How did I explain service design to my parents?

"How would you explain service design to your parents? "

This is a question I often ask my Master's students who study service design at the Royal College of Art. At first, they would laugh because, for many of us, it can be impossible to explain exactly what our service design practice is, especially to our parents. However, this challenge may also exist when you are the first one practicing service design in a big organization or when you are trying to apply for a job in another multidisciplinary team. How can we better explain our role in a team? And how do we collaborate better with other disciplines if they don't really understand what we do?

So here are some of my successful attempts to bridge that gap of understanding.

1. Service design is a lot like urban planning.

Imagine a city with a beautiful skyline, easy-to-use commute, inclusive access, and friendly neighbourhoods. Such a city attracts people to visit, work, and raise their families. However, achieving this requires more than just a couple of well-designed landmarks. It requires thoughtful urban planning that considers a combination of factors. In the same way, service design is like urban planning, but for services. It brings all parts of experiences together, from seeing ads to making purchases, from using a product to getting customer support, and from using one service to an eco-system of offerings. It breaks down organisational silos and connects touch-points so that a brand can deliver its promises consistently, building long-lasting customer trust.

2. Service design is a lot like performance.

Instead of comparing service design to painting or sculpting, it's more akin to performance art. Performance artists focus on the process of involving their audience, rather than solely on the end output like a painter or sculptor. Similarly, service design is powerful because of stakeholder involvement in the process. When stakeholders are truly engaged, service design has a deeper impact on delivering positive changes, even if the design artefacts may seem average. Service design relies on storytelling, participatory processes, and other techniques to influence organisational stakeholders to reflect, reimagine, redesign, and restructure outstanding customer experiences. This performance changes the way stakeholders think and ultimately changes the way they behave.

3. Service design is a fusion cuisine.

Just like fusion cuisine, service design has emerged from various disciplines such as service marketing, service operation, and human-centred design. It has been continuously evolving in response to the challenges of our times. I have witnessed great service design practices in design consultancies, management consultancies, brand and marketing agencies, and many other in-house teams, ranging from customer support to product management. Depending on the context, service design has evolved into different styles to address different organizational needs. I'm truly excited to see how these different types of service design will continue to evolve in the future.

How would you explain it to your friends?

What do you think of service design? How would you explain it to your friends or parents? Please leave a comment below, and I'd love to hear from you!

For people, who want to learn more about service design:

If you're interested in getting into service design, I highly recommend taking a short course led by Professor Clive Grinyer (a legend in the design field). It will be a brilliant way to start your journey into service design. You can find the course link here https://www.rca.ac.uk/study/programme-finder/service-design-masterclass/