The Design Impact Chart

A tool for scoping your service design project

The concept of service design has literally exploded in the last couple of years. We love that. It’s a result of a wish to create more sustainable and human centered services, organisations and systems. But along with this comes also a certain confusion about what it actually is. Is it a process? Is it strategy? A tool? Service development? The short answer is — Yes! All of the above! The longer answer is… well… longer.

At Expedition Mondial we believe that the power of service design is its versatility. You can use it as the name implies to design great service. But you can also use service design to create touch points, strategies, organizational changes or redesign whole systems. The common denominator for those projects is that they are human centered, iterative and co-creative, and they often require that users and other stakeholders work collaboratively to define complex challenges and design tangible sustainable solutions.

To help straighten out the question marks, we’ve developed the Design Impact Chart, as a guide to scope your projects and pinpoint what you are applying service design methodology to. The Chart consists of a matrix with two axes: the zoom level axis and the stakeholder axis. To explain the parameters in the chart, we’ve used public transportation as an example.

The Zoom Level axis

The variables of the zoom axis range from the micro (one action) to the macro (one experience) level. The more you zoom in, the more detailed and specific your solution will be. The more you zoom out, the more likely it is that solutions will come in the form of strategic guidelines and principles.

One Action level

The most zoomed in level of a service design project involves designing an action. In theexample of public transportation, an action could be “Pay for a metro ticket”. In this micro perspective, the project would focus on optimizing a defined component according to the user’s needs and logic.

One Process level

The process level involves what most people consider to be a service. A process is a series of actions that are organized into a relevant sequence such as: “Choose a metro ticket — Pay for the ticket — Receive the ticket — Use the ticket”. A project at this level would collect insights about users and the context in order to co-define and co-design the actions within the process, and then weave them together into a relevant service.

One Experience Level

The experience level focused on making sure all the processes co-exist and cooperate in unison. In a public transportation context, this could involve: “Selecting the type of public transport — Planning your route — Choosing — Paying for, receiving and using your ticket — Finding your final destination”.

The Stakeholder axis

The variables on the Stakeholder axis range from low stakeholder complexity (single channel) to high stakeholder complexity (multiple organisations). In general, the fewer stakeholders that are involved, the more straightforward the project will be. But on the other hand, the more channels involved, the higher impact on people’s overall experience and life.

One Channel level

One channel could for instance be a smartphone app. The desired outcome and effect of a project at this level would be for example “Improved user experience within the app” When you design for one channel, you work with one aspect of how the customer interacts with the organisation.

Multi Channel level

At the multi channel level you are designing a coherent and relevant service across channels. A project at this level could be “Experience Strategy for the company’s digital channels”. When designing for several channels you need to involve multiple stakeholders within the organisation in order to deliver a coherent and relevant service regardless of the channel.

Whole organisation level

Organizational design means designing all channels internally and externally based on the needs of the customer. In our example, the scope could be “Ensuring customer centricity in the entire organisation of the company running the metro trains”.

Multi-organisational level

When addressing challenges on a multi-organisational level, stakeholder complexity is extremely high, but the potential benefit for the users is even higher. In a public transportation scenario, a multi organizational project could involve the metro company, the bus company and the commuter train company in order to “Ensuring a coherent and relevant service and experience when travelling within the city of Stockholm”.

To conclude, organisations that want to improve their customer experience will typically have to work in all the different fields in the Design Impact Chart, and all the levels are equally important. We recommend though to start with initiatives in the upper part; these initiatives typically deliver strategies based on the customer’s needs and expectations as well as the organisation’s own capabilities. Once these strategies are in place, they can serve as guidelines unifying all future initiatives affecting customer experience — From designing new services right down to nitty gritty touchpoint design.

What tools do you use for scoping your service design projects? Please share your thoughts. You’ll find us on Linkedin or on our website expeditionmondial.se. We would love to hear from you!

The Design Impact Chart and other useful tools will be published in the book An Introduction to Industrial Service Design edited by the talented Professor Satu Miettinen at University of Stanford, USA. The book will be released in the summer of 2016.