Service Design
Based on an episode with Jane Vita 🇧🇷
Welcome to Latinx in Power, a podcast aiming to help to demystify tech, the way we do that is by interviewing Latinx and Caribbean leaders all over the world to hear their perspective and insights.
We talked with Jane Vita, a Design Director at Digitalist, who is based in Helsinki, Finland. Jane has two master’s degrees, one in Web Design and the other in Service Innovation and Design. Her bachelor’s degree is in Graphic Design. She is a PhD student in New Media at Aalto University.
We asked Jane questions about her journey abroad and career as a Design Director. You can listen to the podcast at the link below or read it here:
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What does it mean to you to be a Latina?
I love how we communicate, we love collaboration and sharing. I consider us very resilient, and this is the part of being a Latina that I love most. Things are not always easy. We don’t have this feeling that things can be done only in a certain way, so we don’t get frustrated in the first place, even though we might feel a little bit overwhelmed. I think we are very resilient, and we always find a solution at the end of the tunnel.
What is your unique skill that has helped you become successful?
I learned to be comfortable with the uncomfortable. People sometimes ask me how I feel with all the changes that happened in my life. I think I’m good at putting things together and making things happen. I do this for my clients all the time. I have to find the basis, the foundation I need, and I’ll put those pieces together. This applies in many, many ways in my life. I’m always catching pieces. It also applies in the context of design. In design itself, we have this first phase where we don’t know much yet, but we need to be comfortable with that as a designer. I learned very early in life that things are not always clear, and we are the ones responsible for making things more clear for ourselves and sometimes to our team. That’s the reason I started getting more used to being a bit more comfortable with the uncomfortable.
What advice would you give someone wanting to pursue a career in Design?
I would say, be open to learning, to understand and not guess for the first time. Put down your assumptions as really assumptions, and make sure that you validate them. Don’t be egocentric.
Sometimes, I think we go very quickly for a solution when something is so obvious. I would consider that phase as an experiment, as a way to try things out. I encourage you to think, let’s try this out, let’s find some ways of making tangibility with the things we believe in the first place, but still validate that, not just roll it out.
We, designers, sometimes are not so patient, and companies as well. Some companies hire us to get things done faster. However, I still believe failure can be seen as something positive and good, but it’s not an excuse to not do good things in the first place. We just need to try our best and have empathy. Support companies to understand that.
Having empathy is also a piece of great advice, people need to understand/be open to other perspectives. Empathy is also about hearing others, listening and really considering other people that may think differently than you. It is not about you or not believing in yourself. Consider other perspectives. This makes things more plural and diverse. Another important aspect is the diversity, that’s also super important.
What is the first thing someone thinking about transitioning to Design should keep in mind?
I think most professions request you to be a better communicator and problem solver. Moreover, everything that you already have faced can help you to create faith in your methods, your toolbox, your skills, and so on. Each company has their own preferred tools, softwares, and platforms. So, of course, there is a learning curve that you carry on and evolve on because those are things that enable you to do the work.
Then there’s the other soft skills that you have to develop that are important ― your resilience, going after the information that you need, the openness to actually receive the information, to make sense of it. Another example is system and trend thinking because you have to understand the impact. There’s so much that is important to think about. This is more than tools you’ll learn in three weeks and where you get some UI templates that you could benefit from. I truly believe that design is much more than that. If you want to be a successful UX designer, you should be able to prototype. You should be able to make your ideas tangible so you are a better communicator as well.
If you didn’t have the luxury to study Design or are not in the Design field in the first place, you might not have the experience of learning the roots of Design itself and the design pillars. At the same time, the Design field is constantly changing, and continuous learning is needed. You have to adapt all the time. I learned many years ago that tools change, and the ones I used years ago are not the same today. Knowing the tools makes us craft makers, but experience in how to lead in different kinds of situations in life, in the kind of solutions and with knowing the directions, is built over time. We have to experience things, learn from them, and learn from others as well.
I think you should learn the tools. For instance, if Figma now is the tool of the moment, of course, you should learn it so that you can make things happen. It’s essential to know how to extract information from stakeholders, how to extract value creation, and the experience of users. You should be able to learn those skills as well and not only the tools.
Design is a profession where you are constantly learning and adapting. The entire experience itself is changing because we are learning that many of the fields we build on might not be the right ones. People say, I want this, I want that. But maybe what you want is not good for you such that we are not building any value for you. How does this work if you are pushing things just to make people more addicted to using something? It’s not truly impactful in a good way. The companies benefit from being profitable. But what if we look at other alternatives that change the work to something even better, with more holistic thinking. Sometimes we tend to focus too much in one direction, and maybe it’s not the best direction in the long term. I think there’s some thought about that nowadays, it might not be only customer-centric nor company-centric, it’s more holistic.
I know you participated in many Design conferences as a speaker, what’s your favorite thing about these opportunities?
I never considered myself a professional speaker. Conferences were one way I could maybe get better at communication. I learned English later in life, when I was already 21 years old, because that was when I could afford classes and so on. I started learning while already working, so I didn’t have much time to dedicate to it. When I moved to Finland, this actually hit me, nicely, let’s say. Then I had to dive into that, and I started communicating in this sense of using the language as a source for communicating.
I think being a speaker puts you in this uncomfortable and vulnerable situation, and it’s challenging. I see there’s some respect you build, it’s so lovely to see people inspired, that actually motivates me to go again and again. All of the dialogues that are generated after those talks…. They come and ask about things, and I see that there is a positive influence that happens when I go to those talks. It’s a way of giving back to the community everything I learned and have been learning from others.
I don’t think public speaking is easy, it might not ever be for me, but I enjoy it. It makes me happy to see people getting involved in some of my thoughts and pushing them further, because my thoughts are not only my thoughts, they’re thoughts from the community too. If I can repeat and build on that, why not? I see the progress happening with others as well. If I stay at my desk and don’t talk to people about those things, I’m alone at my desk, that’s it.
Do you think you started to see communication in a different way when you started to communicate more in your second language?
As much as I learn English, I think any language is not the end-all. For example, if you think about English, it’s not only a language, it’s a tool like the software skills we discussed before that enables you to do something. Cooking is a good reference. You have the tools, but if you don’t have a good recipe, or if you don’t have the willingness to cook something good, the tools don’t make things happen by themselves. Like Portuguese, knowing and speaking is important, it’s like going to war without any weapons. You have the tools, but communication is more than that.
As you learn English as a second language, sometimes it is not the grammar that conveys the message, sometimes it’s the situation or certain thoughts you bring to the situation, your perception of what is happening and your awareness. Awareness is so important. You don’t need to speak sometimes. We also communicate with gestures and actions. They are so important, they’re part of communication too― the articulation, debating, and resilience.
What is the one common myth about design that you want to debunk?
There is a difference between wants and needs. I think this is something people get wrong. A want is something that I desire, but it’s not what I need. What I need is something that has an impact. When I say impact, of course, an impact in the long-term. It could also have a momentane impact, I mean, make me happy, when we talk about life, we’re okay so it’s a cycle. When we say need, we have to make sure that we create value.
In Service Design value creation is very important. Value creation is an exchange of value. It has many players, and it’s collective, not individual. When you think about the person, the society, the community, and it’s not only the user as a center, but the situation itself. This creates the impact for the entire chain. It’s a bit more holistic. I think the myth in this is the user-centric design itself. I think it’s great to understand the user stories, the task flow.
So we say, “I need to print,” that’s it. And there’s, “how to print,” the printing screens, then when it comes to things like is it a good paper? What are you printing? Is this printing sustainable? Problems related to printing itself… Is there a better option? So those things we are not really going after when we are just thinking about the printing task. When you print something as an experience, it’s much more than that. What do I do when I need to print something when the ink costs the same amount as the printer itself? Buy another printer perhaps? Buy a better one. Maybe, but it’s very tempting, I must say.
I think companies tend to concentrate on tasks, not on experiences. People think that tasks are experiences, and this is a myth as well. There’s a lot of user consciousness out there nowadays. The power is in the customer point of view. The awareness that they have on let’s say, should I print that in the first place? So I think a good business would bring these thoughts that the customers have, their mindset, and what kind of changes this provokes in their organization, taking these thoughts into consideration.
How would you describe the difference between Service Design and other types of design?
I couldn’t start without saying that design is design as much as I kind of surface different areas of design. I can say this with confidence because I haven’t done anything in life that wasn’t related to designing things. I started my career as a designer, and I have continued. I worked with marketing in the very beginning, but still, I was working with newsletters, creating brand identities, logos, and marketing materials. I was still designing, and I had this passion about fashion in the beginning too, I also had a passion for wearables.
It’s interesting to see that design itself, it has its pillars, and over the years, I think we focus on different things depending on the needs of the market or the profession itself. We can focus on different areas. So I would say that when you learn design, you learn the four pillars, design management, design plan, design resourcing, and design execution.
Of course, Design Thinking is another jam. Let’s say when IDEO was starting to become more popular, they were bringing design to the strategy level. But strategy as a focus is thinking about what you’re going to build, what’s your solution and the strategic level before planning how this impacts your business and customers. Of course, this is customer-centric, we always build something for someone to use. In the beginning we were paying more attention to the executing level of influencing, conversion rate, and focus on the learning process, how people learn better, usability. We really brought this up quite nicely, but that wasn’t as strategic because we were not thinking about things in the long term. We’re not thinking about the impact of things. And what happened was we would take something that wasn’t for use, the user didn’t need that. It was really a push, so then they thought okay, I’m doing a good marketing campaign that will reach a lot of people. So of course if you reach thousands… I think marketing played a very good part in making people want things. Some people could benefit from that because it was very appealing and attractive as design became more essential in business mostly because of technology as well, because tech is a design sibling. You see the field of service design growing, and it’s becoming more strategic, as it’s becoming more influential and as more important as the piece you are shaping.
When it comes to Service Design, I think it complements Design Thinking and makes this a more holistic discipline. It’s a more holistic and strategic way of approaching it, because you consider employees’ experiences, consider operations, how you create value, and how to deliver this value. There are other things that we sometimes don’t have access to as UX Designers. We hear people saying, “I’m actually building screens, I don’t have access to all these other pieces of the business that I could consider.” And then, as a Service Designer, you do not necessarily need to build anything, but you have put these company operation pieces together. It’s a lot of articulation, revealing, collaboration, and communication towards gaps that you need to bridge. So there is a take on the design that goes a bit beyond what we have been doing so far. So… I think it comes as an addition, but it is still design when it comes to making us do an even better job and evolve the practice.
Tell me the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear these phrases:
Favorite memory
My favorite memories are so scary and left a mark on my life. When I moved to Finland at first, I was looking for a job. I was going to have this interview at Fjord, and my English was really poor. I had a lot of experience so at this point I thought, either they will hire me, or I will go for another profession, or maybe I’ll go work in a cafe or do other things. Then they said “Jane, you should work for us.” I thought this was a time in my life that I didn’t need to change, and I just had to be a little bit more patient and take things step-by-step, so I could really communicate my designs. You see, the designs were there, I knew how to use the tools, but I couldn’t articulate yet in the best way possible the work, as I wasn’t so good with the language. So I think this was a moment of trust. I’m really happy that I had this chance, so this is one of my favorite memories.
A great advice
In the design field, everything needs to be authentic. However, we can’t forget that we still need to be designers, we can’t be selfish or egocentric. There is always a new generation that comes in and builds something new. We had so much of thinking in design back in the days to actually build the trust we have today. There are a lot of things that I see that are good still, especially if you are not willing to build on top of other things. I think in design when we build something, you’re building for another person, it’s not for ourselves.
I worked with construction companies, I talked with their employees, the builders, with people that I never worked with before. Suddenly, I had been working with construction companies for three years, different brands. Nowadays, I can say that I know many things about construction work. The process supported me to learn a lot of stuff, including even many things around the real estate industry, but it was far from my comfort zone.
You can’t be egocentric. People feel they can be picky. I wanna work for this company that does this and not for machinery for instance, not for mining companies. It’s interesting because when you choose to be a designer, we’re also building things for others, so I think that we have to put ourselves in this mindset that we need to learn about people, industry, what’s important for them. And this should be the pleasure of what you’re doing, not whether you’re good in Figma. Of course, transitions are great. If you choose to be a motion designer, you need to pursue and convey a story, a message. It’s not about aesthetics only, it’s about messaging and the communication we were talking about before. How you bridge those things… I think that your craft skills only help you to get better while you have a bigger challenge in other areas.
Scandinavia
What came to my mind straight away is design patterns. They have patterns for everything, in ceramics, in fabric, and everywhere. It’s a very systematic and effective way of creating these kinds of platforms, and they are good at building these foundations. I think this is what makes it so valuable. Sometimes as a Brazilian, I see the complexity overcoming the foundation, and sometimes when you face the reality, it’s not as complicated as you thought. So if you manage to get this foundation, you set things for success.
Scandinavian design is good at finding this foundation. They can be very diverse after that because they are tailoring. That’s the dynamic, I see here, and it is continuously evolving. It’s easy to develop when you have the pillars like the structure of the building. The pillars are still there, even as the buildingages. They are always there, and they’re needed, but the things on top, those materials evolve.
Your superpower
I think perseverance, and I’d say smile as well. I even laugh when I’m nervous, I smile, and people think I’m happy, but I’m super nervous.
What are the best resources that have helped you along the way?
In the design community, I follow for quite a long time, and there’s a lot of exciting dialogues:
I follow the videos from conferences, and go to conferences:
- Interaction Conference talks Every year the Interaction Conference organizers publish talks to the general community so those who couldn’t attend can also benefit from the content.
- Invision Talks — Diverse selection of design topics
Podcasts and blogs:
- UXLAB YouTube Channel
- UX Collective Blog
- Secret Leaders Podcast
I follow trends, regular articles around changes in the industry:
Books recommendations:
- The Good to Great by Jim Collins: Jim Collins talks about when you’re doing good is where you can get trapped because you don’t see that you can get better. When you are good, it’s good enough, so they don’t go to great because they don’t see it, it’s a blind spot.
- This is Service Design Thinking by Marc Stickdorn: He was my teacher so I’m quite biased. He talks about the facilitation, the integrative thinking point of view, and I love that.
- This Is Service Design Doing by Marc Stickdorn: His second book is also really good. It has a bunch of actual practice.
- Designing for the Digital Age by Kim Goodwin: It’s a book that can help you with the process It’s a handbook with all steps, processes, and methods.
- Liminal Thinking by Dave Gray: Liminal thinking is a way to create change by understanding, shaping, and reframing beliefs. The book shows how important it is to be open to different perspectives. Something that can be obvious for us might not be for the other person.
What is your biggest failure, and what did you learn from it?
I have a problem with saying that I failed at something, because I always had the chance to catch up. So I think I’ve been lucky in the sense that I never had a big failure that wasn’t good for me. I’ve always had good choices. Once I did have a very bad choice, but at the same time, my biggest failure was very positive.
I had this experience being an entrepreneur very early in my career as do many designers. You end up as an entrepreneur straight after university. My friends from the university got together in the business so I worked in my company, Nextmidia, for two years. They’re still there, but it didn’t work for me. I had to make money, I couldn’t cope with the uncertainty of the business itself even though we were doing super great. At the same time, if we changed the strategy a little bit from what we did in the beginning, we could have been a pioneer in the industry.
I think it was difficult for me to leave. I considered this was quite an early decision I made. At the same time, it was a really great experience to leave. I learned so much, and I learned to take things together and go after what I wanted in the first place. It gives you this kind of toughness that you need sometimes to make things happen.
This wasn’t exactly a failure. I’m lucky to say that I’ve never had that big thing that impacted my life in a way that I couldn’t catch up later. It’s also important to be prepared and motivated as well to go after the things you want, because sometimes failures can leave you feeling a bit depressed. You might not feel that you’re in good shape to move on, but I think we have to trust ourselves and take the next step. Sometimes it’s not easy. We just need to take the next step. You’re already influencing your next life so it’s important to take the steps.
What makes a successful team?
I think the synergy in any team is so important. I used to play basketball, so I think the synergy between people, how they read each other and embrace each other is so important. You’re there for the others as well, you’re not against them. I think you look at your team and wonder why someone is not doing well or why this happened to you, but you should open the communication channel. You should help to create a safe environment so you all can share your thoughts. In a safe environment, everyone will feel comfortable to share and listen, and you all will find solutions together as a team. It’s hard to be part of the team even though it’s effective such as if you share a thought and are criticized or there’s competition on this team. I believe if a team does well, everybody will do well, and then the company grows. So I think a good team has synergy, they can be themselves, and they can share their ideas in dialogues.
What’s helping you to cope during this pandemic situation? Is there anything you want to share that is helping you?
Definitely my family, I’m with them all the time, and it’s amazing we can be with each other. I think this is the first time in my life I’m able to dedicate so much time to my kids. I’m not travelling, and we could go somewhere, but we decided to explore Helsinki more. So I have been to the museum with my kids. Of course it’s a pandemic situation, and all the precautions were taken with limited people allowed in the museum. I’m talking more with my friends as well in Europe and Canada. I have friends all over the world and being remote has helped us to communicate more, which is a great thing.
I hope you enjoyed the podcast. We will have more interviews with amazing Latinx leaders every first Tuesday of the month. Check out our website LatinX in Power to hear more. Don’t forget to share comments and feedback, always with kindness. See you soon.
Additional Reading Mentioned in the Interview
Books Jane Mentioned
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