Utilizing Service Design frameworks and methodologies

This workshop aims to introduce participants to new frameworks and methodologies that will be beneficial when working with external groups, internal teams, or clients.

These methodologies help stretch design scenarios into design responses to those scenarios.

What is a Product Service Map?

A product service map is a dynamic visual tool that helps you understand the interactions between products, services, and stakeholders within a system.

It provides a holistic view of how various components work together to deliver value, especially in the context of creating social impact. By mapping out the relationships, touchpoints, and dependencies, a product service map becomes a powerful guide for designing solutions that address intricate social problems.

Service Design

The session began with breakout groups where the participants introduced themselves and discussed their first service job. A service job can be anything that provides a service to anyone.

Once the participants regrouped, our host, Peter Durand, broke down what is involved in the design of a service.

To do this, he introduced Palmer’s Hot Chicken Restaurant as a case study.

Palmer's Hot Chicken is a family-owned restaurant that started when the owner followed his dream of opening his own restaurant after being in the service industry for years. He works alongside his wife, who operates all the behind-the-scenes and keeps the restaurant running. They own three restaurants, one in Dallas and two in Georgia. They also have two food trucks and run catering services. Their main product is a hot chicken sandwich.

The service of preparing and serving food involves different levels: the front stage, which is what the customer experiences, sees, smells, and hears. The backstage, which is the behind-the-scenes. And the ideas/innovation stage that feeds all of that production.

Participants returned to their breakout groups to discuss the various elements of each stage. Here is what they came up with:

The customer wants to eat Nashville-style fried chicken, has a budget of about $25, and doesn't mind making a mess.

For the Front Stage, the participants listed important factors/happenings: transactions, menu, open seating, the restaurant’s design, cleanliness, what it sounds like when you walk in, and what it smells like.

In the Back Stage are ingredients, equipment, production, information systems, management systems, food storage, insurance, maintenance, and security.

Ideas and innovation consist of the recipe, ways to innovate and prepare food, and the use of QR codes for menus.

It is essential to understand your customer. Who are they, and why are they seeking that service? Are they able to access your service?

Design for Impact

Kevin Starr is the director of the Mulago Foundation, which funds startups in the social enterprise realm. He supplies funds to companies attempting to solve a social problem, a health problem, an energy problem, or a transformation, and builds a business model around that. The goal is to build something that is both sustainable and scalable over time. Through observing him in his work, Peter learned about the design for impact.

According to Starr, you have a need and the potential to grow or scale a sustainable product or service. But can you bridge the gap between the need and the potential?

There are two questions that he forces everyone to answer:

Who needs what you have in terms of the product or service?

Who might use it?

This is where most social sector products and services fail.

Let us deconstruct this.

One company Kevin Starr worked with is called Earth Enable. The co-founders met in their early 20s doing service work as teachers in Rwanda. One major problem they noticed was limited attendance. There were various reasons for this, but the primary cause was illness caused by parasites. So, they began to explore ways to help.

The first question that needed answering was how they were getting these parasites? The answer was through the soil. Many kids were barefoot, and they were contracting the parasites. So they worked to solve this.

The answer came through installing floors. However, this was a significant task to undertake.

Going into breakout groups, the participants took this information to explore/deep dive into the website of Earth Enable to see their design for impact.

In the breakout groups, one person scanned the history and values page, another the products page, and another the impact statement page. Then they came back together to map out what they learned about the service model.

This is the first step in the process.

The second step is mapping out how it needs to be done.

The co-founders of Earth Enable started with understanding parasites. They then moved onto the flooring and into understanding and designing new ways of flooring. Then they had to build a whole business ecosystem of installers and promoters.

Because the Minister was the head of the village and many people visited their house, the co-founders went to the Minister's house and offered to install the flooring for free as a demonstration. The sales soon followed.

Besides this model, the business canvas model (which was discussed in a previous Design Gym session) is a way to lead discussions and map a system from one part of a business to another. From Change Labs, a document has been formulated on the theory of change and how to build an ecosystem for entrepreneurship. Models can be great tools for deepening understanding and refining the service.

Your Host

Peter Durand is an artist, educator, and graphic facilitator in Houston, Texas (USA). He was born in the highlands of Kenya but grew up near the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States. He studied painting, illustration, and printmaking at Washington University in St. Louis, the Cité des Arts in Paris, and the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, Poland. He worked his first DesignShop® in 1996, founded Alphachimp in 1998, and has been involved in growing the practice of graphic recording and facilitation ever since.