22. January 2010 by Aidan.

While I was in San Francisco last week I had the opportunity to attend one of the AIGA’s D.Talks events. The theme of last weeks event was “Crowdsourcing“. The event was well run with Josh Levine of Great-Monday as moderator and a panel consisting of Jason Aiken (99designs.com), Jody Turner (Cultureoffuture.com) and Christopher Simmons (MINE).

The mood in the room (full of graphic designers) was predominantly of gloom over the threat from crowdsourcing websites, such as 99designs.com where you can get a logo designed for about $300. The concern was that this was undermining what these professional designers were offering for 10 times the price. The argument for the crowdsourcing side was that the low price attracts many businesses that would have never paid a designer for a logo and it also allows designers to build a portfolio of work based on the submissions.

It went around in circles for a while but what it ultimately comes down to, as I said on the night, is that when you are buying a logo on a website for $300 you are buying a product. When you work with a designer to develop a logo for your business you are purchasing a service and you are paying a premium to develop a relationship with the designer, work through a design process with them and ultimately end up with a logo that is more meaningful to you and your business. (Of course it may or may not look better than the $300 logo - that’s a matter of taste!).

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8. January 2010 by Aidan.

After lots of input the venue has moved to Lime restaurant and bar on Market St, San Francisco. Here are the details :

Where: Lime, Market St, SF

When: Fri. 15th Jan 2010

What time: starting 6:00-6:30pm

Any questions? contact details below…..

Aidan

Original Post: 

As I am in San Francisco next week I thought it woud be a good idea to try to get some service designers together for a few drinks and a chat. The Service Design Drinks idea follows on from other successful events in locations are diverse as England, Australia and Brazil.

This is just an informal gathering of people interested in service design and design thinking. Why not come along?

As I have no idea how many people will turn up, and with a nod to my home country, I have decided to simply meet up in the one pub (bar) that I usually end up in while I am in the city, Johnny Foleys on O’Farrell Street. If anyone has a better suggestion then please let me know.

So here are the details and all are welcome:

San Francisco (informal) Service Design Drinks

Friday Jan 15th   from 6:30pm

Johnny Foley’s Pub, 243 O’Farrell Street, San Francisco

Lime Bar, Market Street, SF

See you there, I’ll be the Irish guy in the corner! (or you can call me on +353 87 233 44 51 / email: aidan@servitize.com )

Posted in Service Desig, international, General | 2 Comments »

15. December 2009 by Aidan.

Posted in Service Desig, Communication, General | No Comments »

27. November 2009 by Aidan.

Here is a visual tool that I have put together to assist in outlining the key steps in the Service Design process.

The LADDER moves from assessing the LAndscape->Discovery->Design->Evaluation->Roll-out and it captures some of the key tools and thought processes involved along the way.

Here is a PDF version: SD LADDER PDF

Posted in Service Desig, Customer Service, General | No Comments »

4. October 2009 by Aidan.

Here is a collection of some of the Service design related conferences that are scheduled to take place. The problem is deciding which ones to go to. Please add a comment with any others you are aware of, thanks, Aidan.    

• SDN - Service Design Network Conference 2009 
  • Madiera, Portugal.  
  • October 26th, 27th 2009
  • Details    

• First Nordic Service Design & Innovation Conference
  • Oslo, Norway.  
  • November 24th to 26th 2009
  • Details  

•  Service Experience Engineering Forum 2009
  • Taipei, Taiwan
  • October 14th, 15th 2009 
  • Details    

• 2010 International Conference on Service Science
  • Hangzhou, China
  • May 13th, 14th 2010 
  • Details   

• 18th Annual Frontiers in Service Conference
  • Honolulu, Hawaii
  • October 29th to November 1st 2009
  • Details  

• International Association of Societies of Design Research (IASDR)
  • Seoul, Korea
  • October 18th to 22nd
  • Details  

• 11th International Design Conference
  • Dubrovnik, Croatia
  • May 17th to 20th 2010
  • Details

• Design Research Society Conference 2010
  • Montreal, Canada
  • July 7th to 9th 2010
  • Details

• SOLI10 - IEEE International Conference on Service Operations 2010
  • Qingdao, China
  • July 15th to 17th 2010
  • Details

Posted in Service Design in Ireland, Service Desig, international, General | No Comments »

24. September 2009 by Aidan.

I have set up a “Service Design & Innovation - Ireland” group on Linkedin.

Here is the overview from the Linkedin page:

There is a growing international reliance on design in the race to develop radically new, innovative, service offerings.
The demands for Service Innovation are highlighting the need for the practical application of Service Design and Product Servitization techniques.
Ireland is well positioned to play a leading role in the world in these areas however there is no cohesive approach being taken in Ireland to ensure that the experts in these fields are working together towards a common goal.
This group offers practitioners and other interested parties the opportunity to connect and start the discussion about how to move this forward and tap into the opportunities that exist today.

I am looking forward to having interested people join this forum with a view to improving Ireland’s overall standing in the areas of service design and innovation, before it’s too late!

Here is a link to the group page. 

Aidan

Posted in Servitize, Service Desig, Service Design in Ireland, Selling "Services", innovation, consultants, international, General | No Comments »

20. September 2009 by Aidan.

The term “service” is used everyday is discussions about business activities and performance. At times it can be confusing because of the lack of definition in exactly what is meant by the term “service”. In fact, when discussing service it is very important that the context is understood.

There are two main areas of service that are unique and distinct and need to be understood. One helpful way of considering these are as the “service that you provide” and the “services that you offer”.

The “service you provide” covers the interaction of your business with everyone else. It can be the interaction with your customers primarily, but also with your suppliers and your own employees. Every company provides this service by the very nature of being in business (you sell something and you charge for it, you talk to your customers, etc). Anyone who interacts with your company experiences the “service your provide”. To improve customer satisfaction you need to ensure that the level of service you provide is of high quality, responsive and meets your customers needs. Service Design is increasingly being employed to optimise this process and ensure that your service meets or exceeds customer expectations. Essentially, the provision of this service is a cost for your company however the quality of this service can be a differentiator for your business.

The “services you offer” are completely different. These are closer to the product you sell. Essentially they are value added or essential services that you need to actively provide in order to grow your business. In this case it will often be the customers choice whether or not to choose to purchase your service.  These services are value added for your business and can substantially grow your revenue and develop longer term customer relationships. It is critical that these services are designed from the outset and not just drifted into, this is being addressed by the growing field of servitization.

For many companies there can easily be confusion between the service you provide and the services that you offer. These need to be considered as two separate aspects of service (”service” V’s “services”) and there are emerging design techniques and tools that can optimise both.

Posted in Servitize, Service Desig, Selling "Services", Customer Service, innovation, General | No Comments »

21. August 2009 by Aidan.

Despite the fact that services are the main contributor to the Irish economy, the field of service design in Ireland is particularly under developed. There are a few companies practicing in this area but there is certainly room for major improvement in the profile of this sector.

If you are involved in Service Design in Ireland then let me know as I would like to build a network of companies working is this area with a view to raising the profile within Ireland and highlighting the capabilities and experience that exists here to a wider audience.  

Aidan

Posted in Service Design in Ireland, Service Desig, international, consultants, General | No Comments »

21. August 2009 by Aidan.

In a previous blog I suggested that Service Design could become the next Health & Safety. The point I was trying to make is that you need processes, and ultimately a culture, to harness the creativity and innovation within a business in order to be able to implement innovative services. It’s not innovation if you just had an idea, it only really counts if you implemented changes based on that idea.

I came across an interesting article from Business Week magazine from October 2008 in which Mark Jones and Fran Salamionis state that strategies at the frontier of service design need a blend of creativity and discipline. They offer a good 5 step framework for implementing innovation projects successfully.

One key point they make is that innovation is not just a matter of “aha” moments, it needs a process that takes a disciplined approach to identify and execute the most promising ideas.

The article also links to some great work that Ideo did with 1st Source Bank in Indiana. Here is a link directly to the case study.

Posted in Customer Service, Service Desig, innovation, strategy, consultants, General | No Comments »

18. August 2009 by Aidan.

There are two key customer elements in Service Design and they are the customer experience and the customer result. In many cases, as Service Designers, we work to optimise both of these.

From a customer experience perspective we design a customer journey, involving multiple touchpoints, that ensures the service provider is providing the customer with an experience that they will at best enjoy and at least tolerate, in order to reach the end point, which is the result. The result may be the completion of a transaction or it may be the culmination of a process that the customer chose to engage in, for example paying your phone bill or having a massage.

In certain circumstances however, the result may not be something that the service provider can guarantee. For example, when a patient visits a doctor, we can design a service that makes the visit as pleasant as possible however we cannot design the result. We have no control over whether the patient leaves the doctors office feeling good or bad, happy or sad. In a way, the visit itself needs to be minimized in the light of the result that the doctor and patient will need to determine.

In sport too, we cannot design the result. That is the job of the team manager and players. (Although I do think that a more thorough design approach to sport performance can improve results- that’s a blog for another day). So from a customers perspective, the result of attending the game is out of the hands of the service provider and cannot easily be designed. Of course, the experience of attending the game is where the service designers can play a huge role. You can be disappointed by the result but still have a great day out.   

Posted in Service Desig, Customer Service, innovation, General | No Comments »