design. It might sound counter intuitive but Daniele argues that you first and foremost should share for your own benefit. If other people find the things you share helpful, that's great. If not then that definitely shouldn't make you share less. Now you...