Service Design Tools in Product Management
A while ago, I wrote an article called 5.5 things I’ve learnt as a Product Manager. I’ve learnt a bit more since then; so I’d like to share a little bit about some tools I learned at Hyper Island that have helped get me through each project.
These tools have translated well into my Product Management process (particularly for research and insight discovery) — so I’d like to share them.
“Sharing is caring.” — Mom, 1997.
But first, what is Service Design?
In a nutshell, it’s an approach to designing services (or products) with all efforts focused on improving the interaction between the customer and the service provider.
It relies on Design Thinking principles and an interdisciplinary approach to research. This makes the tools and methodologies relevant when you’re trying to figure out how to build the right product for the right market — and how best to design for all stakeholders.
Essentially, building a service or a product that is human-first.
So, here are 3 tools that I’ve used the most:
1. The Bullseye
The Bullseye for context and stakeholder mapping.
Stakeholder mapping comes in many forms but I find this to be one of the simplest ways to get started. The Bullseye gives a clear overview of everyone who would be in touch with the product. Whether big or small.
Whether or not you have enough information, it’s a good way to begin framing the conversation. You can always tweak it later as you discover more through your research.
How does this work?
Start with the customer in the centre and work outwards. At the end you should have a stakeholder map that briefly represents the environment that your business would like to operate in.
Core:
This circle is small because we want to drive focus. Write down the main stakeholder that is impacted by the problem you’re trying to solve.
Example: People driving to and from Kuala Lumpur.
Direct:
This circle is to include all stakeholders who might fall under the Core category.
Example: Students, Visitors, Working Adults, Ride Sharing Drivers, Residents from surrounding cities.
Indirect:
This circle includes stakeholders that might cross paths with the stakeholders from the “Core” or “Direct” category, but are not necessarily the group you are solving the problem for.
Example: Urban Planners, Public Transport Services (LRT/MRT etc.), Uber, GrabCar, Local Newspapers, Car Salesmen, Traffic Police.
2. Personas
For empathising and internalising the user’s experience.
Personas really help me when trying to understand the motivations of the customer. The idea with Personas is to create an exaggeration (within reason, of course) of a person who might use your product. This allows you to plot what kind of likely behaviours people have when interacting with your product.
It also allows the team to really take on the customer’s problems and empathise with them.
How does this work?
Hopefully, you’ve spoken to some people from your Bullseye stakeholder map and have done some general chatting or interviews with them.
To start, using this information, identify 3–5 key personalities from your sample.
- Name them! :D
- Draw what they might look like.
- Throw in some key words or phrases of what they might say, think, do or feel.
Example:
Elaine binti Puah-Theseira
25 y.o.
Works at KLCC (city centre).
Does:
She drives to work at 6am to beat the traffic.
Thinks:
“My job is great but I’m so tired of waking up early every single day. The LRT stop is too far from home and work. Maybe I should move to town?”
Feels:
Tired and stressed.
3. Emotional Customer Journey Map
To identify gaps and opportunities in the user’s experience.
A lot of the time, when we get a complaint or we can’t quite figure out why a feature is not being used, it’s easy to say:
“Our customers are so stupid. Don’t they know how to do this?!”
Maybe sometimes the answer is that we’re not really solving their problem.
So, this is an Emotional Customer Journey Map (no, it’s not a map that cries or listens to Radiohead). It’s a map that helps you plot the emotional journey of your customer at every touchpoint where they interact with your service or product.
How does this work?
First, plot the touch points of your product on a chart. It can be similar to the one above, but there are many other versions you can find on the internet.
Next, gather the people who fall under your Personas and/or gather a random sample of your customers.
Invite them to plot their emotion as dots on the chart while using your product on the map: whether Positive, Neutral or Negative.
Next, literally connect the dots.
Combining the information from several maps, you should be able to see a trend of what your customers’ experiences are when using your product; further helping you to identify gaps or opportunities for your next move.
So that’s it!
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If you’re interested, here are some resources you might like:
For more on tools, information and examples, check out: www.servicedesigntools.org.
In accompaniment, I highly recommend reading This is Service Design Thinking by Marc Stickdorn and Jakob Schneider. If you already know some of the tools, then this is a great catalogue of case studies and a guide on how to apply the processes/tools/principles to your projects.
Alternatively, if you want to support local Design Thinkers you could take a trip to www.genovasimalaysia.com where they run workshops and training sessions.
Or come say hi to us at VLT Labs, because we’re nice and we build stuff.
