This is Service Design Doing
Authors: Marc Stickdorn, Adam Lawrence, Markus Hormess, Jakob Schneider, Marc Stickdorn, Adam Lawrence, Markus Hormess, Jakob Schneider
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Overview
This book is a practical guide for anyone striving to improve services and customer/employee experiences through service design. We offer a clear and direct approach to getting stuff done, addressing the challenges organizations face in delivering seamless experiences in today’s empowered and fast-changing world. We move beyond just thinking, focusing on the doing aspect of service design. Whether you call it service design, design thinking, UX, CX, or something else, the goal is to bridge silos, involve stakeholders, and iterate your way to better solutions, focusing on the human experience. We introduce a flexible framework for service design processes, core activities (research, ideation, prototyping, implementation), and essential tools (personas, journey maps, system maps, Business Model Canvas). This book emphasizes the importance of facilitation in co-creative settings, providing techniques for managing workshops, building teams, and creating safe spaces for exploration and innovation. We also offer practical advice on building dedicated spaces for service design and embedding service design within organizations, scaling from small projects to organization-wide transformation. The book includes real-world case studies, expert comments, and hands-on tips from practitioners in various industries, showcasing the practical application of service design principles and methods. We have co-created much of this content with the global service design community, including 200+ reviewers and contributors. Download the online resources for free, and get doing!
Book Outline
1. Why Service Design?
Organizations today face the imperative to provide seamless and high-quality experiences, driven by empowered customers and rapid technological advancements. However, siloed organizational structures often hinder customer-centricity and innovation, creating a need for a new approach that effectively links customer experience and value co-creation.
Key concept: Think → doing
2. What is Service Design?
Service design is a human-centered and collaborative approach to service innovation and improvement that emphasizes doing and iteration. It employs tools such as journey maps, personas, and prototypes to move beyond assumptions and make implicit knowledge explicit.
Key concept: The 12 Commandments of Service Design Doing
3. Basic Service Design Tools
Basic service design tools, such as personas, journey maps, system maps, and the Business Model Canvas, provide a common language for multidisciplinary teams to visualize, analyze, prototype, and test services. It’s crucial to distinguish between assumption-based and research-based tools to assess reliability and validity.
Key concept: Assumption-based vs. research-based tools
4. The Core Activities of Service Design
Service design processes are characterized by iterative cycles of divergent and convergent thinking, moving between problem definition and solution development. These processes are adapted to the specific project context, emphasizing the need to solve the right problem before solving the problem right.
Key concept: Divergent and convergent thinking and doing
5. Research
Design research uses a range of qualitative and quantitative methods to challenge assumptions and empathize with stakeholders. Method triangulation, data triangulation, and researcher triangulation help overcome biases and gain robust insights, moving from observations and data through insights and questions towards actionable design decisions.
Key concept: Method triangulation
6. Ideation
Ideation in service design is not about finding one “killer” idea, but about generating a volume of diverse options through techniques like brainstorming, bodystorming, and visual ideation. The “groan zone” between idea generation and selection requires careful facilitation to enable informed decision making without premature convergence. Ideas should be seen as a starting point.
Key concept: Yes, and … / Yes, but …
7. Prototyping
Prototyping helps explore, evaluate, and communicate service concepts through tangible artifacts and staged experiences. Prototypes range in fidelity from low-tech simulations to high-fidelity pilots, testing different facets of an offering: value proposition, look-and-feel, feasibility, and integration.
Key concept: Prototyping to explore, evaluate, communicate
8. Implementation
Implementation is the often-neglected but crucial final step in service design, involving change management, software development, product development, and architecture. Successful implementation addresses human factors, considering why, how and how much people are willing to change.
Key concept: MUST * WANT * CAN
9. Service Design Process and Management
Managing a service design process requires a flexible approach that balances iterative exploration with project management realities. Planned iterations provide structure while allowing for adaptation, managing uncertainty and stakeholder expectations.
Key concept: Planned iterations
10. Facilitating Workshops
Effective workshop facilitation creates a safe space for participation, embracing divergent and convergent thinking. Facilitators manage consent, status, and neutrality to guide group dynamics and achieve workshop goals.
Key concept: Safe space
11. Making Space for Service Design
Dedicated spaces for service design, from mobile kits to permanent studios, foster creativity, collaboration, and a focus on the user experience. Building such spaces involves considering walls, flexibility, inspiration, and connections to the wider ecosystem.
Key concept: Holding the space
12. Embedding Service Design in Organizations
Embedding service design within organizations requires management buy-in, awareness building, competence development, and establishing a community of practice. Design sprints offer a structured approach for scaling up service design activities and linking them to business goals.
Key concept: Design sprints
Essential Questions
1. How does service design address the challenges organizations face in creating and improving services?
Service design aims to create experiences that meet the needs of both customers and the business. It addresses challenges posed by empowered customers, organizational silos, and the need for rapid innovation. The service design mindset emphasizes iterative cycles of research, ideation, prototyping, and implementation to explore and evaluate potential solutions grounded in user needs, balancing desirability, feasibility, and viability. Service design tools facilitate communication, collaboration, and decision making across disciplines, ultimately optimizing service offerings and the overall customer experience.
2. What are the core activities of the service design process, and how are they interconnected?
The core activities of service design are research, ideation, prototyping, and implementation. Research uses qualitative and quantitative methods to understand user needs and the service context. Ideation generates a range of ideas and selects promising concepts. Prototyping makes ideas tangible through low and high-fidelity artifacts and simulations. Implementation focuses on turning prototypes into working solutions, addressing organizational change, technology, and product development. These activities are interconnected and iterative, forming an adaptive process.
3. What are the key principles and techniques for effective facilitation of service design workshops?
Facilitating service design workshops requires managing group dynamics, creating a safe space for participation, and balancing divergent and convergent thinking. Key techniques involve getting participant consent, managing status within the group, using time effectively, adjusting the physical space, and choosing appropriate tools and methods to promote collaboration and experimentation. Effective facilitation helps participants navigate the design process, overcome biases, and co-create valuable solutions.
4. How can service design be sustainably embedded within an organization?
Embedding service design in an organization needs a strategic approach going beyond single projects, fostering a customer-centric culture and design thinking mindset. This requires management buy-in, demonstrated successes, skills development, and building a community of practice. Design sprints offer a structured format for scaling up and iterating service design efforts, linking them to business goals and organizational change. Over time, service design can become integral to the organization’s DNA.
1. How does service design address the challenges organizations face in creating and improving services?
Service design aims to create experiences that meet the needs of both customers and the business. It addresses challenges posed by empowered customers, organizational silos, and the need for rapid innovation. The service design mindset emphasizes iterative cycles of research, ideation, prototyping, and implementation to explore and evaluate potential solutions grounded in user needs, balancing desirability, feasibility, and viability. Service design tools facilitate communication, collaboration, and decision making across disciplines, ultimately optimizing service offerings and the overall customer experience.
2. What are the core activities of the service design process, and how are they interconnected?
The core activities of service design are research, ideation, prototyping, and implementation. Research uses qualitative and quantitative methods to understand user needs and the service context. Ideation generates a range of ideas and selects promising concepts. Prototyping makes ideas tangible through low and high-fidelity artifacts and simulations. Implementation focuses on turning prototypes into working solutions, addressing organizational change, technology, and product development. These activities are interconnected and iterative, forming an adaptive process.
3. What are the key principles and techniques for effective facilitation of service design workshops?
Facilitating service design workshops requires managing group dynamics, creating a safe space for participation, and balancing divergent and convergent thinking. Key techniques involve getting participant consent, managing status within the group, using time effectively, adjusting the physical space, and choosing appropriate tools and methods to promote collaboration and experimentation. Effective facilitation helps participants navigate the design process, overcome biases, and co-create valuable solutions.
4. How can service design be sustainably embedded within an organization?
Embedding service design in an organization needs a strategic approach going beyond single projects, fostering a customer-centric culture and design thinking mindset. This requires management buy-in, demonstrated successes, skills development, and building a community of practice. Design sprints offer a structured format for scaling up and iterating service design efforts, linking them to business goals and organizational change. Over time, service design can become integral to the organization’s DNA.
Key Takeaways
1. Embrace “sh!tty first drafts”.
Starting with rough approximations, rather than striving for perfection early on, enables faster learning and iteration. Sh!tty first drafts, whether sketches, prototypes, or even code, make it easier to gather feedback, identify flaws, and make improvements without getting attached to initial ideas, thus reducing the risk of unproductive discussions and wasted resources.
Practical Application:
In AI product development, involve software engineers, UX designers, and ethicists in collaborative prototyping sessions. Use sh!tty first drafts of code, interface mock-ups, and ethical guidelines to gather feedback and iterate towards a responsible and user-centered AI solution.
2. Focus on the end-to-end customer experience.
Considering the entire user experience, not just isolated interactions with a service or product, is crucial for creating valuable solutions. Experience-centered journey maps help visualize the context of use, highlighting touchpoints and other relevant steps in the user’s experience to identify unmet needs and opportunities for improvement. This holistic perspective leads to more user-centered design and more valuable services and products.
Practical Application:
When designing a new AI-powered feature, involve customer service representatives and target users in research. Create experience-centered journey maps that detail how users will interact with the AI, focusing not just on touchpoints but on the complete user experience. Identify pain points and opportunities to tailor the AI to meet user needs more effectively.
3. Consider the business context.
Innovation and service design are not just about the user experience, they must also address the business context. Tools like the Business Model Canvas enable you to systematically analyze and design sustainable business models, considering various aspects such as value proposition, customer segments, channels, revenue streams, and cost structures. This helps align design efforts with business goals.
Practical Application:
In a meeting with AI engineers and product managers, use the Business Model Canvas to explore different business models around a potential AI service. Consider factors like value propositions, customer segments, channels, and revenue streams. Prototype different scenarios on paper to discuss feasibility, desirability, and viability and align the team on a shared business vision.
4. Start small, iterate, and build capacity.
Integrating design thinking in an organization requires active change management and capacity building. Start small with quick wins to gather support and buy-in for larger initiatives. Empower staff to learn through experience by participating in small design projects, and offer structured learning opportunities, like workshops or mentoring, to develop skills and foster a community of practice.
Practical Application:
To foster a culture of user-centered design in an AI development team, introduce service design tools and methods through hands-on workshops. Start with a small project, like mapping the user journey of interacting with an existing AI feature, to showcase the value and gather feedback before rolling out training or implementing more extensive design projects.
1. Embrace “sh!tty first drafts”.
Starting with rough approximations, rather than striving for perfection early on, enables faster learning and iteration. Sh!tty first drafts, whether sketches, prototypes, or even code, make it easier to gather feedback, identify flaws, and make improvements without getting attached to initial ideas, thus reducing the risk of unproductive discussions and wasted resources.
Practical Application:
In AI product development, involve software engineers, UX designers, and ethicists in collaborative prototyping sessions. Use sh!tty first drafts of code, interface mock-ups, and ethical guidelines to gather feedback and iterate towards a responsible and user-centered AI solution.
2. Focus on the end-to-end customer experience.
Considering the entire user experience, not just isolated interactions with a service or product, is crucial for creating valuable solutions. Experience-centered journey maps help visualize the context of use, highlighting touchpoints and other relevant steps in the user’s experience to identify unmet needs and opportunities for improvement. This holistic perspective leads to more user-centered design and more valuable services and products.
Practical Application:
When designing a new AI-powered feature, involve customer service representatives and target users in research. Create experience-centered journey maps that detail how users will interact with the AI, focusing not just on touchpoints but on the complete user experience. Identify pain points and opportunities to tailor the AI to meet user needs more effectively.
3. Consider the business context.
Innovation and service design are not just about the user experience, they must also address the business context. Tools like the Business Model Canvas enable you to systematically analyze and design sustainable business models, considering various aspects such as value proposition, customer segments, channels, revenue streams, and cost structures. This helps align design efforts with business goals.
Practical Application:
In a meeting with AI engineers and product managers, use the Business Model Canvas to explore different business models around a potential AI service. Consider factors like value propositions, customer segments, channels, and revenue streams. Prototype different scenarios on paper to discuss feasibility, desirability, and viability and align the team on a shared business vision.
4. Start small, iterate, and build capacity.
Integrating design thinking in an organization requires active change management and capacity building. Start small with quick wins to gather support and buy-in for larger initiatives. Empower staff to learn through experience by participating in small design projects, and offer structured learning opportunities, like workshops or mentoring, to develop skills and foster a community of practice.
Practical Application:
To foster a culture of user-centered design in an AI development team, introduce service design tools and methods through hands-on workshops. Start with a small project, like mapping the user journey of interacting with an existing AI feature, to showcase the value and gather feedback before rolling out training or implementing more extensive design projects.
Suggested Deep Dive
Chapter: Chapter 8: Implementation
AI product engineers often prioritize technical feasibility and functionality, but the implementation of AI solutions requires addressing human factors and organizational change, which are discussed in this chapter.
Memorable Quotes
The 12 Commandments of Service Design Doing. 33
Make sh!tty first drafts.
The 12 Commandments of Service Design Doing. 33
Doing, not talking.
The 12 Commandments of Service Design Doing. 33
Find the right problem before solving it right.
Steps, touchpoints, and moments of truth. 49
Moments of truth are steps that are decisive for a user, customer, or organization.
Know how people change. 276
You can’t change people: Set up the context for change instead.
The 12 Commandments of Service Design Doing. 33
Make sh!tty first drafts.
The 12 Commandments of Service Design Doing. 33
Doing, not talking.
The 12 Commandments of Service Design Doing. 33
Find the right problem before solving it right.
Steps, touchpoints, and moments of truth. 49
Moments of truth are steps that are decisive for a user, customer, or organization.
Know how people change. 276
You can’t change people: Set up the context for change instead.
Comparative Analysis
Unlike more theoretical service design books, “This is Service Design Doing” prioritizes practical application and real-world examples. It shares similarities with design thinking literature in its human-centered, iterative approach but delves deeper into the specifics of service design tools and facilitation techniques. It also connects service design with broader business considerations, such as business models and organizational change, which are not always central in other books in the field. Compared to the earlier work “This Is Service Design Thinking” by Stickdorn & Schneider, this book builds on those concepts with more emphasis on implementation and the importance of the “doing” aspect of the design process.
Reflection
While “This is Service Design Doing” offers a valuable toolbox and framework for service design, its application in rapidly evolving fields like AI requires careful consideration. The book’s emphasis on human-centered design aligns well with the growing need for responsible AI development, but the iterative, co-creative approach may not always be feasible in fast-paced tech environments, particularly when safety and ethical considerations demand stricter controls. The book’s insights on prototyping and managing change within organizations can help guide the implementation of AI solutions but may not adequately address the unique challenges and unintended consequences of complex socio-technical systems. Furthermore, the rapid pace of technological advancement, like the advent of generative AI, may require the tools and methods of service design themselves to evolve as well.
Flashcards
What are the four core activities of service design?
Research, Ideation, Prototyping, Implementation
What is a persona?
A profile representing a particular group of people, based on research.
What is a journey map?
Visualizes the experience of a person over time.
What is a system map?
Visual representation of the constituents and relationships in a system.
What is a service prototype?
Staged experiences and processes that replicate a chosen part of a service.
What is the difference between divergent and convergent thinking?
Divergent thinking expands options, while convergent thinking narrows them down.
What are the three main purposes of prototyping?
To explore, to evaluate, and to communicate.
What is a key aspect of service design often overlooked?
Ensuring implementation and continuous improvement of a service.
What are key elements of effective facilitation?
Managing consent, status, and neutrality while leading a group through a collaborative process.
How are planned and adaptive iterations balanced in service design?
Planned iterations provide structure, while adaptive iterations allow flexibility based on learning.
What are the four core activities of service design?
Research, Ideation, Prototyping, Implementation
What is a persona?
A profile representing a particular group of people, based on research.
What is a journey map?
Visualizes the experience of a person over time.
What is a system map?
Visual representation of the constituents and relationships in a system.
What is a service prototype?
Staged experiences and processes that replicate a chosen part of a service.
What is the difference between divergent and convergent thinking?
Divergent thinking expands options, while convergent thinking narrows them down.
What are the three main purposes of prototyping?
To explore, to evaluate, and to communicate.
What is a key aspect of service design often overlooked?
Ensuring implementation and continuous improvement of a service.
What are key elements of effective facilitation?
Managing consent, status, and neutrality while leading a group through a collaborative process.
How are planned and adaptive iterations balanced in service design?
Planned iterations provide structure, while adaptive iterations allow flexibility based on learning.