Designing a service doesn’t have a
set in stone procedure and different service designers have their own methods.
Also labeling the steps of the process is different but overall the mindset is
the same for them all. One can label the process as Discover, Define, Develop, and
Deliver and another can call it Research, Brainstorm, Prototype, Repeat, and
Deliver. This is Service Design Thinking by Marc Stickdorn and
Jakob Schneider introduces these steps as Exploration, Creation, Reflection, and
Implementation.
The First step, which is called Exploration,
requires a lot of research. First the designers need to understand the vision
and goal of the company providing the service. Getting familiar with the organizational
structure and the way the service is being delivered is very important in terms
of understanding the real issue. This leads to the second step in exploration,
which is identifying the real problem. Designers should gain a clear understanding
of the problem from the customer’s point of view. To finish this first step,
designers should visualize all findings and also the underlying structure of
the previous service.
The second step is Creation,
which has a very close relationship with the third step Reflection. In these two
steps the basic idea is to select a concept, design the service, and test it.
This process is an ongoing process until all mistakes been caught. This
procedure might take awhile until troubleshooting and continues testing results
a flawless product. As the book says “one of the main features of service
design thinking is that this approach is not about avoiding mistakes, but
rather to explore as many as possible mistakes.” Making mistakes early in the
process will help the designers to solve the issues before implementation.
The final step is the Implementation, which requires
change management. In this step planning change, implementing change, and
reviewing change as the fundamentals of the change management should be considered. In this process beside customers that the
whole service is designed around them, employees play an important role as the
service deliverers. In ideal situation, employees should be involved from the
beginning of the design process therefore because of their involvement they
would be familiar with the concept and the process. There will be always
unconsidered situations and problems and solving the issues as they occur
quickly and creatively is required for a smooth transition to implementation of
a new service.
About the picture: Service
Designers’ best friend is the sticky-notes! They are simple and quick tools to
visualize the process, show the relations and add new information during the
co-creative process. It is easy to add a step or remove it when everything is visualized
by sticky-notes.
This is Service Design Thinking
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