Embedding Service Design within a low cost airline, the story so far…

Service Design has really matured in the last few years. Google the words “Service Design” and you’ll get millions of results. As a Service Designer, I’ve watched as it’s risen from being a fairly unknown discipline to something that is now transforming diverse, global organisations within the most traditional of industries (BBVA, The UK Government & Southwest Airlines to name a few).

For Service Designers, there is lots to be optimistic about when it comes to the future of the discipline. However, I can’t help agree with people like Chris Downs (Normally) who suggests that Service Design could be losing itself in theory. You only need to spend too long on various Twitter #servicedesign threads these days to get that impression.

Service Design isn’t just post-it notes, pretty maps and theoretical blogposts. This is especially true if you are trying to make large scale organisational changes similar to the ones mentioned at the start of this piece. Just having the capability and the know-how to apply Service Design isn’t enough. To really deliver Service Design within organisations, you also need to be prepared to take on cultural and organisational transformation, as I am currently finding out.

As a designer who is working to embed Service Design within an international airline, I know only too well how little theory matters right now, it’s much more about the doing. This is an airline that started out life like a startup, but has since morphed into a more traditional, large scale organisation. This change brings with it any number of challenges, I’m nearly three months into this daunting task and I feel now is an appropriate time to share some of my early findings.

Here, I will present the 8 steps we’ve been working through to introduce Service Design into Vueling Airlines. You may recognise some of these as we were in the fortunate position of being able to use the excellent “This Is Service Design Doing” as a helpful reference.

1. Create alignment: When I joined the organisation, I became part of the relatively new Innovation Lab at Vueling. With a mix of Developers, Product Owners and Service Designers (also quite new), it was important to quickly define a common language and set of standards across the entire Innovation team. Not everyone had the same level of knowledge or understanding when it came to Service Design. It’s vital that we first align before reaching out to the wider organisation, or we would have run the risk of sending out mixed messages, which in turn drive doubt in our abilities as a department.
2. Start Small: Once we were aligned, we could begin to develop some small internal projects. The purpose of starting small was A) to test out our new standards and common understanding as a team, B) create buy-in from all team members in terms of the Service Design process before reaching out to the wider organisation. There was also an added bonus, we were not restrained in anyway by the existing processes or politics within the company. It’s important for the team to see some quick wins and develop a positive sense of achievement. Had we tried to develop something larger, linked to other departments for example, we may have been disappointment and a level of distrust in these new ways of working could have grown had the project failed or hit too many hurdles.
3. Understand the culture: Vueling is a typically Spanish organisation, with the majority of employees either being Spanish or Catalan. However, as the company grows, people from across the globe are joining. So much so that in January 2019 it become compulsory for Vueling staff to have some proficiency with the English language. However, for the Americans, the British, the Dutch etc. who join the company, they need to be aware that this is still a traditionally Spanish company. For example, there are many cultural aspects of working in Spain that some northern Europeans will find different, from working hours, Summer vs Winters schedules, pace of the working day etc. Newcomers to this environment shouldn’t expect to change things drastically. Frankly, they will be facing a losing battle. Instead, try to understand the differences, embrace them and find ways in which these differing cultural nuances can work together. It’s only by working together as a multicultural, multidisciplinary team, can you be successful in the delivery of Service Design initiatives.
4. Raise awareness internally: Once the team is established, it’s time to start spreading ‘the good word’ of Service Design internally. This could feel like Groundhog Day, as many of the issues you faced when creating alignment within your own team will surface once again. A good way to start this process is to look for people within the organisation that you think could be ambassadors for your cause, people who have shown an interest in Service Design and the work you are doing, people who need help achieving something internally and want to try a new approach. Again, start small and look for projects that you can work on together (combining teams of interested stakeholders), projects that can deliver quick wins for their relevant departments. It’s likely that these people will become your sponsors going forward, who can help you get access to other areas of the business in order to carry out further projects. Also, make sure you document these projects well and in a format that is easily sharable. This is a great way of raising awareness, by sharing your approach and the impact it’s had. One final tactic I’ve found useful is to speak publicly about the work we are doing. With such a large organisation it’s often difficult to reach everyone. Talking about things on platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn while ‘tagging’ the organisation is actually a great way to reach other stakeholders and departments from within the same company.
5. Lead by example: Go out and be seen doing Service Design. What do I mean by that? Try to be seen and have the work you produce seen by as many people within the organisation. This not only gets people more involved (you will often find people actually want to help) but it opens up conversations with other departments about the work you and they are doing (sometimes in parallel). If you can, try to develop an internal Service Design project. This way more and more internal stakeholders will come across the work you are doing. We are currently researching internal processes at Vueling, so we try to spend as much time as possible with the internal stakeholders, living their working life, doing their job alongside them where possible. So, conduct fieldwork and speak with as many people as possible. Trust me, they all have a story to tell and appreciate having someone to tell it to. Then when you have content and artefacts produced (service maps, synthesised research, etc.) make sure these are displayed in various public spaces around the company. For example, we will often produce physical versions of our service maps, or video summaries of research findings and display these in the office hallways or the entrance to the Vueling headquarters.
6. Build the competence, not just within your team: While you are trying to establish your first serious projects internally, it’s always a good idea to increase the competencies of other employees outside of your core team with regards to Service Design. One thing we’ve done is run various internal talks and workshops. The workshops have focussed on the broader topic of Design Thinking but going forward you can begin to specialise while making sure you invite back the serious participants. We also do a lot of work with local universities and startups. Inviting them in to discuss the Design Thinking based projects they are working on alongside the Innovation team is also a great way of building understanding and competence internally.
7. Extend your teams across silos: Traditional organisations can be very siloed and have a great deal of internal politics that you often need to understand and deal with. This is a very difficult task and requires a good understanding of the various departments, how they work, who leads them, what their capabilities and needs might be etc. One tactic that works well is utilising team members who have good, existing relationships within the other departments. Use their relationships to build your own. Utilising the workshops and talks mentioned in the previous point is also a great way of breaking down these barriers. The aim is to create a network of stakeholders who you could potentially work with on future projects, by identifying the interested and savvy potential service designers.
8. Connect with the wider community: Many companies are quite often part of a wider organisation or group. For example, Vueling is part of the IAG group which means we have partners like Iberia. When it comes to embedding Service Design, they are more mature than Vueling. This means there is a potential opportunity to learn from their successes and failures. What we would like to do going forward is utilise activities like innovation Jams that bring the two Service Design teams together. This not only gives each team the opportunity to learn and share best practices, but we can work towards a common goal for both Iberia and Vueling.

Nearly 3 months into my time at Vueling and these 8 steps are just the starting point, there are many many more to go. However, I want to make one thing clear, this is not a step by step guide. Had I approached the task in hand that way, I would have failed. To embed Service Design within an organisation, there is no right or wrong approach, no exact toolset or process. You need to have a plan yes, but be prepared to adapt, make changes and role with it.

The other day I read an excellent post by @BenReason, Founding Partner of Livework. In it he talks about Gonzo Service Design, a term coined from the new journalism of the 60’s. He states that Gonzo Service Design “doesn’t aim to replace good textbook design but to augment it with something a little more raw, essential and engaging.” This is exactly how I have approached this role. Yes, we have stuck to some of the essentials, followed the traditional path of embedding Service Design, but we have also kept it quite raw at times and relied on our intuitions, creativity and most importantly, empathy.

The hope is these 8 steps help paint a picture of what to expect when trying to build these internal Service Design capabilities. They hopefully also point to the fact that it’s not just about delivering Service Design as an internal function, you must also be prepared to take part in and lead organisational change. By doing so, the Service Designers will eventually help facilitate and bring together the disjointedness of these large, traditional organisations so that they eventually move towards a more customer centric culture and new, more efficient models of management.