Shaping Tomorrow: Episode 1

The Service Designer Spotlight Series: Coltin Metzger

August 2023

Few disciplines rival the transformative influence of Service Design, a proven catalyst for change that is increasingly growing its influence in shaping the trajectory of our future.

In our Service Designer Spotlight feature, we highlight the exceptional talents who are driving the Service Design field forward.

Join us as we delve into the creative journey, insights, and inspirations of this remarkable Service Designer, providing a glimpse into the artistry and meticulous thought that go into crafting seamless and transformative experiences.

Coltin Metzger

Sr. Service Designer, Indiana, USA
Experience: Slalom Global Experience Design, Sharecare, Anthem
Education: Indiana University, Boston University

Greg Lakloufi: Coltin, can you describe a recent project where you successfully implemented your Service Design skills? What were the key challenges you faced, and how did you overcome them?

Coltin Metzger: One of the recent projects where in which I successfully implemented my service design skills was for an oil & and gas client. They wanted to deliver a new service for electric vehicle (EV) charging that would deliver a world-class experience to EV drivers.

The first challenge was to gain a comprehensive understanding of driver needs and expectations. As a new service in an emerging market, there simply wasn’t a lot of previous work that had been done in the space to that we could leverage. This required extensive research and data collection to identify pain points and bottlenecks in current EV charging solutions as well as to identify needs, wants, and expectations of the future. To do this, we conducted extensive in-depth interviews with various driver segments and developed and tested concepts to better understand desirability and usefulness to consumers. This helped us confidentially make decisions on the product and service offerings to design, as well as helped us validate and invalidate our assumptions around what we had perceived people wanted or did not care about.

GL: Service Design very often involves collaboration across disciplines. Can you share an example of a project where you had to work closely with other teams or professionals? How did you ensure effective communication and alignment of goals?

CM: I once worked on a project that involved redesigning the digital patient experience for a large healthcare system in the southern United States. The goal was to create a seamless and personalized journey for patients that increased adherence to care plans, reduced gaps in care, and created seamless bi-directional communication between patients and providers. To accomplish this, I had to collaborate closely with the health system’s internal teams, including their product development team, customer support teams, and IT department.

The key to ensuring effective communication and alignment of goals across the project (and many others like it) revolved around taking intentional steps to establish a collaborative and open environment. This included:

· Kick-off workshop: At the beginning of the project, we organized a kick-off workshop involving representatives from all relevant teams. This allowed us to introduce the service design process, set objectives and expectations, and develop a shared understanding of the project’s scope and goals before diving into the work.

· Cross-functional workshops & co-creation sessions: Throughout the project, we conducted regular cross-functional workshops that brought together stakeholders across different disciplines. These workshops allowed us to collaborate, share insights, and brainstorm ideas collectively. A happy side effect of this was that by involving stakeholders from diverse backgrounds and disciplines, we ensured that proposed solutions were well-rounded and had buy-in from all relevant parties.

· Feedback Loops: To maintain alignment throughout the project, we established regular feedback loops. This involved obtaining feedback from stakeholders at different stages of the design process and incorporating their insights into the evolving solution.

“Meet the users where they are: Fort McMurray, Alberta, West Canadian Oil Fields, temperature -10C/14F”

GL: In the realm of Service Design, user experience is crucial. How do you go about understanding the needs and preferences of users to create a seamless and user-centric service?

CM: Understanding the needs and preferences of users is indeed fundamental in creating a seamless and user-centric service. Key steps and methods that are must- haves for me when I think about gaining insights into users’ requirements include:

· User research: The Research is the real foundation of understanding user needs. This can take many forms, but often involves various qualitative methods such as interviews, focus groups, or ethnographic conversations. Engaging directly with users allows us to uncover pain points, motivations, behaviors, and expectations. For example, in an EV charging service design project, we might interview current EV drivers to understand how they charge, what frustrates them about charging, and how they wish their experience played out.

· Data analytics and insights: Analyzing quantitative data, such as website analytics, app usage metrics, or customer service logs, provides additional insights into user behavior and patterns. By combining qualitative research with quantitative data, we build a more comprehensive view of user needs and preferences and are often able to present numbers, charts, or graphs which can be a powerful tool in gaining stakeholder buy-in and alignment.

· Journey mapping: Mapping the user’s journey through a particular service helps identify touchpoints, pain points, and moments of truth. This visual representation provides valuable insights into how users interact with the service and where improvements can be made. This is often a valuable alignment artifact for involved stakeholders as well, who benefit from a more visual representation of the research, data, and insights being collected.

· Co-creation and user testing: Involving users directly in the design process fosters co-creation and ensures that their voices are heard. Furthermore, running workshops or testing sessions with users allows us to ideate and iterate together, gaining valuable feedback along the way and often speeding up the process.

GL: Designing services involves considering the entire customer journey. How do you approach mapping out this journey, and how do you identify points of friction or areas for improvement?

CM: Mapping out and considering the entire user journey is a critical step in service design. It involves understanding every touchpoint and interaction a customer has with a service, from initial awareness to post-experience. To do this successfully, I’ve found the following steps critical in being thorough and thoughtful in my approach.

· Define the scope: Clarify the boundaries and the scope of the customer journey map. Determine with your project team and stakeholders which customer segment or persona you’re focusing on and which specific service or process you want to map.

· Leverage the data: Conduct extensive research to gather both qualitative and quantitative insights about customer interactions with the service and be sure to include data from all stages of the journey and various touchpoints.

· Visualize collaboratively: Though not always feasible, I prefer to do initial passes at customer journey’s journeys collaboratively with the stakeholders involved in the project. Work together to define the stages, touchpoints, channels, emotions, etc. of the journey and gather feedback early and often to iterate. It’s never perfect the first time, and involving people with unique knowledge and perspectives is the best way to ensure a solid understanding.

· Identify points of friction and areas of improvement: There’s often an art to this, but it’s grounded in conducting thorough research. I find it powerful to marry qualitative and quantitative data here. For example, if quantitative customer service data shows long average wait times for callers, I’ll find quotes to accompany the numbers from real users who experienced this frustration. It really helps bring things to life and is a powerful tool for driving empathy.

· Prioritize: To hone into home in on areas of opportunity, I often find various prioritization techniques useful. For example, looking at the critical pain points or issues identified, I work with project teams to prioritize their impact on overall customer experience and business objectives. Letting data guide or assist the prioritization can help ensure you’re honing intofocusing on the right areas.

GL: Service Design is inherently future-oriented. Could you discuss your approach to anticipating and integrating future trends and technologies into your service design projects?

CM: 100%! Anticipating and integrating future trends and technologies is a crucial aspect of my service design approach. It’s important to stay ahead of the curve to ensure services we design remain relevant, innovative, and future proof. Key things I do here are:

· Trend analysis: Often in the early stages of research, I dedicate time to researching and understanding emerging technologies relevant to the industry in which the service operates. This could be things like artificial intelligence, blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), or augmented reality. I infuse these insights into the research and often leverage them as thought starters when collaborating with stakeholders at co-creation workshops.

Collaboration with experts: Another useful approach here is to collaborate closely with technology experts, both within the organization and externally, to understand the possibilities and limitations of emerging technologies. Their insights can help inform the feasibility and potential risks of integrating new tech into the service being designed.

GL: Measurement and evaluation are essential to gauge the success of Service Design initiatives. How do you define key performance indicators (KPIs) for your projects, and how do you ensure that your designs are delivering value?

CM: Great question. In my experience, defining key performance indicators for projects is essential to measuring (and showing) their success and impact. A few things I consider include:

· Align them with project objectives: First is to align KPIs with the overall project objectives. Each project will have specific goals, such as improving customer satisfaction, reducing wait times, increasing conversion rates, or streamlining processes. KPIs should directly reflect these objectives.

· Make them quantifiable: KPI’s should also be quantifiable and measurable. I find it best when they can be expressed in numbers or percentages, making it easy to track progress and evaluate the impact of design.

· Make them balanced: It’s crucial to have a balanced set of KPIs that cover various aspects of the service design, such as user experience, operational efficiency, and business outcomes. This helps avoid focusing solely on one aspect and provides a comprehensive view of the service’s performance.

· Have regular review and iteration: KPIs should not be static. Continuously reviewing KPIs ensures they are still relevant and aligned with the evolving objectives. If needed, we can adjust or introduce new KPIs to capture emerging priorities or challenges. Stakeholder and project team input can be valuable here and often I include KPI definition as part of initial or follow-up workshops or co-creation sessions.

GL: Adaptability is vital in a rapidly changing environment. Can you provide an example of how you’ve iterated on a Service Design project after receiving feedback or encountering new information?

CM: I was once working with a health and wellbeing company on their mobile platform with a goal of creating a more seamless and user-friendly experience for the users. The project focused on improving navigation and simplifying content. The core of the app functioned similar to a social media platform, in that users were able to scroll a feed based on their interests.

After conducting usability testing and gathering feedback from a variety of user types, we identified several pain points in the platform’s navigation and search flows. Users found certain steps confusing and didn’t understand some functions of the platform and they expressed a desire for more intuitive access to information. This research was matched with internal data that showed high numbers of platform abandonment following the account setup process. In turn, this caused us to raise concerns about overall onboarding and retention while supporting the feedback we gathered from usability testing.

Analyzing this feedback in detail allowed us to pinpoint specific areas where users struggled and better understand the context in which users were encountering difficulties and identify opportunities for improvement.

Based on the feedback, we developed prototypes that addressed the identified pain points and focused on simplifying navigation. To address the onboarding issue, we redesigned the account setup process to be more intuitive and user-friendly. We reduced the number of required steps and provided clear instructions to guide users.

We engaged users with our prototypes and collected feedback on the changes and observed their interactions with the redesigned flows. This allowed us to validate parts of our design decisions and iterate where needed. Ultimately, we provided updated prototypes based on our learnings and worked with our product team to incorporate the changes into the platform. We saw increased usage of core features within the app and qualitative feedback showed the new account set-up process was more straightforward and engaging.

GL: Effective storytelling can enhance the impact of a Service Design. How do you craft narratives around your designs to communicate their value to stakeholders and end-users?

CM: Storytelling, in my opinion, can often be one of the most difficult yet most impactful part of service design work. It is pivotal to be able to communicate value in a powerful way to both stakeholders and end users. A few things I consider when crafting a story are the following:

· Starting with the problem: This can be an attention grabber. I like to begin by highlighting the challenge or pain point that the design addresses, immediately engaging the audience and setting the context. For example, imagine sitting in on a presentation that starts with “We’ve lost 50k users this quarter and revenue is dropping”. It makes the ears perk up.

· Keeping things user centered. I find it powerful to weave in stories of how individuals or groups are affected by a product or service and its design. Supporting narratives with both qualitative and quantitative data can be very useful in getting your point across and making a case for change.

· Make it pretty. No one likes to hear it, but I find incorporating visuals like infographics and before-and-after visuals to help the audience understand and visualize works great.

Connect it strategically. Any good story should connect the service design work with the broader strategic goals and business outcomes of an organization. If you can’t show how the work aligns with organizational priorities, you risk losing buy-in and support from the stakeholders you need.

GL: The collaboration between design and business goals can sometimes be challenging. How do you balance creative innovation with the practical constraints and objectives of a business or organization?

CM: This can be a tough one. Trying to balance wild creativity with the realities of business can be a bit of a tightrope act, but there are a few things I have found help.

· Keep users first: Creative or not, the ultimate goal here is keeping our end users happy. That said, any innovation needs to jive with what users want and need, as expressed in research or data.

· Practical pit stops: Involving both design and business stakeholders throughout the duration of the project allows for regular check-ins and collaboration to balance the generation of innovative solutions while considering practical implications. Designers and business folks should be besties, not frenemies. Constant chats, sharing insights, and being open about limitations can save us from butting heads.

Celebrate the small wins. Sometimes the reality of it is that the big, huge innovative idea isn’t what the company needed in the first place, and that’s alright. Not every innovation needs to be a game-changer. Sometimes, a small tweak that makes customers smile can be just as valuable as a big, shiny, new idea.

GL: Looking ahead, how do you envision the evolution of Service Design as a field, and how do you plan to continue growing and pushing the boundaries of your own practice?

CM: While no one knows what the future holds, I imagine service design will likely evolve towards more integrated and data-driven experiences that incorporate AI, sustainability, and ethical considerations. To push my own practice, I engage in cross-disciplinary collaborations, embrace experimentation, and try to stay updated on emerging trends and technologies. I love to learn in and outside of the service design realm and I try to find ways to incorporate new knowledge and learnings into my everyday work. In the future, I hope to focus more on thought leadership, contributing insights to the community, and focus on ensuring that the work I do not only innovates but also serves the evolving needs of users and society at large.

In wrapping up this enlightening Service Designer Spotlight interview, it’s abundantly clear that the art of crafting exceptional user experiences is a fusion of creativity, empathy, and strategic thinking. The insights shared by Coltin underscore the pivotal role of understanding user needs, mapping intricate journeys, and innovative problem-solving. The journey of a Service Designer is one of continuous exploration and growth, an odyssey where curiosity and collaboration pave the way for a more user-centric and harmonious world.