Service Design Show

Service Design Show
Service Design Show

Go beyond the basics of service design and learn what it truly takes to deliver services that make a positive impact on people, business and planet.

  1. How to Use Your Dreams to Design Services / Courtney Morgan / Ep. #219

    JAN 16

    How to Use Your Dreams to Design Services / Courtney Morgan / Ep. #219

    You've never heard this on the Show before... I'm referring to a design tool that most people disregard, even laugh about when they first hear about it. They say it's childish, something you can't take seriously in a professional context. But as you'll hear in today's conversation, this tool holds immense power. Not only that, it helps you better align with your true self and what you truly want to contribute to the world. And the best thing? You already have this tool in your possession. We all do. So, what is this magical tool? It's your dreams. Now, I know what you're thinking. Dreams, really?! But hear me out, it's actually not that crazy. Why do we always talk about design thinking and design doing, and not about design dreaming? If anything, I'd argue that the times we live in demand we dream more to envision a better future. Our amazing guest, Courtney Morgan, helps us tap into the power of our dreams. She shares practical examples of the power of collective dreaming. We address the misconceptions around dreaming and discuss how to get people to tap into and share their dreams in a design process. You'll notice that the conversation doesn't begin with dreams, but we naturally gravitate in that direction and fall down the rabbit hole. So, if you want to go beyond the usual design tools and methods and tap into something truly transformative... make sure you don't miss this episode. A simple practice to become more aware of your dreams is to start writing them down. This is what I've incorporated into my morning routine. Very curious to see what effects this will have in a few months. Enjoy and keep making a positive impact. ~ Marc --- [ 1. GUIDE ] --- 00:00 Welcome to episode 219 03:30 Defining "one percent" 05:00 Focus of the 1% 13:00 Non-profit & community 13:50 Importance of lived experiences in work 17:00 Building trust first 18:30 What happens with lack of trust 21:30 Designer vs Community member role 24:00 A "World Creator" role 26:30 5 years ago vs today 30:30 What is efficiency? 33:00 What does good look like 34:30 Patience and her son 36:30 The role of dreaming 39:00 Courtney's dream 41:00 How we can become better dreamers 43:30 Prejudice against collective dreaming 47:30 Unsurppressing dreams 54:00 Advice she wished someone told her 59:30 Question to ponder --- [ 2. LINKS ] --- https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtney-morgan-associate-aia-noma ⁠https://www.thescrd.com/ --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] --- Join our private community for in-house service design professionals. ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle

    1h 7m
  2. Key Lessons from a Service Design Community / #Circle Special

    JAN 9

    Key Lessons from a Service Design Community / #Circle Special

    This one is a bit different... Not the usual interview that you're used to. In this episode, you'll actually hear me answering the questions. Why? Well, it's become a bit of a tradition to start the year by reflecting on the lessons learned while building the Circle community. The Circle started 3.5 years ago as an idea to see what would happen if we created a safe space for in-house service design professionals to connect and share regularly. Today, it's grown to a healthy size with members from companies across the globe and in almost any industry you can imagine — from big tech to church organizations (I kid you not!). Service design professionals are everywhere these days. I'm very grateful for where the community is today, but it certainly hasn't been a straight line up. Designing a service (which is essentially what our community is) for service designers is quite hard, who would have thought? ;) So, for this episode, I sat down with Ru Butler who's one of our Circle Council members to discuss the biggest wins, challenges, and ambitions for the coming year. Even if you're not working in-house, I think you'll still enjoy this behind-the-scenes look at how we're thinking about and trying to design our community. I'd love to hear what you think of this episode format. Would you like to hear it more often? How could we make it better? Any other feedback is welcome, too. Send me a message or reach out on LinkedIn. Happy 2025 and take care, Marc --- [ 1. GUIDE ] --- 00:00 The Circle 2024 Special episode 03:00 Who is Ru 04:30 What stood out last year 09:30 Marc's key motivations 13:00 Ru's Circle Highlights: 1-on-1s 17:30 Benefits of 1-on-1s: accountability 19:00 Leading the Circle community 24:30 Favorite sessios in 2024 31:00 The community's growth 37:00 The importance of community 43:00 2025 Vision and The Loop 46:00 The follow-through 48:30 Seasons for the Circle 2025 54:00 2025 Goals 58:00 For the Self-Doubting Designers --- [ 2. LINKS ] --- https://www.linkedin.com/in/rubutler https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcfonteijn Advancing Service Design Talk: Increase your confidence, influence, and impact --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] --- Join our private community for in-house service design professionals. ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle

    1h 7m
  3. Journey Management in 2025: Trends, Challenges, and Predictions / Jochem van der Veer / Ep. #218

    JAN 2

    Journey Management in 2025: Trends, Challenges, and Predictions / Jochem van der Veer / Ep. #218

    First of all, I want to wish you a very happy 2025. We're starting the new year with a bang. Journey Management has been a hot topic for the last two years, and for good reason. The shift from mapping to management might seem small, but it's a major change in how we and our clients approach things. If you've been following the Show for a while, you know we are keeping up with these developments as they unfold. So, I thought it would be great to invite a good friend and long-time partner of the Show, Jochem van der Veer, back to kick 2025 off with some predictions. As CEO of TheyDo, Jochem is building one of the most innovative companies in this space. So I think it's fair to say that he has a front-row seat to how companies are adopting (or not) Journey Management. In this conversation, we discuss how journey management has evolved, the challenges of scaling it, which organizations are succeeding, and what's next (including AI's influence). Oh, and we announce a new conference... Join us for a great episode that's going to give you a head start on your Journey Management journey this year. What are YOUR predictions for this year? Leave a comment on YouTube (or Spotify). It'll be fun to revisit them next year 🙂 Enjoy the conversation, and once again Happy 2025! Take care, ~ Marc --- [ 1. GUIDE ] --- 00:00 Welcome to episode 218 05:00 Looking back at the previous episode 06:45 Market shifts 09:00 Churn discussion 13:45 What's changed in TheyDo 15:45 Unexpected design challenges 19:30 Journey Management cornerstones 21:00 Automating everything 25:00 Jochem's Journey Management view 29:00 Journey as a tool 33:15 Cross-Functional challenges 36:00 Prioritization rituals 39:30 Customer alignment 45:00 Team adoption patterns 48:30 Specific problem solving 50:00 Industry roadblock 53:30 2026 hopes 54:30 Upcoming Conference 1:02:00 Jochem's 2025 outlook 1:03:00 Chat interface 1:07:00 Question to ponder --- [ 2. LINKS ] --- https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveer/ https://www.theydo.com/beyond-the-map --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] --- Join our private community for in-house service design professionals. ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle

    1h 9m
  4. Stop designing WITH your users! There is a better way. / Sloan Leo Cowan / Ep. #217

    12/19/2024

    Stop designing WITH your users! There is a better way. / Sloan Leo Cowan / Ep. #217

    There's a problem with the current design process that often goes unnoticed... A problem that can lead to less-than-ideal outcomes or, even worse, harm certain communities. To understand this, we must acknowledge our huge responsibility as design professionals. We're often the only ones advocating for our users' needs, the voice of those who aren't in the room. It's a privilege we shouldn't take lightly. We make decisions, and judgment calls for the people we're designing for. Of course, we do our best with the best intentions, but we always will fall short. Why? Because we aren't the users. We don't live their lives or experience their struggles. Sure, let there be no doubt: having someone advocate for users is a good start, but it's not enough. We can do better; we must do better. Our guest, ​Sloan Leo Cowan​, helps us see what "better" looks like. The key is to move away from "designing for" or even "designing with" users and move towards "designing by" them. It means giving up control and power. Sound impossible? Sloan Leo shares practical examples of how they've achieved this in their work. This episode will show you a way forward if you care about creating more inclusive and equitable work. Stop designing WITH your users! There is a better way. As you'll hear, Sloan Leo's perspective on design challenges the status quo. We really need this to push the boundaries of design and ensure it stays relevant. Keep making a positive impact! Take care, ~ Marc --- [ 1. GUIDE ] --- 00:00 Welcome to Episode 217 04:00 Sloan's social sector journey 08:15 Defining Community? 10:15 Service design "habits" (issues) 12:45 Neutrality in Interpretation 15:15 Facilitator vs. Interpreter Roles 18:45 Facilitating towards beliefs 19:30 Power Dynamics in Facilitation 21:15 Binary thinking in service design 26:45 Issue: Persona Development & Gender 31:45 Origins of Community Design Issues 36:00 How to approach the large scale 38:15 Open source approach 40:30 The challenges for service designers 41:45 Benefits for Communities and Designers 43:45 Advice for Aspiring Designers 47:15 Recommended Resources 51:45 Proudest Achievements 54:15 Keys to Success 56:45 Additional Resources 57:30 Questions for Reflection --- [ 2. LINKS ] --- Pronouns they/he https://www.linkedin.com/in/sloanleo Website - floxstudio.com or sloanleo.com --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] --- Join our private community for in-house service design professionals. ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle

    1h 1m
  5. The Secrets behind Research that Scales / Kate Towsey / Ep. #216

    12/05/2024

    The Secrets behind Research that Scales / Kate Towsey / Ep. #216

    There is no service design... Without high-quality research. Sure, we all know that. But doing good research is hard. Kate Towsey, often called the inventor of the ResearchOps field, can certainly attest to this. If you're a dedicated listener of the show, you might remember Kate from our conversation about a year ago where she shared that she was writing a book. Well, that book, titled "Research that Scales", has officially been published! And with a 4.9/5 rating on Amazon, it seems to have struck a chord with readers. Of course, we had to get Kate back on the show to discuss it. In this conversation we delve into topics like: Do we need to scale research, and if so why? What does "scale" actually mean in the context of research? When should you start thinking about scaling? What are the key steps to scaling research? What role can AI play in all of this? Will it take over our jobs? Why did it take Kate 3.5 years to publish the book? And as always, that's just the tip of the iceberg. It's hard to imagine a service design professional who wouldn't be interested in the topics we cover in this episode. Good research isn't just a nice-to-have; it's a must. Without giving away too many spoilers, I found it fascinating that it's not actually research that you need to (or can) scale, but something else. Something that we as a community are pretty good at. Can you guess what it is? Enjoy and keep making a positive impact! ~ Marc --- [ 1. GUIDE ] --- 00:00 Welcome to Episode 216 03:00 Quick overview about scaling research 04:00 Why she wrote the book 09:30 Pandemic's impact on the book 13:00 Research rabbit hole 15:00 Unscalable Research: What to Avoid 18:30 What is enough research? 22:00 The problem she saw 25:00 The main bottlenecks 27:45 Libriarian's role in making the change 31:00 How the process work 33:00 Knowledge as a network vs tree 35:30 Maximizing efficient use of library 39:00 Designing the system 41:00 Knowledge vs. Learning: Value Proposition 43:00 Cost center vs value center 47:00 AI and Research: A Synergistic Future 49:00 Cost of scaling: A Trade-off 51:00 Strategic approach to scaling 53:00 How to know when to scale 54:30 Her readers insights 56:00 Upcoming masterclasses 58:00 Resources 58:30 Food for thought --- [ 2. LINKS ] --- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katetowsey/ Website: https://katetowsey.com/ Substack: https://katetowsey.substack.com --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] --- Join our private community for in-house service design professionals. ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle

    1h 2m
  6. The RIGHT way to do strategy in an uncertain world? / Peter Compo / Ep. #215

    11/21/2024

    The RIGHT way to do strategy in an uncertain world? / Peter Compo / Ep. #215

    What is strategy... A plan for how you intend to achieve your goals? That's how a lot of people define strategy. But there's a problem with this rigid approach... As Mike Tyson wisely said once: "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face." Most strategies are too prescriptive about how the goal needs to be achieved. But we live in a VUCA world where it's getting harder and harder to predict what will happen, even just weeks ahead. The sphere of what an organization can control is shrinking (and control is an illusion anyway). What seemed like a wise action last week might be irrelevant today, thanks to new technology, a sudden global crisis, or a certain election outcome... Following your strategy in this scenario might mean you're executing what you agreed to, but it could very well lead you away from your intended goal. So, when there is so little we can control and predict, does that mean we shouldn't do any strategizing at all? Certainly not. We just need to adopt a more emergent approach. We still need a plan to align everyone, but one that allows for more flexibility and deciding in the moment what the right next step is. What does this type of strategy look like, and how do we get there? That's something ​Peter Compo​ has written ​a great book​ about, and I've invited him on the Show to share his learnings with us. We talk about: Why research is becoming an increasingly important capability for any organization. How we can know we'll achieve our goals if we don't know at the start which actions to take. And how to help an organization used to control and prediction embrace uncertainty and flexibility. I know this episode will resonate with many service design professionals. It ties strongly to our mantra of "doing the right things" and not just focusing on "doing things right." Strategy can be a very abstract term without much substance. But what I appreciated in our conversation is that Peter makes things super practical. It's time to roll up your sleeves and get to work on your strategy. Enjoy and keep making a positive impact. ~ Marc --- [ 1. GUIDE ] --- 00:00 Welcome to Episode 215 03:30 Music and emergence 06:00 How he got into writing the book 10:30 Pete's perspective in strategy 16:00 The theory of emergence 20:00 constraints & trust 26:30 Bridging the gap of uncertainty 30:30 Letting Go of Control 36:30 Examples of good metrics 41:00 False learning organization 46:30 Trusting your team 50:30 Aspiration-bottleneck triad 57:00 another recommendation 59:00 Strategy matrix 01:04:00 Personal Impact on writing 01:09:00 Resources 1:11:00 Question to ponder --- [ 2. LINKS ] --- https://www.linkedin.com/in/petercompo/ The Emergent Approach to Strategy (book) by Peter Compo - www.emergentapproach.com Peter Compo Music - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJsn2zbnx8dwvHJrisdkAtg --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] --- Join our private community for in-house service design professionals. ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle

    1h 13m
  7. Advancing Service Design 2024 / Program Deep Dive with Sylvie Abookire

    11/14/2024

    Advancing Service Design 2024 / Program Deep Dive with Sylvie Abookire

    An exciting new conference is just around the corner, ​Advancing Service Design 2024​. We ​recently had a chat​ with Lou Rosenfeld, the conference organizer, about key ideas behind the conference. Now, we're doing a deep dive into the two-day conference program with ​Sylvie Abookire​, who's part of the curation team. In this episode, you'll hear about the main themes, the inspiring (and somewhat surprising) speakers, and of course how it all ties together to advance our field. Sure, you can also get some of this info on the conference website, but I promise this conversation is much more fun 🙂 I'll be presenting at the conference about the latest insights from the Salary Report and lessons learned from building the Circle community. Want to join one of my sessions? Send me an email or reach out on LinkedIn, and I'll let you know how you can attend even without a conference ticket. ~ ~ ~ 🎟️ Want to attend Advancing Service Design? Well, you're in luck! 💰 Answer the simple question over here at ⁠https://www.servicedesignshow.com/asdc2024-survey⁠ to get a 10% discount on your ticket. But that's not all! 🏆 When you sign up using this code, you'll automatically enter a contest where you can win sweet prizes. --- [ 1. GUIDE ] --- 00:00 A Special Episode with Sylvie 02:45 Sylvie's role in the conference 04:30 Conference schedule & format 06:00 Biggest conference challenge 07:30 The final 8 speakers 10:00 What the conference means to Sylvie 12:00 Day 1: Designing in the system 14:30 Day 1: format 16:00 Day 1: The panel 17:00 Audience interaction 19:00 Day 2: Designing with the system 22:30 How we hope the conference impacts 24:00 Sylvie's workshops after the conference 27:00 The most fun part of the conference 28:00 Key Takeaways 28:00 Visibility & Impact 32:00 Conference Details & Tickets 32:30 Giveaway --- [ 2. LINKS ] --- https://www.linkedin.com/in/sylvieabookire/ Get your tickets here - https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-service-design/ --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] --- Grow your confidence, influence, and impact! Join the community for in-house service design professionals. ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle

    33 min
  8. Why People Aren't Listening to You - And How to Fix That / Gabrielle Dolan / Ep. #214

    11/07/2024

    Why People Aren't Listening to You - And How to Fix That / Gabrielle Dolan / Ep. #214

    I remember being subscribed to this email newsletter from a guy named Josh, all about email marketing (kind of meta)... Every single day, a new email from Josh would pop up in my inbox, and I'd open it right away. These emails were different, a bit weird even, but in the best way possible. Each one would start with something that felt totally random, a story about something Josh experienced. No mention of email marketing whatsoever. But every time I was hooked. I just had to know how the story ended. And then, bam, right at the end, with just two or three lines he'd tie it all back to email marketing in a way that just clicked. Those emails weren't just informative; they were actually enjoyable, to the point that I looked forward to them. Now being able to hold someone's attention like that always seemed like a magic superpower to me... but I learned that it's not. In this episode, Gabrielle Dolan, who's been teaching the craft of storytelling for over 20 years, reveals how you can grow your storytelling skills and use them to communicate your message in a way that stick and, most of all inspires action. And as service design professionals, we know that getting people to take action is critical for change but also very challenging. So whether you consider yourself a natural storyteller or not, this episode is packed with practical wisdom you won't want to miss. Josh, by the way, stopped sending his daily emails a while ago, but as you've noticed his lessons have stuck with me. Enjoy the episode and keep making a positive impact! Take care, ~ Marc --- [ 1. GUIDE ] --- 00:00 Welcome to Episode 214 03:30 Power of stories 06:00 Why stories make communication better 08:00 Dealing with skepticism 13:00 Why Organizations seek facts over stories 14:30 Story-Resistant Culture 18:00 Practical tips in becoming better storytellers 23:00 Finding your stories 24:00 Using spreadsheets 28:00 How to be comfortable using them 31:30 How to see if it's working (Tracking progress 34:00 Indicators of Success 37:00 Potential of backfiring 39:00 Gauging level of emotion 42:00 Advise from Ral 44:00 How Ral's storytelling evolved 45:30 How to use AI in storytelling 48:30 Storytelling vs acting 49:30 What's next in her storytelling journey 51:30 What kept her going 52:30 Resources 55:30 Question to ponder --- [ 2. LINKS ] --- https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielledolan/ https://gabrielledolan.com/ Magnetic Stories by Gabrielle Dolan (Book) - https://a.co/d/aA780d8 --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] --- Join our private community for in-house service design professionals. ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle

    1h 1m
See All (265)

Ratings & Reviews

4.6
out of 5
11 Ratings

About

Go beyond the basics of service design and learn what it truly takes to deliver services that make a positive impact on people, business and planet.

Information

  • Creator
    Service Design Show
  • Years Active
    2016 - 2025
  • Episodes
    265
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Service Design Show
  • Show Website
    Service Design Show

You Might Also Like

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.
Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada