Service Design Show

Let's talk about a service designer's favorite topic... measuring impact. Why is it so d*mn hard!? We'll get to that in a minute.

Of course, the idea behind measuring the impact of your work is smart. When done right, it helps you to stay on track. Make sure your efforts actually make a positive contribution. And show you if you need to redirect your efforts to something else.

But often, we find that many things inside organizations are measured because they are easy to express in numbers... not because they are the right indicators of success. And this is exactly the challenge we run into as a service design community.

Showing the impact of our work across an entire service or customer journey is not easy. But this shouldn't stop us from trying, right?

That's why in a recent Circle community session, we explored:

Tim Dekker hosted the conversation, and I invited Tim to share the highlights from that session with you.

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00:00 Welcome to the Show

--- [ 2. CIRCLE ] ---

If you'd like to be part of these conversations as they happen rather than just getting the summary on the podcast, consider joining us in the Circle.

www.servicedesignshow.com/circle/

Here's a question you might not think about daily... How is service design practiced in China?

I'm always eager to learn about the (subtle) differences in how our field is perceived within different cultures. Why? Because seeing that there are other ways to approach things enriches my perspective and keeps me grounded about my way of working.

The goal isn't to copy what's being done in other places but rather to understand its reasoning and philosophy. That's why I was excited to have a conversation with Zichian Xiong recently on the Show. He currently lives and works in the USA, but Zichuan was also at the forefront when service design started to emerge in China. As he's seen both worlds, Zichuan is in a great position to articulate the relevant similarities and differences.

To get a good understanding of these similarities and differences, you'll hear about:

Investing the time to listen and learn from stories like this, which give you a broader understanding of our field, is good practice for any professional. They help you to get out of your comfort zone and might hold the clue to connect the dots or spark a completely new insight.

I found this an eye-opening conversation, with much more to be explored. So it's exciting to think about where design could be heading in the next 5 years.

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00:00 Welcome to episode 158

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* https://www.linkedin.com/in/zichuan-xiong-94aa3b13/

--- [ 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!

I could have seen this coming... That's the last thing you want to say when your project isn't going well.

To minimize this risk, you'll need to identify red flags early on and work to create conditions for success. But it's challenging to talk about these topics with internal stakeholders before your project begins.

People are eager to start; it makes sense. And you don't want to be seen as the one who is delaying things unnecessarily or putting roadblocks up.

Before you climb a mountain, it's wise to take advice from someone who's done it before so that you don't get stuck halfway on your journey. In this case, you're the one who's climbed the mountain of a service design project, and your internal stakeholder is eager to embark on their first trip.

So how do you make it evident that you're doing your internal stakeholder a service by addressing the conditions for success early on? You're helping them avoid common pitfalls and saving them the embarrassment of cleaning up the mess when things go sour.

Well, in this episode, you'll hear three examples of how service design professionals have successfully managed to create the space to have these conversations with their stakeholders.

One of my takeaways is that you need to have a clear process and structure in place that guides you through the tough questions at the start of a project.

Enjoy the conversation and keep making a positive impact :)

- Marc

--- [ EPISODE GUIDE ] ---

00:00 Welcome to the Show

--- [ CIRCLE ] ---

Join our community of in-house service design professionals at the Circle.

No, it's not the latest shoes... What does it take for a professional athlete to perform at their best?

Sure, she needs to have talent and be in top physical shape. But that's not enough. The top performing athletes are, for example, rigorous regarding their sleep, diet, and mental well-being. These things are the foundation for them to deliver a world-class performance.

Now, I have a weird assumption. A design professional and an athlete might have more in common than meets the eye. I bet you that the top-performing design professionals also have a set of rigorous habits, routines, and rituals that allow them to deliver their most impactful work.

I want to test this assumption in what might become an entirely new series on the Show. And who would be a better candidate for the first conversation about this than Chris Do? Chris Do is an educator and content creator who daily impacts the lives of thousands, if not millions, of creative professionals.

So I invited Chris to get down and personal. In this episode, you'll hear Chris talk about his relationship with aspects like mental health, physical health, and goal setting. Basically, we're trying to demystify what allows Chris to do what he does on a fundamental level.

So if you want to learn more about the life of a professional "design athlete" and what that means for you, don't miss this one!

This might sound a bit like clickbait, but I got amazed more than once during this conversation. Chris does some things that are entirely different from what I would describe as common sense :)

Enjoy the episode!

--- [ GUIDE ] ---

00:00 Welcome to episode 157

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* https://www.linkedin.com/in/thechrisdo/

Books

* How to Tell a Story - https://amzn.to/3e9KZeW

Podcasts

* https://radiolab.org

--- [ SELLING SERVICE DESIGN WITH CONFIDENCE ] ---

Get your clients, colleagues, managers and CEOs as excited about service design as you are.

https://servicedesignshow.com/confidence

I wish it were different, but… The reality is that service design still isn’t business as usual.

This means that you need to do a lot of evangelizing as part of your job. Getting business stakeholders, clients, and even your colleagues to buy into the value of a human-centered, design-driven way of working.

I see that many service design professionals rely on their improvisation skills and hope to come up with the right message at the right time. If you’re lucky, this approach can work, but it’s not the most effective. So these professionals struggle, get stuck and eventually become frustrated because they can’t get the people around them to see the benefits of their work.

But did you know there is a remarkably simple way to get over this? Instead of improvisation and hope, you need a structured process and the right frameworks. What is this process, and what are these frameworks?

Well, I’ve invited 7 participants who recently graduated from the Selling Service Design with Confidence program to share their learnings with you.

So in this episode, you’ll get practical tips on how to:

And I’m sure you’ll find many more valuable lessons in this episode. So if you want to spend less time talking about your work and more time doing the work, then you don’t want to miss this conversation.

I always enjoy these episodes because there’s no substitute for the stories of professionals who are experiencing day-to-day challenges (and wins). This is as real as it gets.

[ 1. Episode Guide ]

00:00 Welcome to the episode

[ 2. Selling Service Design with Confidence ]

For more information and instructions on how to apply head over to:

It's not a secret... Every day we are outsourcing more and more of our decisions to AI algorithms.

Some of these decisions are frivolous, like determining if that's a cat in the photo. Other decisions are of much higher stake, like whether you will get that medical treatment.

Especially with the last kind of decisions, we'd better ensure that these algorithms are designed and used responsibly. And according to Jillian Powers, service design professionals must play a vital role in this process.

This means we need to get familiar and comfortable with this new technology. But how? Well, in this episode, Jillian gives a "data science 101" for designers. I assure you that there won't be any complex computer math that you need to understand. On the contrary, you'll hear that bringing the human perspective into the conversation is the thing that's currently missing.

This is one of those episodes that shines a light on a blind spot that you didn't even realize you had. So grab your notebook and click the link below! I feel Jillian does a great job at demystifying AI to the point that it might even get you excited to get involved :)

Enjoy the conversation and keep making a positive impact!

--- [ 1. GUIDE ] ---

00:00 Welcome to episode 156

--- [ 2. LINKS ] ---

--- [ 3. CIRCLE ] ---

Join our private community for in-house service design professionals who want to make a change in their organisation.

https://servicedesignshow.com/circle

Wouldn't it be great if... Delivering a great customer experience wasn't just a "nice to have" when there's time left but an actual strategic priority that guides decision-making?

I'm sure you know many examples of (expensive) service failures that could have been prevented if the voice of the customer had been part of the conversations inside the company. Of course, this is precisely one of the things we try to achieve with service design.

The problem is that we often don't yet have the authority to drive critical decisions. So no matter which arguments we bring forward when push comes to shove, in the end, it's always going to be the "HiPPO" in the room that calls the shots.

Wolfram Thurm and his team were also running into this challenge. It was hard for them to get the value of design across so that other business stakeholders would see the benefits for them. Consequently, many times decisions were made that weren't in favor of the customer and the business. To the frustration of everyone involved.

Fueled by this frustration and the opportunity to improve, Wolfram set out to find a way to structurally have better conversations inside the organization. After quite a journey, they managed to design a company-wide tool that now allows everyone to make better decisions faster.

In this episode, Wolfram shares everything about the tool they created, how they use it, and the struggles they had to overcome to get here.

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00:00 Welcome to episode 155

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--- [ CIRCLE COMMUNITY ] ---

Learn more about the community for in-house service design professionals.

https://servicedesignshow.com/circle

Who doesn't want this... To come up with smart solutions for relevant challenges that are immediately embraced by the end-users.

Well, in this week's episode of the Show, Victor Udoewa shares a radical approach to the design process that increases the chance you'll actually accomplish this.

But first, let's quickly look at why solutions don't get adopted. It's often not due to bad intentions. Many times it has to do with the fact that a wrong judgment call has been made about what's important.

Because as a design professional, you're -implicitly- imposing your ideas, values, and norms onto the process. You are in a strong position of power, whether you like it or not. The problem is that this leads to solutions derived from a single -often mainstream- worldview.  Again, this isn't something that professionals set out to do. It happens because of the nature of the current design process.

So is there something we can do about this? According to Victor, there is! We, starting with the design professional, have to give up power.

The community and the users must lead the design process, from start to end, from top to bottom. But can this truly be done, or is it just wishful thinking? And is there still a role for the professional designer when this happens?

Victor has a thing or two to say about these and some other key questions.

So if you'd also like to work on more meaningful challenges and come to more impactful solutions, click the link below and soak in this inspiring conversation.

It's great to get people on the Show who challenge our common design practices like Victor. And to be able to share these stories with you.

Enjoy the conversation and keep making a positive impact :)

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00:00 Welcome to episode 154

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--- [ 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

There's no doubt about it... Over the last few years, design has gained a lot of momentum in the business space.

It's encouraging to see that design is slowly but surely getting a seat at the table. But at which price has this raise come? And are we willing to pay this price?

When you zoom out a bit, you'll quickly notice that it's often the "easy to digest" form of design that is praised, the form where the focus primarily lies on gaining short-term benefits and incremental improvements.

While that's a space where design can add value, it's not the space where it shines, according to Tom Foster. In this episode with Tom, I talk about how you can regain the space and time again to work on bigger, dare I say, more meaningful challenges.

Now, if you think that's going hard in your organization, mind that Tom has worked in many traditional sectors and is now back in finance. If it's possible there, it might also be for you :)

Although I'm excited that design is making huge strides these days, it's sad to see that some of the depth and craft eroded from our practice. This conversation with Tom gave me hope that we'll be able to bring it back.

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00:00 Welcome to episode 153

--- [ LINKS ] ---

--- [ 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

As a consumer, you use artificial intelligence daily.  Just open any app on your phone, and the chances are that AI is somehow embedded within it.

The development of AI so far has been driven mainly by engineers and scientists. But have you ever wondered how service design help to shape this powerful new technology?

Well, it's not a question that's on my mind daily... But after the recent conversation with Carly Burton, I'm definitely more aware of the opportunity in front of us.

As the product lead for the AI platform at Meta, Carly is on a mission to bring more design(ers) into developing better AI.

In this episode, you'll learn why this is important and what might happen when we fail to do so.

There are still many unknowns and unanswered questions in this space. And that's precisely the space where design thrives.

But we shouldn't wait for the moment that design gets invited into the conversation. So it's really up to us to proactively create these bridges.

If you're curious how, then Carly has some inspiring examples that will get your mind going!

What I find exciting about the intersection between AI and design is that it's still very much uncharted territory. There really couldn't be a better time to step in and shape it with your ideas.

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00:00 Welcome to episode 152

--- [ LINKS ] ---

--- [ 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