Service Design Show

Imagine that you had the power to look into the future...

That you could escape from the short-term focus and envision a world years or even decades away. And on top of this, you'd be able to turn this vision into something real, a roadmap to guide your decisions today.

Wouldn't that change everything?

Now, this episode won't give you a crystal ball, but it might be the next best thing.

We all know that the challenges we face today require different ways of thinking in order to solve them. If we continue on the trajectory we're currently on, our future isn't looking very bright, to say the least.

In order to create a different, better future, we have to first imagine it.

But with our world changing so fast, how can we even predict tomorrow, let alone years from now? Aren't we just better off focussing on the here and now?

Not according to our guest, Ali Draudt. Ali teaches us that predicting the future is a hidden superpower of designers. Lucky for us, Ali is an expert – author of "What the Foresight," holding a degree in Design Strategy and Strategic Foresight, and is currently the Head of Innovation and Design Strategy at Nike.

In this episode, you'll hear how to:

So, if you're to unleash your hidden superpower and make better decisions today you'll be in for a treat!

Talking with Ali reminded me that the dots only connect in hindsight. The only way to make those breakthrough, serendipitous connections is by continuing to explore things that seem irrelevant now.

Enjoy and keep making a positive impact.

~ Marc

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00:00 Welcome to Episode 197

04:00 Who is Ali

04:45 How Ali Stumbled into Service Design

06:30 Lightning Round

08:00 Moving beyond antromorphic design

10:30 What's truly human-centered

17:30 Adopting to this practice

21:00 Next big thing to go beyond

24:00 Changing levels of zoom

31:00 Coping mechanism on the speed

38:00 Using the Steep Model in Teams

40:00 4 archetypes to future potentials

45:30 What good work look like

49:30 Co-creation mode

50:45 What I hope you'd remember

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Here is something that makes many service design professionals cringe...

The question to quantify the impact design has on the company goals.

You'll see that finding the answer to this question is actually surprisingly easier (and more fun) than you might think.

Here's a business mantra you might have heard before: If it's not being measured, it's not important.

Numbers rule. That's that cold, hard reality of how companies operate.

Now, as a design community, we've always struggled to quantify the value we bring to tangible business outcomes.

Sure, there are valid reasons – we often work on systemic challenges where it's hard to make a water-tight correlation between our efforts and the specific impact they have on the goals.

There are just many factors at play that have an influence, and isolating our contribution is hard or, rather, impossible.

So, we often get hung up on this attribution question as we feel we can't "prove" how much we've contributed.

Even if we want to measure our contribution, we find that the right measuring processes aren't in place to do so. So, we'd rather focus our time and energy on solving the actual challenge at hand than implementing those processes from the ground up.

And let's be real, not many of us wake up excited about capturing things in a spreadsheet.

So yes, there are reasons why quantifying the impact of design is hard and often lacking.

But, as we've recently seen, we're paying a high price for this.

Just scroll through your LinkedIn feed to see many sad examples of that playing out. When budgets tighten, design often takes the hit as it can't show, in numbers, its contribution to the business.

Okay, I know this hasn't been a very uplifting message so far. But here's the good news.

There is a group of professionals out there who absolutely love design and thrive on these types of measurement challenges.

Of course, I'm referring to our friends from the DesignOps community.

When we collaborate closely together, we have the power to anchor design as an indispensable strategic discipline. At least that's the firm conviction of Patrizia Bertini, our guest in this episode.

Patrizia, shares her journey of implementing measurement frameworks that facilitate healthier conversations between design professionals and business stakeholders. In the conversation, we dive into the juicy stuff like value attribution, measuring systemic impact, and prototyping with numbers.

I can't guarantee this episode will turn you into a spreadsheet enthusiast, but it will definitely inspire you to be BFFs with someone who loves crunching numbers.

Let's face it; we might sometimes feel intimidated by numbers. We want to prove with scientific rigor that things are the way we say. But here's a secret: educated guesses are everything you need...

Enjoy the chat and keep making a positive impact!

~ Marc

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00:00 Welcome to Episode 196

03:30 Who is Patricia

04:15 Patricia's first Service Design encounter

05:00 Lightning Round

06:30 Thoughts about design identity

12:00 The decline of strategic design

16:30 Unpacking data triangulation

21:00 Identifying problem in onboarding

24:45 Design thinking for business problems

30:00 Going against the system's structure

32:30 Initiating organizational values

42:00 The impact of translating what the business is

46:00 How to bridge the gap

51:30 Who should be accountable?

56:00 What to avoid and what we should do

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Join our private community for in-house service design professionals.

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What's the most important tool in your service design toolbox?

~ Marc

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00:00 Welcome to Episode 195

03:30 Who is Frances

04:00 How she stumbled to Service Design

05:30 Lightning Round

08:45 Finding purpose by doing work outside of our work

10:30 What lead to this thinking

14:30 How the purpose translated

18:30 Increasing the chance of clarity

20:30 Insights to figuring out what you should be pursuing

27:00 How we can identify the impact that we are contributing

32:45 A knack for recognizing wins

39:30 Helpful methods to help you find purpose in your work

43:30 Piece of advice

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Join our private community for in-house service design professionals. ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle

Design is at risk of being misused and exploited...

Wow, I had to let that sink in for a moment.

It's not the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of the service design community.

I generally see a bunch of optimistic and passionate professionals dedicated to making the services around us better.

However, our latest guest, George Aye, delivers an important wake-up call. George argues that when we solely focus on the feasibility aspect of our work, we fall into the trap of contributing to challenges that aren't aligned with our values.

It's not enough to merely ask whether we can do something.

As a practice, we must take responsibility and hold each other more accountable for the impact we have on the people that we serve. The key question, according to George, is whether we should contribute to a particular challenge. No challenge is too small for thorough scrutiny. We need to overcome the idea that we should get involved in every project and demand higher ethical standards from ourselves and our clients.

But what does this mean in practice?

In our conversation, George, who leads a highly respected design studio, spills the beans on how his team holds him accountable for the clients and projects they take on. Why he has written over 50 break-up letters to clients and the importance of the "gut-check" tool as the crucial compass for guiding their decision-making process.

This conversation might make you uncomfortable at times—I certainly felt that way. Yet, I wouldn't have wanted to miss it for a moment, and I believe you might feel the same after listening.

The topic is too important to ignore.

One statement from George that continues to resonate with me: When a lawyer or doctor makes a mistake, they lose their license. What are the consequences when a design professional screws up?

This is a key question we must address to mature our field.

Enjoy the conversation and keep making a positive impact.

~ Marc

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00:00 Welcome to Episode 194

03:45 Who is George

04:30 Lightning Round

08:00 Should we do it?

10:30 Am I asking this question enough?

14:30 A Project promoting unhealthy behaviors

20:00 Guns and tobacco

22:15 The risk of getting fired and it's trade-offs

26:15 How can we know when to speak up?

30:45 Examples when making a wrong judgment call

31:15 The Gut check

48:15 What to do when it doesn't play out well

53:45 How do we bring this to a broader community?

57:15 Moral injury

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Join our private community for in-house service design professionals.

⁠⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle⁠

Could it be that we're missing the ultimate metric of success?

If I asked you about the metrics driving your organization, I bet revenue, costs, and profit would top the list. Sure, staying in business means earning money, and for most organizations, growing profit has been the default mode of operation.

But here's the catch: more money shouldn't, and frankly can't, be the end goal. We all feel the consequences of that mindset today. So, if profit isn't the ultimate metric of success, what could be the alternative?

Our guest, Alan Moore, has an inspiring take on this. According to Alan, the metric to optimize our business for is beauty. Yes, you read that right, beauty. Now, I know this will sound a bit unconventional for some organizations, but just because beauty isn't a recognized metric doesn't mean it lacks importance.

Just imagine a world where we actually would optimize for beauty instead of profit. Intriguing, right?

So, is this just wishful thinking? Surely not! In our conversation, Alan shares practical tools and examples of companies that have embraced this philosophy, taking the first step toward a more beautiful business.

This is one of those conversations that could open up a whole new area in your opportunity space that will help you design better services.

What resonates with me about Alan's story? It's aspirational. It challenges the mainstream narrative and demands courage to follow this path. Perfect for the design community to embrace if you ask me

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00:00 Welcome to Episode 193

07:15 Who is Alan

08:30 How he stumbled upon Service Design

10:15 Lightning Round

11:30 Beauty will change the world

16:15 Why is it about beauty

22:45 3 Steps to Reset

28:45 How to look at the world differently

37:00 Steps in the "Do" Stage

47:45 When should we push reset?

49:15 Applying the work you're doing today

50:45 The point is to strive

52:15 How to know you're making progress

1:00:15 What you can do today

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Join our private community for in-house service design professionals. ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle

Here's a crazy idea... Imagine you had a team of service design superheroes by your side.

A team that helps you take on the status quo head-on, challenging organizational inertia with confidence.

As service design professionals, we're playing the long game. Change is a journey, and navigating tough times is part of adventure.

Over the holidays, I read "The Long Game". In the book, the author underscores the importance of a strong support group to overcome short-term challenges and bridge the unavoidable chasm of doubt.

Well, enter the ​Circle community​ – our, or rather your, team of service design superheroes. If you've been following my work, you'll know that we've been carefully building this support group over the last three years. Since day one, the Circle has been an ongoing prototype, and (fortunately) not everything works out as we plan.

In this episode, you get a peek behind the curtains as we share the lessons learned from the past year. You'll also hear about our hopes for the future and what the next iteration of the Circle could look like.

The insights aren't just for those creating their own (internal) community; they will resonate with anyone on a journey of professional growth.

Having experienced the Circle firsthand, I have no doubt that actively exposing yourself to your peers' thoughts, ideas, and experiences is the most effective way to evolve into a mature and well-rounded professional.

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00:00 Circle Retrospective 2023 Special Episode

02:45 Welcome Brian & Hayden

03:45 How the Circle evolved

08:15 The Most helpful Dinner Table Session

11:00 What we will be exploring more

12:15 What's important for service designers

22:15 Small wins

26:45 Ways How the Circle has expanded

30:45 What to look forward in 2024

36:30 What the Circle Can Look like in 5 years

40:45 How we can improve our practice

44:45 Closing

We've all heard it before... An idea is nothing without execution.

As service design professionals, our mission goes beyond doing research and creating future scenarios. We're here to create real, tangible change in the lives of the people we serve.

But here's a frustration I'm sure you'll recognize: many insights we uncover eventually never materialize into solutions. It's been a critique of service design for years.

Why does this happen? Well, one reason is the handover moments within organizations. Many great ideas die in the transition between people, teams, and departments. Plagued by conflicting agendas, different objectives, and unequal resources. And as service designers, we lack the mandate or authority to see our ideas through to the end.

So here's a wild idea: What if there were no handovers?

What if service design were the driving force all the way through?

In this conversation, we sit down with ​Brad Alphonso​, who's successfully championed this approach within his organization. Service design is now a respected voice shaping customer experiences and influencing the business strategy.

We explore with Brad what it takes for service design to play this role within your organization. How can you earn the trust and confidence of those around you, allowing you to take the keys to the car?

We also dive into why we must expand our definition of design, step out of our comfort zones, and overcome imposter syndrome to lead the change we want to see.

An inspiring conversation based on a real-life case study that will surely give you some new ideas on how to turn ideas into impact.

Brad's insights have made me aware again that we need to redefine success as we mature within our organizations. Different stages require different metrics, and failing to adapt can leave us stuck—something to reflect on.

Enjoy the conversation!

~ Marc

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00:00 Welcome to Episode 192

06:00 Who is Brad

07:00 How he got into Service Design

10:30 Owning the journey

13:30 First-hand experience to pain

15:30 Should we eliminate the hand-off?

22:00 How they got people in the room

27:00 Meet the desires of the organization first

31:00 What Difference a Holistic Approach Can Make

33:30 Recalibrate what success is

40:00 The development process on how this could be implemented

41:30 The criteria of great work

45:00 When your work evolves the transformation

47:45 The biggest challenge in the shift

50:00 When you can't see immediate progress

53:15 A practical advice

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Join our private community for in-house service design professionals. ⁠

https://servicedesignshow.com/circle

In our fast-paced society, we often find ourselves rushing through life. Whether meeting work deadlines or juggling personal commitments, speed and efficiency seem to rule the day.

Our interactions with others have become transactional, focused on accomplishing tasks rather than building meaningful connections. Have we lost the art of genuine communication, leaving us feeling pressured and stressed, constantly chasing happiness? Sometimes, it definitely feels so.

So what if we paused for a moment? What if we took the time to listen to one another without judgment or hidden agendas? Listening not to prove a point but to understand.

Our guest this week, Johnnie Moore, introduces us to the concept of Unhurried Conversations. What started as a simple experiment has grown into a movement.

Johnnie shares the origins of this movement, what it is at its core, and how it can be integrated into our busy lives, even in work settings where busyness often defines success. Unhurried Conversations act as a magical lubricant in our interactions, making everything flow more smoothly.

I won't spoil the surprise, but if you feel lucky, take a guess about what this magic entails before diving into our conversation.

In a world where change takes time, patience is an essential trait for every service design professional. I really do think that embracing an unhurried mindset can be a simple way to strengthen your patience muscle.

Enjoy and keep making a positive impact :)

~ Marc

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00:00 Welcome to Episode 191

05:00 Who is Johnnie Moore

05:30 How he stumbled with service design

06:30 Lightning Round

08:00 Topic for today: Have More Faith and Curiosity

10:30 It's not a secret: Unhurried Movement

13:00 The talking stick process

15:00 The experiment

17:00 Current state of Unhurried Movement

20:30 The result when people engage in the process

26:30 What it requires for a participant

30:00 What might not work - The Risk

33:15 The effects, level of progression when you "Unhurry:

35:00 Value in not doing and only listening and repetition

38:00 Advise when doing Unhurried conversation

43:45 Not having an agenda

46:00 Making human connections

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Join our private community for in-house service design professionals. ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle

Design has failed... There's a growing narrative that design has fallen short, failing to tackle important business challenges and truly impact customers' lives.

But let's dive deeper. Was this a predictable narrative from the start? In recent years, design often found itself working within confined parameters, struggling to fit into an agile, time-boxed, and predictable fashion. Trying to responsibly and get in line with the rest of the business.

I've seen many talented service design professionals work their *ss off, still trying to deliver the best work within these boundaries. But the odds were always against them.

Perhaps it's our optimism or the sheer challenge that leads us to believe we can reshape design to fit within these constraints. We tried, and to some extent, we succeeded.

But when we're honest, the result often resembles a watered-down, marginalized version of what design is truly capable of. So, it's not surprising to come across critiques regarding the impact of design.

The question is, how do we get ourselves out of this messy situation? Our guest in this episode, James Helms, offers some intriguing insights.

One key aspect is to reconnect with design's superpower: crafting solutions that resonate with people on an emotional level. Additionally, we must find ways to get our executive leaders along this journey. Helping them see how it contributes to the bottom line.

We can and should also take more responsibility for the work we deliver. If that's not living up to our standards, we need to voice concerns. And when those concerns go unheard, sometimes, we must bravely decide to seek a more supportive environment.

If you also sense the potential for design to tackle bigger and more meaningful challenges but struggle with the practicalities, this conversation will give you some food for thought.

The conversation with James got me thinking again about the ever-present balance between a business's quest for predictability and the way design works. How predictable can our work be before it loses its magic?

Enjoy the episode, and keep making a positive impact!

~ Marc

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00:00 Welcome to Episode 190

05:30 Who is James

08:30 How James came across Service Design

11:00 Lightning Round

13:00 Design's current state

17:15 Design's value at the expense

19:15 The agile process

25:30 Design core values success stories

31:15 How to maintain the status quo?

32:00 Domino Effect

40:00 The Dilemma

50:00 Anecdotal evidence and stories

54:00 Is it our fault?

55:15 What's a better strategy?

1:03:00 Piece of advice

1:08:30 Three tech poles of a great creative

1:10:00 What James is doing now

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Join our private community for in-house service design professionals. ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle

ResearchOps, it's a real game-changer... To drive home why, let me share a personal story.

I've been producing this podcast for six years now. There are at least 60 steps that need to be completed before a conversation reaches your ears.

Over the years, I've put different systems in place to make the production process run smoother. But here's the interesting part: Today, I spend about the same amount of time on each episode as I did in my first year.

So what's changed, you ask?

Now that I've standardized and documented the entire process, much of the logistical overhead is out of the way. I use that time to focus on our guests and the quality of our conversation -- the magic happens there.

So, what does this have to do with research?

Well, what if we applied a similar approach to research? We all know that there's no service design without research. However, getting the time and resources needed for proper research is tough.

Research is still often seen as an expense to be minimized rather than the investment it truly is—an investment that multiplies the value of your work down the line.

How can we streamline the research process to free up more time for the real magic to happen?

Well, that's where ResearchOps comes in! It's a community of passionate professionals looking into how research can be done smarter and deliver more value. Our guest in this episode, Kate Towsey, is at the forefront of this community.

In our conversation, we discuss how we, as service design professionals, can benefit from the work done by the ResearchOps community and why service design plays a crucial role in making ResearchOps even better—a beautiful self-reinforcing loop.

One important point from my conversation with Kate is that streamlining the research process isn't about doing less research—it's about increasing its quality.

Enjoy the chat, and keep making a positive impact!

~ Marc

--- [ 1. GUIDE ] ---

00:00 Welcome to Episode 189

05:00 Who is Kate

06:30 How I stumbled into Service Design

09:00 Lightning Round

11:00 Intersection Between ResearchOps and Service Design

14:15 What is ResearchOps?

20:45 Importance of a Research Library

27:00 The Secret to Research

32:00 How it impacts adoption

37:00 What's missing with ResearchOps

44:00 Importance of Research Strategy

48:30 Advise when connecting with a ResearchOps

52:00 The Future of ResearchOps

55:30 Resources

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Join our private community for in-house service design professionals.

⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle