“So you want to be a service designer” by Jamin Hegeman
Inspired by the blog post So you want to be an interaction designer by Robert Reimann in his talk Jamin Hegeman at Productized Conference 2016 addresses what service designer job looks like, and the future of service design. Service design is no longer new or unknown. The practice is maturing as service design firms gain experience and organizations start to bring service design in house. Journey maps are all the rage, and everyone is talking about designing for the end to end customer experience. So what does it take to be a great service designer? What need do service designers address? What is the craft of service design? How might you build service design into your team?
Jamin believes in the power of design to shape human experience and transform services, organizations, and communities. He is a designer, poet, soccer player, and brewer with expertise in service design and customer experience and here is Jamin’s 5-point recipe in case you want to be a service designer:
Making Service Design
Service design is about finding a way to connect with meaning. Thinking about what is a service: products of economic activity that you can’t drop on your foot, ranging from hairdressing to websites. When we talking about Products and Product Design maybe we really talking about Services.
Co-value or why service design needs to deliver value to people that it is trying to serve and to the business because otherwise they won’t be able to sustain the promise of the service.
Your process might follow the following steps, doing research talking with the different stakeholders, understanding the customer journey and using that to come up with ideas that give place to your service storyboard or movie, that allow to create a service blueprint that provides an inventory of what you need to make that service a reality.
Service design gives shape to experiences that have no form.
How to you See the World
You’ll need to connect the dots to make a service experience. If you are doing any work in the future of Hotel experience you should check out CitizemM Hotel chains.
The principles you follow should be about being…
…Human centred
Why is human centred on this list? [Service Design] It’s design. Of course it’s human centred. But [the truth is] that we are not always behaving in a human centred way. So we need to keep reminding ourselves.
…Co-creative
Create stories means involving your customers giving them tools to express what they need.
…Sequenced
Some journey maps have an emotional state graph. But, they don’t have to.
…Visual
You should be able to model physical relationships but, most importantly it’s about making people understand beyond the requirements and relating to the experience.
…Holistic
Map the entire eco-system if you can.
Your Journey
What if there is the role Service Experience Officer? In typical companies none owns the product or service experience from end to end. So, what if someone could be accountable for delivering on the story? If you want to become one, you can:
- Read the books: ServiceDesignBooks.org
- Learn the tools: ServiceDesignTools.org
- Go to conferences: https://productized-service.eventbrite.com
- Go back to school (in Lisbon): http://dxd.belasartes.ulisboa.pt/
- Bring the tools to your own job, do a customer journey map, or a blueprint.
Blueprints are the gateway drug to service design. Because operation folks get it.
6. Go to workshops. Get into the community.
7. Build your skills and develop your craft.
Because if you want to be a service designer the world needs you.
Couldn’t attend? Check out the slides to Jamin’s keynote below!
About Jamin Hegeman
Jamin believes in the power of design to shape human experience and transform services, organizations, and communities. He is a designer, poet, soccer player, and brewer with expertise in service design and customer experience. He supports and mentors designers to develop their craft, while helping businesses articulate service strategy and define transformative service experiences that benefit customers, employees, and the business.
As design director at Adaptive Path, he lead the service design practice and worked to scale the practice enterprise wide at Capital One. He also directed Adaptive Path’s Service Experience conference. As a principal of Service Design Network, he has helped the Service Design Network grow and influence thousands of designers and business leaders around the world. His work and ideas have appeared in the book, This Is Service Design Thinking. He shares his knowledge and experience through speaking, writing, and teaching.
About Productized Masterclasses
The Productized Masterclasses are 2 days of hands-on masterclasses and insightful keynote speakers. On 27 & 28 May you’ll enjoy 4 masterclasses of your choice, get practical tips, and network with your peers. Come and meet Dan Olsen, Kandis O’Brien, Radhika Dutt, Ken Sandy, or Daniel Zacarias, among many others and get ready to be inspired to learn more about Enterprise Product and Consumer Product! SAVE THE DATE — MAY 27–28 2021
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