Service Design
Masterclasses Series
Course content
KEY TOPICS
-
Strategy
-
Anchor experiences
-
Pivotal moments
-
Outcomes
-
Impact measures
Driving Strategy and Creating Value
In order for service designers to be successful, they must understand and drive organizations' strategic priorities. We will explore how designers can help identify the most important service experiences within their organization. You will practice how to choose pivotal moments within a service, and how to balance the needs of service providers and users to create shared value. You will understand how to demonstrate service designs’ impact on strategy.
In this module, we will
-
Speak about the relationship between strategy and service design
-
Engage stakeholders in defining their priorities
-
Understand how to prioritize the most important services within your organization
-
Select pivotal moments within a service to focus resources
-
Understand the relationship and tensions between quantitative and qualitative impacts
-
Create shared value for both organizations and people who use their services
-
Demonstrate how service design supports strategy
Taught by Chris Ferguson
Toronto, Canada
Bridgeable
Chris Ferguson is the founder of the international award winning design studio, Bridgeable. For the last 20 years, he’s led multidisciplinary projects in complex and innovative organizations such as Genentech, Google and the Royal Bank of Canada. Chris currently teaches Service Design to graduate students and leads applied research projects within the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information. His work at Bridgeable has received the Fast Company Innovation by Design Award, DMI Design Value Award, Core77 Design Award, GOOD Design award, NeoCon Award, the Humanitarian International Design Organization Award and the Global Service Design Award for Commercial work. Chris was an editor for the book This is Service Design Doing and the Annual Global Service Design Report. He is on the advisory boards for Global LEAP Dialogues, MaRS Technology Procurement by Co-design and The World Design Summit.
Ready to discover Chris' module, as well as 7 others within the Masterclasses Series?
Mastering Creative Facilitation
Participants learn how to start with preparing a creative session and are handed a convenient checklist for that. This checklist covers practical issues such as location, Miro boards, setting the stage, creating a script and picking the right tools. Furthermore we will discuss how to put together an interdisciplinary team and what that means for the session.
We will talk about different aspects of group dynamics and your own role as a service designer and how to handle the ‘urge’ you might feel to jump in and help the group coming up with new ideas, while you should actually guide them in doing so themselves.
Lastly we discuss how you can set goals for yourself as a facilitator and how you can create and lead a successful session, regardless of the outcomes.
KEY TOPICS
-
Power of check-ins
-
Checklist preparation
-
Creating a script
-
Group dynamics
-
Picking the right (interdisciplinary) team
-
Managing different ‘hats’
-
Picking the right tools
-
Facilitating for success
Taught by Julia Alberga
SDN Accredited Master Trainer
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Alberga Consultancy & Radical Research
Julia Alberga works as a service designer, UX consultant and researcher in Amsterdam, where she founded Alberga Consultancy in 2017 and Radical Research in 2021. She helps companies, mainly within the public sector, to create services that evolve around citizens and not the other way around. Besides doing tailored research and service design projects, Julia gives workshops and seminars on those subjects, helping others to adopt the human-centered design mindset by giving them facilitation and co-creation tools. In doing so she hopes that the companies and individuals she works with are inspired and motivated to take it to the next step and continue the change that she helped create.
Ready to discover Julia's module, as well as 7 others within the Masterclasses Series?
KEY TOPICS
-
Understanding the power of Large Language Models (LLMs) and Agents
-
Recognizing that AI is not a standalone product but an infrastructure technology
-
Problem framing for AI: Is it predictive or generative? Do we need AI?
-
Designing services with AI as a core material
-
Prototyping a service solution using AI tools.
Designing Services with AI
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming industries, and the service sector is no exception. This course equips you with the knowledge and skills to harness AI's potential in revolutionizing service offerings. Discover how these technologies can streamline processes, enhance customer experiences, and unlock new business opportunities.
Going beyond the hype, we'll unravel AI as an infrastructure technology – a versatile tool that can be seamlessly integrated into existing systems. You'll learn how to frame problems for AI, distinguishing between predictive and generative AI, and determine when AI is the right solution.
Through hands-on exercises, you'll gain practical experience prototyping service processes using free AI tools. By the end of this course, you'll be able to confidently assess the potential of AI in your own service context, make informed decisions about its implementation, and embark on your journey to transform your services with the power of AI.
Taught by Mauro Rego
Berlin, Germany
Mauro is a Berlin-based designer currently using AI models to help people learn. He combines a deep understanding of service design with knowing how and where to best apply AI. He currently works for Google and is a trainer and speaker on the topic. His previous experience includes design consulting and in-house design roles at SAP and Telekom, with clients such as Airbus, Allianz, Raiffeisen Bank, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Wired.
Ready to discover Mauro's module, as well as 7 others within the Masterclasses Series?
Systems Thinking and Designing for Sustainability
Systems Thinking enables you to move beyond an event or data-oriented approach to sustainability, to identifying trends and patterns of behavior over time, to surfacing the underlying structures that generate these events and patterns. As a result, you will be able to fine-tune and improve your mental models and design high leverage policy interventions for sustainable design.
By the end of this module you will be able to:
-
Apply basic systems thinking principles in a practical way to the decision making process within the context of sustainability
-
Refine and improve the current tools, models and canvases used in designing sustainable initiatives in ways that they reflect the systemic perspective
-
Explore the differences between analytical versus holistic thinking in dealing with sustainability initiatives
KEY TOPICS
-
Feedback loops, nonlinear dynamics and circularity in complex systems
-
Systemic structures and systems behavior for understanding the complexity of transformation towards sustainability
-
Pattern and lateral thinking for sustainable design
Taught by Dr Arash Golnam
Lima, Peru
Arash completed his Ph.D. in Systems Science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), holds a Master of Science in System Dynamics from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), and is a Psychoanalyst with training from the CG Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. His experience includes working as a system dynamicist on large scale simulation platforms of socio-technical systems in urban dynamics and circular economy. Arash teaches systems thinking and system dynamics at universities in Switzerland, where he has been awarded as the distinguished member of the faculty several times.
Ready to discover Arash's module, as well as 7 others within the Masterclasses Series?
Guest Expert: Dr Milla Mäkinen
Helsinki, Finland
Based in Finland, Milla is a change designer and facilitator, and service designer teacher and researcher, with a focus on sustainability
KEY TOPICS
-
Rapid prototyping and guerrilla research
-
Challenging assumptions and the founder mindset
-
Working with the Business Model Canvas and Value Proposition Canvas
-
Minimum Viable Service
-
Prioritization
-
Storytelling and demos to support pitching and funding
Designing Ventures: Innovation and Start-ups
Working with start-ups, or in contexts such as innovation labs, accelerator programs or incubators, offers a different set of challenges compared to the larger organizations in which service designers typically work. However even new business initiatives within larger organizations can offer the same circumstances, when they are positioned correctly.
In this module you’ll learn how to adapt your existing skills - as well as pick up some new ones - to allow you to support start-ups and ventures. These come not only from familiar service design territory (the value of journey mapping and personas, for example) but also from adjacent fields such as business design and design research.
Taught by Jesse Grimes
Jesse is an expert-level independent service designer, with sixteen years’ experience in the field. In addition, he has been an interaction designer, customer experience consultant and design strategist since 1998, having worked in London, Düsseldorf and Sydney. He’s now based in Amsterdam and works for clients nationally and internationally. Jesse’s work includes a wide range of global brands, including ING, ABN AMRO, Rabobank, Yara, Philips, Optus, Vodafone, Orange and AkzoNobel, as well as the Dutch government. He has specific expertise in service design for the financial sector and for start-ups and innovation contexts, as well as being a coach, trainer and workshop facilitator. Alongside his own consultancy activities, Jesse is Senior Vice President of the global Service Design Network (SDN), and Editor-in-Chief of its journal, Touchpoint. He is also accredited as a “Service Design Master Trainer” and co-founder and Head of Training of the SDN Academy. Jesse regularly organizes and speaks at national and international events for the service design community, contributes to the development of the service design discipline through his writing, speaking and interviews. He runs a Meetup of 1,200+ service designers across the Netherlands, and represented the entire discipline of service design at the 2017 World Design Summit and 2019 Design Declaration Summit, having established partnerships between the SDN and other international design organizations to elevate the role and recognition of design - and service design - world-wide.
Ready to discover Jesse's module, as well as 7 others within the Masterclasses Series?
Prototyping and Successful Implementation
Effective prototyping is a crucial skill for service designers, and there are numerous ways to trial and experiment with services at the conceptual stage, and before development really begins. From low-fidelity prototypes, such as sketches, storyboards, and role-playing scenarios, through to high-fidelity prototypes with clickable interfaces, you'll learn hands-on methods to help you quickly test and refine your ideas with real users, ensuring that your solutions are aligned with their needs from the very beginning.
You'll also learn how to work rapidly and iteratively, making sure that your design process stays flexible and responsive to feedback. Beyond just learning how to prototype, this module will equip you to ensure your service design projects are successful in the real world. You'll learn about key factors in successful implementation, such as gaining stakeholder alignment, integrating feedback continuously, and thinking about scalability.
KEY TOPICS
-
Choosing the right fidelity for your prototype
-
Prototyping online, offline and hybrid experiences
- Roleplaying and additional techniques
- The success factors for successful implementation
Taught by Markus Edgar Hormeß
Markus Edgar Hormeß is a service innovator and organisational consultant from Germany. For years, the qualified scientist and accomplished musician has worked in telecommunication, engineering, banking and IT fields, helping companies to improve complex services and to make them more customer friendly. Markus is co-founder of WorkPlayExperience, and co-initiator of the Global Service Jam - the world’s biggest ever service design event (so far). He is a co-author of the top selling book, This is Service Design Doing.
Ready to discover Markus' module, as well as 7 others within the Masterclasses Series?
KEY TOPICS
-
Introduction to change management
-
Key change management models (Lewin’s, Kotter’s, ADKAR)
-
Principles of change
-
Human-centered and collaborative approaches to change
-
Leadership competencies
-
Practical tools for effective change management
-
Strategies for stakeholder engagement and communication
-
Managing resistance to change
-
Case studies of successful service design transformations
Leading Teams and Organizational Change
In the dynamic world of service design, managing organizational change is crucial for driving innovation and achieving success. The "Leading Service Design and Organizational Change" module provides participants with the essential skills and knowledge to lead transformative projects within their organizations.
Participants will explore change management models such as Lewin’s, Kotter’s, and ADKAR, focusing on their application in service design. The module emphasizes systemic change principles specifically tailored to service design processes. Learners will understand human-centered and collaborative approaches, learning to create an environment that promotes continuous innovation and teamwork.
The module covers key leadership competencies and skills essential for service design, providing practical tools for managing change effectively. Real-world case studies will be analyzed to draw valuable insights and best practices.
Effective communication and stakeholder engagement strategies will be a core focus, helping participants secure support and manage resistance throughout the change process. By the end of the module, participants will be equipped to develop and implement comprehensive change management plans aligned with service design principles.
Taught by Dr Tina Weisser
SDN Accredited Master Trainer
Munich, Germany
Service Design Professor at MUC.DAI - Munich Center for Digital Sciences and AI at University of Applied Science Munich
Prof Dr Tina Weisser holds a professorship in Service Design at MUC.DAI - Munich Center for Digital Sciences and AI at University of Applied Science Munich and works as a management consultant for more than 20 years. Her research and professional activities focus on service design implementation, change management and leadership.
Ready to discover Tina's module, as well as 7 others within the Masterclasses Series?
Pitching, Selling and Getting Buy-In
Whether pitching a client or gaining buy-in from stakeholders, telling the story of your ideas and work and landing it with the audience is essential.
This module draws upon the fundamentals of storytelling and shows how to use them to shape project proposals, presentations and pitches that land with your intended audience.
Using plenty of examples from design, participants will be introduced to useful frameworks and quick rules of thumb that can be immediately applied to daily work. You will work on the narrative structure of a pitch presentation, present it, and then iterate on that structure to hone the story, message and add supporting elements.
KEY TOPICS
-
The anatomy of stories and narrative – the form and the message
-
The importance of storytelling in design and business
-
Using the right type of presentation for the right situation and audience
-
Using 'The Hand' method as a way to structure your pitch and presentation
-
Selling without selling
-
Gaining stakeholder buy-in for service design
-
Crafting a proposal vs a pitch presentation
-
The importance of iteration and practice
Taught by Dr Andy Polaine
Dr Andy Polaine is a design leadership coach, educator and writer helping clients transform their organisations and themselves. He co-authored Service Design: From Insight to Implementation and has three decades of design and innovation experience across a broad range of industries. He co-leads the MA Service Design at the Hochschule Luzern.
Ready to discover Andy's module, as well as 7 others within the Masterclasses Series?
Guest Expert: Jess Leitch
San Francisco, USA
Jess is Managing Director for Frog in North America and her international experience includes both Idean and PwC. She has previously taught at the Royal College of Art.
