This Is Service Design Doing

1. Customer Experience is Paramount

As customers, it seems that we are less influenced by the core offering than by the layers of experience around it.

Beyond the Core Offering. In today's market, customers value the overall experience as much as, if not more than, the core product or service itself. Factors like staff interaction, ease of use, and the overall environment significantly impact customer satisfaction. Organizations must shift their focus from solely optimizing the product to enhancing the entire customer journey.

The Digital Revolution. The digital age has empowered customers with more choices and information, amplifying the importance of a positive customer experience. Social media allows customers to share their experiences widely, making word-of-mouth more influential than traditional advertising. Companies that excel in customer experience outperform the market, demonstrating a clear link between customer satisfaction and business success.

Organizational Silos. Many organizations struggle to deliver exceptional customer experiences due to internal silos. These silos reflect functional divisions within the company, optimizing for efficiency within each department rather than for the customer's end-to-end journey. Breaking down these silos and fostering cross-functional collaboration is essential for creating seamless and satisfying customer experiences.

2. Service Design: A Holistic Approach

Service design choreographs processes, technologies and interactions within complex systems in order to co-create value for relevant stakeholders.

Mindset, Process, and Toolset. Service design is more than just a set of tools or a process; it's a mindset that prioritizes the customer's perspective. It involves a design-led approach, combining iterative cycles of research and development with a flexible toolkit borrowed from various disciplines. This holistic approach considers the entire value ecosystem, addressing the needs of all stakeholders, not just the end user.

Beyond Aesthetics. Service design goes beyond aesthetics, focusing on the functionality, usability, and desirability of a service. It challenges and reshapes everything from operations to the business model, ensuring that the service not only looks good but also works effectively. It's not simply about "putting lipstick on a pig" but about fundamentally improving the entire system.

Service-Dominant Logic. Service-dominant logic views tangible goods as merely distribution mechanisms for service provision. Customers seek value co-creation, expecting organizations to help them solve problems and achieve their goals. This requires organizations to provide an experience that meets their emotional needs and exceeds their expectations.

3. Tools for Understanding and Visualizing

Service design tools are mind hacks that help us reframe problems in a way that humans can handle better.

Research Data. Research data is the foundation of service design, providing empirical evidence to inform decisions. It can be divided into raw data (unfiltered observations) and interpreted data (researcher's analysis). Recognizing whether the content of tools used in service design is based on assumptions or based on research helps you to understand how solid and credible a piece of work is.

Personas. Personas are archetypal profiles representing specific customer or user groups, based on research and data. They help teams empathize with customers, understand their needs, and make design decisions from their perspective. Personas should be regularly updated to reflect changing customer behaviors and preferences.

Journey Maps. Journey maps visualize the customer experience over time, highlighting key touchpoints, emotions, and pain points. They help teams identify gaps in the customer journey and explore potential solutions. Different types of journey maps exist, including current-state, future-state, customer, and employee journey maps.

4. The Iterative Nature of Service Design

With this strong emphasis on iterations of research, prototyping, and even implementation, service design projects have a firm foundation in reality.

Continuous Improvement. Service design is not a one-time fix but an ongoing process of refinement and adaptation. It involves iterative cycles of research, ideation, prototyping, and testing, allowing for continuous improvement based on real-world feedback. This iterative approach ensures that the service remains relevant and effective over time.

Embracing Failure. Iteration requires a willingness to experiment and accept failure as a learning opportunity. By starting with small, cheap attempts and experiments, organizations can identify what works and what doesn't, adapting the process along the way. This iterative approach makes decision making in service design a low-stakes activity.

Adaptability. The iterative nature of service design makes it well-suited for today's volatile and uncertain business environment. It allows organizations to respond quickly to changing customer needs and market conditions, ensuring that their services remain competitive and valuable.

5. Collaboration: The Key to Breaking Silos

Because the tools of service design have been filtered through a design mentality, they are visual, fast, lightweight, and easy to grasp.

Cross-Functional Teams. Service design thrives on collaboration, bringing together people from different departments and backgrounds to work towards a common goal. This cross-functional approach breaks down silos and fosters a shared understanding of the customer experience. By working together, teams can create more holistic and effective solutions.

Common Language. The tools of service design, such as journey maps and personas, provide a common language for collaboration. These visual and accessible tools allow people from different disciplines to communicate effectively and co-create solutions. This shared language promotes understanding and alignment across the organization.

Boundary Objects. Service design tools act as "boundary objects," facilitating communication and collaboration between different specialists. These objects can be interpreted in different ways by different specialists, allowing them to work together successfully without having to fully understand each other's worlds. This makes cross-functional cooperation easier and more productive.

6. Prototyping: Testing and Refining Ideas

Prototypes evolve into pilots, and then into implemented new offerings – and along the way there is always iteration.

Rapid Experimentation. Prototyping is a core activity in service design, allowing teams to test possible solutions quickly and cheaply. It involves creating scaled-down versions of services or products to gather feedback and refine ideas. This iterative process helps to identify potential problems and improve the overall design.

Different Types of Prototypes. Service prototypes can take many forms, from simple sketches and storyboards to more elaborate simulations and pilots. The choice of prototype depends on the specific design question being addressed and the stage of the design process. Low-fidelity prototypes are useful for exploring initial concepts, while high-fidelity prototypes are better for evaluating the user experience.

Real-World Testing. Prototypes should be tested in real-world contexts whenever possible. This allows teams to gather authentic feedback from users and identify potential challenges that may not be apparent in a lab setting. By testing prototypes in the field, organizations can ensure that their services are truly meeting the needs of their customers.

7. Implementation: Making the Design Real

To create valuable experiences, service designers must get to grips with the backstage activities and business processes that enable the frontstage success, and address the implementation of these processes.

Beyond the Concept. Service design doesn't end with a concept or prototype; it extends to the implementation of the design in the real world. This involves translating the design into tangible actions, processes, and systems. Successful implementation requires a deep understanding of the organization's capabilities and resources.

Change Management. Implementation often involves significant organizational change, requiring careful management and communication. It's essential to involve employees in the implementation process, providing them with the training and support they need to adapt to new ways of working. Addressing their concerns and empowering them to take ownership of the new service is crucial for success.

Holistic Approach. Implementation requires a holistic approach, considering all aspects of the service, from frontstage interactions to backstage processes. It involves aligning the organization's structure, technology, and culture to support the delivery of the new service. By taking a holistic view, organizations can ensure that the implementation is successful and sustainable.

8. Embedding Service Design in Organizations

Service design is not only useful to create value for the “end user” or “customer.” It addresses the entire value ecosystem, and might focus on offerings aimed at end users, other businesses, internal partners, or colleagues.

Cultural Transformation. Embedding service design requires a cultural shift within the organization, fostering a customer-centric mindset and a willingness to experiment and iterate. This involves promoting collaboration, breaking down silos, and empowering employees to take ownership of the customer experience. It's a long-term process that requires commitment from all levels of the organization.

Starting Small. Introducing service design can be overwhelming, so it's best to start with small, manageable projects. These projects can serve as proof of concept, demonstrating the value of service design and building momentum for wider adoption. By starting small, organizations can learn and adapt the process to their specific context.

Continuous Improvement. Service design is not a one-time project but an ongoing process of continuous improvement. Organizations must establish mechanisms for gathering feedback, monitoring performance, and iterating on their services. This requires a commitment to learning and adaptation, ensuring that the organization remains responsive to changing customer needs and market conditions.

Last updated: March 12, 2025