Purposeful, Ethical and Socially Beneficial — the new paradigm for business, technology and people.

2022 marked my third year as Head of Programme for the Service Design Masters course at the Royal College of Art in London. In the same year, we marked the 10th anniversary of this unique course that has bought together a diverse range of designers and professionals from a variety of business and public sector backgrounds. Since then, each cohort has embraced a human centred, design driven and system thinking approach to designing new services and solutions to the big issues of our times and gone onto work in businesses, governments and the public sector, facilitating change and transformation.

As every student discovers, designing services and overcoming the barriers to change that improvement requires, is complicated. Service designers use a set of tools to gain insights and comprehend the current experience of a service as the starting point to envision better and more effective solutions, for both user and provider.

Leaders, managers and service deliverers make decisions every hour of every day that impact on the way we experience services, whether as users, patients, customers or citizens. My first boss, industrial designer and co-founder of IDEO Bill Moggridge said that “few people think about this or are aware of it. But there is nothing made by human beings that does not involve a design decision somewhere.” Bill made me realise that there are many involved in creating the world around us, and many of the decisions people make, with the best of intentions, have an impact on the way we interact with it.

The economist Herbert Simon in his definition of design states that “everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.” We might use the methods of design to research, gain insights and create new visions of how the world could be, but we need a highly collaborative approach to changing existing situations into preferred ones. As Simon and Moggridge imply, design is an activity we all play a role in.

Making Decisions

Many people in any organisation, whether it be a business, a local authority or a charity, no matter their position, would consider it their role to improve the outcomes of what they do. They might aim for their working life to be easier, safer, more secure, or flexible. They might want it to be more profitable or optimised to cut cost. They might be threatened or excited about the impact of technology that could accelerate change or simplify complex processes. There are incentives and assumptions, data and intuition that combine in a heady cocktail of balancing factors that we have to navigate through when we make decisions, decisions that could make a business survive or thrive, a patient loose or gain a bed or a customer be disappointed, or delighted and stay loyal for life.

Design can be seen as the orchestration and articulation of those decisions. In one sense, it is as a tool to make things usable, deliver the functions we need and attract us to purchase or use. In another, it communicates, pride, beauty, purpose and creates impact. If a car is unattractive, uncomfortable or it’s controls difficult to comprehend, we may be less keen to purchase it, however attractive the price is. If a service functions well enough but doesn’t treat you with consideration or satisfy your emotional and functional needs, then we complain.

The decisions we make at any stage of the development of a new product or service are a balance between the capability to make something that is of value to people in a way that is financially viable to the company or organisation.

When we collectively design something, we have to balance those three aspects and generate a vision of what that might look like. What can we make, within cost boundaries, that is attractive to the people who have a need. These elements are at the centre of any design activity — we need people who can draw those basic elements together and create a blueprint that will repeat that idea at scale.

For service designers, there is the added dimension of time. How do we orchestrate the experience of a product or service across each stage of our interaction: understand our need, identify a solution, transact in some way, begin and carry on using before, perhaps, a conclusion, or a replacement, or a return. Services depend on systems, people and technology and we need to consider them across every stage of the journey.

The Balancing Act

To describe this balancing act between capability, economics and attractiveness, a simple diagram was developed some 20 years ago that helps us make decisions. In the book Change By Design, published in 2009, the design agency IDEO shared this framework to explain the relationship between Desirability, Feasibility and Viability. Initially seen as a method of validating prototypes of new products, the framework asks the questions: is your concept desirable to the user; is the business model a viable one that is repeatable and scalable; and is the concept using current technology or processes that are dependable and repeatable?

If the answer to any of these is no, then you have a problem. If it is a good business model but the concept is unattractive or fails to deliver on the expectations of a user, then it will fail. If it is attractive and exciting, but processes or technology are not ready, then it cannot be made. And if it is attractive and the technology exciting, but too expensive to bring to market, then the proposition will fail again.

The Venn diagram portrays the three elements together and defines the balance we require to make an idea, product or service, successful.

Let’s unpack each of these to be clear.

Technology, Feasibility describes how we make a product or service. It may not be strictly technology, it could be a process or system, even an organisational culture, that needs to be in place to make what is intended. It’s the practical side of the diagram but is always related closely to cost. Nuclear Fission may now be a proven possibility, but it is still wildly beyond economic means. Is the technology, or system enabler, available, proven at scale and affordable? Is the investment required for the technology or material or industrial process quantifiable in achieving a price per unit cost that is acceptable and affordable and will generate profit? This needs to be established before we can move forward.

Business, Viability, simply put, is the economic model able to sustain the idea. Is the benefit it provides of enough value, and affordable enough to be successful with revenue covering the organisational, operational and production costs. Is any investment required retrievable and provide investors with a return?

Finally, the bit that designers are most vocal about, People, Desirability. People, in this context, refers to users, the customers, consumers, or citizens who will gain benefit from the outputs, have a need or desire fulfilled in way that is attractive, fulfils their expectations and is a satisfying experience. If we unpack them further, we can see the three components as separate set of values, criteria, attitudes and historic practice that need to come together to work in harmony for a successful outcome.

Connections between each of them create strong and important links. The connection between Business Viability and Technology Feasibility drives process innovation, optimising processes to increase profit or reduce costs.

Technology is often a driver of desirability and user convenience, from our mobile devices to virtual reality headsets or the speed and reach of AI.

The connection between Desirability and Viability creates the customer experience across the whole journey and results in trust and brand loyalty.

These components should not be confused with a similar Venn diagram often discussed in board rooms: People, Process and Technology. In that diagram, people are the resources of the company itself, not the customer or user. Process refers to the management steps required to develop or innovate or achieve a goal. Technology may refer to automation, or the perceived magic bullet that will cut costs and raise profits. Our belief in technology can override all logic and it is no surprise that technology on its own brings great promise but not always success. We often forget to ask ourselves why? What is the problem we are trying to solve with technology?

Articulating design process around People, Business and Technology however has been a useful and helpful way of describing how our decisions, and design processes, need to be balanced across these three elements. They maximise the chance for a successful outcome: one that works, is attractive for people, and is financially stable. That’s as important for a community coffee shop as to a global corporation.

In the design of services and experiences, whether it be for health, finance, social or business, these three components are vital. A service must answer a need to have value, a service needs an economic model to sustain it over time and be built on systems that can deliver at scale.

The model has worked well and is as useful in developing services as the Double Diamond model. The Double Diamond model, developed in the mid 2000s by the UK Design Council, draws on research with companies who were developing products and services. It found that many companies made assumptions about problems and raced to solutions before discovering too late that they were unsuitable for the people who had the problem and that the real problem to be solved lay somewhere else.

The Double Diamond simply describes the design process starting with research of the current user and their experience, the processes that deliver that experience, followed by analysis and reframing the real problem or opportunity. Then we can be creative in finding new solutions that can be visualised and prototyped before manufacturing them. It’s a diamond as it also describes the frame of mind required at each stage: open and broadminded in researching, before focusing on the real problem and then diverging again to consider a broad spectrum of possible solutions before synthesising a final solution. That solution has a much better chance of success and a reduced risk of failure by testing the soliution and iterating BEFORE it is built.

In essence, service design is about discovering the real problem, creating possible solutions and using our balancing tool of viability, feasibility and desirability to focus in on the best possible solution for people and organisation alike.

The Changing World

At the heart of the RCA Service Design course is an ethos of partnering with organisations who bring their real problems, areas of opportunity and desire to anticipate the future, into a safe sandbox full of young design talent. Fashion brands, government departments, banks and technology companies bring projects for teams of students to work together on envisioning new solutions.

Students can learn how to design around real systems and challenges and organisations can safely explore and experiment. Organisations get to think the unthinkable, a combination of vision and pragmatism that generates new, sometimes transformative, ideas. Research is carried out, ideas developed and envisioned, prototyped and tested. The challenges of delivery can be understood and we can even speculate about the unintended consequences of ideas many years after they have been launched.

In working closely with such a wide variety of organisations, we have seen that new patterns are emerging, across technology, business and the impact on people. Over the last three years the impact of pandemic has met with changes in our views on identity, technology, race, gender, the use of data through AI. We have reset our expectations of how business, society and the planet interact, and this has led to what we believe is a transformation in how we view people, our economic models and our use of technology. There is a new pattern and it is reflected in the projects that have been bought to the course for the students to work on.

New Values

Over the last five years a series of student projects have identified new solutions to how we interact with technology. Whereas we might expect designers to be focused on the detailed design of technology interfaces to ensure usability and attractiveness, service design students have focused on other aspect of our digital lives. How we can protect our identity, keep our data secure and have agency over how private data is used?

Projects have created new services to visualise the way data is used and allow people greater agency and control. Ways of educating safer use of technology and enhancing the way tech start-ups themselves think proactively of the harm they may do. Through the marvellously named F*** Ethics project, tech start-ups found they could improve their early-stage funding by showing greater responsibility for their future outcomes and impact.

Ethical Technology replaces feasibility as feasibility has become easier to identify, less critical, whereas the future implications of technology have become a greater concern. Ethical tech is human centred, protects the user, is transparent and provides agency and is secure from bias. Technology has the power to remove bias, to ensure safety and strengthen secure identities and these are the capabilities needed to drive tech development and its use in our personal lives.

Our models of economic modelling have been entirely concerned with increasing profit, reduction of cost and optimisation of labour and materials. But now economic viability is increasingly affected by the challenges to the planet. Reduced supply of materials, climate change that inflates component costs, political threats to energy and new sense of purpose in business.

Consumer behaviour increasingly questions the impact of products and services, demanding cleaner, environmentally kinder materials and processes. There are new expectations for clarity of the provenance of materials, processes, carbon footprint and manufacturing worker conditions. Getting these considerations wrong can destroy a brand, decimate their reputation and damage the market of companies from fossil fuel to fashion.

Whether its regulation or corporate reputation, the need to embrace new environmentally sustainable, non-planet damaging solutions is a huge driver for innovation and, also, cost reduction, whether economic or environmental. Business can no longer make and sell and make again. Sustainable Business, from repairable smart phones to new models of sharing, renting cars or clothes, recycling and the circular economy are forcing creativity and innovation in the business models we use.

When Adidas came to the RCA, they wanted to know how to create a viable alternative to current consumerism: how might a circular economy work for sportswear? What is the customer experience of returning or extending the life of clothes and what is the system and business model to support such a new model?

Like all innovations, it takes time to embed these new ideas and business models that could replace the tradition of retail plus some recycling, to one that builds that experience in from the start, with economic advantages to all parts of the system. These are the challenges we must solve. The organisations we work with are looking to find ways of providing economic growth through new models of ownership, circularity and services beyond products.

For many of the organisations we work with, there is a sense of purpose as strong as their need for profit. A purpose led business has something to say, a desired outcome that protects the planet, cares for nature or the underprivileged and looks after it’s employees. Working with organisations such as the Big Issue, a business that helps the homeless earn their way up, or UNICEF, or a small fashion business who want to carve out a different path. Purpose is vital to these businesses and their economic viability depends on it.

The final component is: us, people and the desirability of a service or product. For the last decades, the revolution in business, design and technology has been driven by “The User”. This has driven an empathetic view of who we are designing for, what are their needs, how can we compete, differentiate and innovate by understanding those needs and provide new solutions that are accessible, inclusive and fit for purpose. From Banking apps, Government Digital Services that replace archaic processes and technology that just works, most, though not all, have learnt to value design methods of research, insight and how to create a better method of interaction with the world that suits each individual and works in a way they can understand.

But in being so user centred, we have missed out the people who deliver a service, who design and create interactions. We have forgotten those around the user who are impacted by change.

The poster children of service design when over the last twenty years have been the likes of Air BNB and Uber: disruptive, innovative, exciting and user focused with new business models and levels of individual service that have destroyed the legacy systems that went before them. But now we understand that Airbnb can reduce a neighbourhood to a ghost town of constantly revolving travellers. We have learnt to question the business model and position of employers at Uber and begun to understand better the unintended consequences of these innovative new service models, combining as they do technology and data to create new levels of customer experience and satisfaction.

The final revision of the model is to change People and Desirability to Human and Community. The organisations we work with want to ensure benefit to all, customers, employers, and those who might be impacted by their outcomes. They want to be inclusive of race and gender and create equitable outcomes. They want to co-create to gain insights, consider the unintended consequences of the future on society as well as the planet and develop authentic narratives that draw people to their mission.

This is not some happy, wouldn’t it be wonderful dream. These are the hard problems that organisations of every size and objective are bringing to us to investigate. Whether it’s fear of disruption to their business ecosystem, or looking to reset for sustainability and the move to zero carbon, or through a sense of purpose and mission to differentiate and provide sustainable choices to people, they are looking for innovative new solutions for a world with new sensibilities and desires.

The New Paradigm

Design is always a combination of the functional, emotional and social context. This new paradigm, this revision of the model, reflects what is happening to businesses now. We need more data, more learning and more time to develop truly effective alternatives that will retain a liveable planet, that is fair and equitable and hands back agency to people keen to communicate and benefit from this wave of technology we are experiencing.

Privileged as we are to work with amazing organisations who come to investigate new solutions with curious and courageous students from around the world who bring their diversity and energy to finding new ideas that suit this changing paradigm, we can see the new patterns emerging. To paraphrase Herbert Simon, we are all involved in devising courses of action to changing existing situations into preferred ones.

Design is not at the periphery of these shifts, it is at the centre and we all have a role in bringing together the thinkers of economics, the scientists who shape technology and the designers who facilitate the creation of desirable, people and planet centred options for our future. We can’t lop one bit off, they all interconnect and this calls for collaboration breaking through the culture of science, economics and art to find these solutions. It is not enough to be a campaigner or a tree hugger, concepts such as equity and sustainability run through the views of all aspects of this paradigm, they are not separate to it. Therefore, we need to embrace this fantastic opportunity and break through the political, cultural, educational and societal barriers to set a new course that will bring sustainable wealth and comfort to all.

We believe and we hope that these values will drive the creativity, technology and economics that we need to solve the challenges of our time.

You can find the work in progress and graduating show projects from the RCA Service Design course at www.rcaservicedesign.com

A link to F*** Ethics project is https://www.rcaservicedesign.com/projects-final-show-2021/f-ethics

Ref: Change By Design, Tim Brown, 2009, Harper Business

You can apply to the RCA Service Design course at https://www.rca.ac.uk/study/programme-finder/service-design-ma/#apply

© Clive Grinyer, January 2023