In this episode I speak with Steven Russell, a service designer and now Innovation Manager at Stagecoach bus in the UK. We chat about autonomous buses - a project that Steven has been working on for quite some time. Now, no longer in the realms of movies like Back to the Future 2, it’s not too far away. How far I hear you ask? Well at some point this year, Edinburgh will hopefully become one of the first cities in the world to start rolling the service out in a R and D capacity.

We chat about all the ins and outs about the process, and discuss what the service might look like, potential service failures and other industry dependencies like insurance (who is responsible in the case of accidents) and also how to prepare society for visual of seeing a bus with people driving down the road, with no human driver at the wheel.

Note: Since recording the launch date for the autonomous bus service has been announced. It will open to the public on Monday, the 15th of May.

Connect with Steven: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenjrussell/

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• NEW COURSE: Service Design : https://www.thisishcd.com/courses/video-on-demand-introduction-to-human-centered-service-design-using-journey-mapping

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Hello and welcome to Bringing Design Closer. Our goal is to have conversations that inspire and to help move the dial forward for organisations to become more human-centred in their approach to solving complex business and societal problems.

In this episode I chat with Dee Seaver from Philips about the role of the Service Design function within organisations and the interconnectedness towards how academia prepares designers towards either agency or in-house practice. It may seem like a small nuance, but it’s a really interesting conversation to have and reflect.

It’s a good episode and hope you enjoy it.

Also, thank you so much to everyone who has been leaving so many wonderful reviews for the podcast. I recently checked and saw lots of reviews trickling in from across the internet. If you like what we do, leave a review wherever you are listening…it helps me out and helps others find the podcast too!

Let’s get into it...

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In this episode I caught up with Oliver Weidlich, of Contxtu.al Sydney, formerly known as Mobile Experience.

I’ve met Oliver several times over the years whilst living in Sydney, always in passing, and never in detail, but was always hugely impressed when I saw him speak about Design, and here is no different.

We focus our conversation on spatial computing, and get straight into the nitty gritty of what this is, and how it will radically change how we design services and experiences. We chat about the complexity of data ownership, and build on the conversation threads that myself and Scott Jenson spoke several months ago.

Oliver is awesome and I know you will love this conversation.

• https://www.contxtu.al/spatialcomputing

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Perk Pomeyie is a Ghanaian environmental activist from Accra, who is currently the National Coordinator of the Ghana Youth Environmental Movement-a leading youth-led environment and climate advocacy and campaign group in Ghana. I started by asking Perk to tell me more about how the youth movement works.

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In this episode I caught up with Charlotte Fontaine, an incredible service designer in the UK.

We speak about Kalda, a service that has really opened my eyes through my own naivety and in exposure to the needs of people within the LGBTQIA+ community.

We chat about the nuances that persist for people from within the community to access therapy, and how Kalda offers a community led service that includes connecting people to therapists who can better relate to the needs from within the LGBTQIA+ community.

I was quite nervous speaking about this topic, and I bring this up in the conversation, why I was feeling this.

How I personally can continue on my learning journey to become more aware and become a much better ally to the community - hopefully my vulnerability can help others who may feel the same, build on this and have conversations to help grow and support the community better.

Links

Link for Kalda app: https://onelink.to/kwqzr2

Link for Stonewall: https://www.stonewall.org.uk/

Connect with Charlotte: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlotte-fountaine/?originalSubdomain=uk

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In this episode I caught up with Roya Azadi, strategic director at Paper Giant, a design consultancy based in Melbourne, Australia.

I follow a few places on my personal social accounts and really respect the work that the folks at Paper Giant do, and was really excited when I saw a project that they did with the Supreme Court in Victoria around accessing Justice. We chat about the project is detail, how Roya and the fellow team members built trust, worked alongside other consultancies, remained focussed on the analogue, and also what Roya brought to the project themselves, through their own story. It’s a great conversation.

https://www.papergiant.net/work/a-user-experience-strategy-to-improve-access-to-justice-at-the-supreme-court

https://www.linkedin.com/in/royaaazadi/?originalSubdomain=au

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In this episode I caught up with Bronwyn Van Der Merwe, VP of Design at Culture Amp.

We speak about Design Culture and tap into Bronwyn’s absolutely incredible background and personal experience that saw Bronwyn spearhead the evolution of Fjord in APAC regions.

What were the key things that Bronwyn did to ensure the scalability of a design culture at Fjord in Australia, and also when it scaled into Asian regions like Singapore and Japan. How did they balance the local culture in each region and touch on how this was handled as the merger between Fjord and Accenture unfolded, that ultimately saw two cultures merge.

We speak about Bronwyn’s past, tapping into their Commerce background, and how this ultimately provides them with a brilliant lens to peer through when looking at the commercial impact of Design. We chat about the work that they are doing at Culture Amp, and the special culture that is unfolding within the business.

I say this lightly, but this is a must listen to anyone in Design leadership.

Links

Accenture Song: https://www.accenture.com/au-en/about/accenture-song-index

Culture Amp: https://www.cultureamp.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bronwynvdm/

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As many of you probably know, I work 100% independently, Even though I might find myself having 4-5 hours of zoom calls, or training organisations in Design online, none of this comes close to the connection I would have working with teams directly and in person. It’s alienating and to be truthful, quite lonely at times.

So a few weeks ago I started to design a service that I see living within my podcast network, This is HCD. I am calling it ChangeSpace, a place for people to come together once a month and have discussions about things that matter, discussions about organisational ways of working, and to share war stories - and who knows, a place to make new friends.

People like Kaustubh Thapa give me hope. Kaustubh is finishing his PhD at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. His collaborative research in Nigeria, China and Vietnam incorporates justice, equity, and sustainability for a fairer EU waste trade and a just circular economy transition. I started off by asking Kaustubh if he could give me a bit of history in relation to the European dumping of e-waste in Nigeria and other African countries

• https://gerrymcgovern.com/books/world-wide-waste/

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In this episode I speak with Melis Senova author of This Human and soon to be published book, Design Character. On Melis’s website they say “I help leaders find a deeper source to fuel their potential for leading others to have great impact in the world.” And we speak openly about Melis’s own journey of self-discovery and journey that has led her to a Phd in Human Centered Design, Co-Founding Huddle and now running her community for designers, titled This Human.

Before we jump in, I have a favour to ask. I've been creating content for This is HCD for over 5-years or so, all for the love of sharing knowledge to the global design community. One thing you could do is leave a review (preferably a 5-star one!), as it helps us grow our community - every little helps. Even if you don’t review, you can go one better by telling people you work with about the podcast.

Thanks so much - let’s jump in to the episode

•https://melissenova.com

•https://thishuman.com

Learn more about Melis's new book: https://www.bispublishers.com/design-character.html

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