Service Design Show

Have you ever thought about... What a therapist, a grandma, and an organ donor teach you about service design? I know, this might sound like the start of a strange joke, but it gets to the heart of a big truth about our work. We invest a lot of time perfecting our journey maps, blueprints, and personas. But as we know, the challenges we work on won't be solved by a deliverable. They're solved through invisible "tools" like subtle influence, creating space for others, and building strategic relationships. So, where do you find these tools? Well, this episode is a great start. This episode is part of our "Inside Service Design" series, where we explore the real, unpolished practice of driving change from within organizations. And just like in the previous episodes you get to hear two brilliant in-house professionals, share some of their most powerful, non-traditional strategies. This time we're joined by Irina Damascan and Gina Mendolia. Gina walks us through her concept of "Setting the Trap" for engagement, and how she draws inspiration from the roles of therapists, coaches, and even grandmas to master the art of creating space and enabling teams to connect the dots themselves. Irina introduces a powerful model for influence she calls the "Organ Donor Chain," a strategic way to build networks of reciprocity by doing "favors" that enable change across the organization, often in unexpected ways. I have to say, it was refreshing to hear about effective mental models that go beyond design-as-usual, which aren't just theories but truly help to design better services. Want to add some (unconventional) tools that help you drive change to your toolkit? Grab your notebook and join us for this conversation. What's the most unconventional place you've found inspiration for your work? Maybe a different profession, a hobby, a movie? Share your inspiration in the comments on YouTube and let's continue the conversation there. Keep making a positive impact! ~ Marc --- [ 1. GUIDE ] --- 00:00 Welcome to the May Round Up! 05:00 Irina's path to service design 07:45 Gina's service design journey 09:00 Gina defines success 11:00 Irina defines success 17:00 Challenges Gina tackles 19:00 Irina's service design role 24:45 Gina's dinner table session 29:30 Adding inspiration 30:30 Irina's session insights 40:30 Gina's life-simplifying tactics 45:45 In-house misconceptions 51:00 How Gina measures success 56:00 Advice for younger Irina 58:30 Irina shares an example 1:03:00 Gina's motivation 1:04:30 Questions to ponder --- [ 2. LINKS ] --- * https://www.linkedin.com/in/irinadamascan/ [ https://www.linkedin.com/in/irinadamascan/] * https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginamendolia/ [ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginamendolia/] --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] --- Join our private community for in-house service design professionals. ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle [https://www.servicedesignshow.com/circle/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=episode_description&utm_id=insideservicedesign&utm_term=insideservicedesign&utm_content=ep_03_may]

Ever feel like your most crucial work goes unnoticed? Just like the essential "cooling fluid" of a car, much of service design's impact—making teams efficient and processes smooth—operates in the background. But when it's missing, chaos erupts. In this episode, our guest Kat Thackray dive into the invisible, yet vital, work that drives true change in service design. We'll explore why this intangible effort is often overlooked, what it actually looks like in practice, and actionable ways to gain the recognition and resources you deserve. If you're tired of your crucial contributions being taken for granted, this episode is your roadmap to getting that unseen work finally recognized. Enjoy the conversation, and keep making that positive, even if sometimes invisible, impact! ~ Marc --- [ 1. GUIDE ] --- 00:00 Welcome to Episode 229 04:15 Who is Kat Thackray 05:00 The Consultant's Dilemma 07:45 Kat's "Aha!" Moment: Prioritizing People 10:30 Painful Status Quo of Teamwork 15:00 Why Organizations Overlook "Soft Skills" 19:00 How COVID-19 Shifted Design Focus 21:00 Bridging Strategy & Delivery 26:30 The Need for Team Coaches 29:00 The "Ted Lasso" Effect 32:00 Expanding the Designer's Toolkit 34:45 Jack of All Trades vs Specialized Expert 35:45 Unpacking the "Golden Thread" of Collaboration 40:45 Practical Steps for Healthier Team Dynamics 43:45 Navigating Tricky Power Dynamics 47:45 Recognizing Team Vulnerabilities 51:15 The New Skills Emerging in Design 51:45 Empowering Your Team Members 53:45 Connect & Learn More: Resources 55:15 Kat's Final Advice for Designers 57:15 A Question to Ponder --- [ 2. LINKS ] --- * LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinethackray [https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinethackray ] * https://the-shift.ghost.io/ [https://the-shift.ghost.io/ ] * https://www.peopleequalspurpose.com/ [https://www.peopleequalspurpose.com/ ] * Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (Book) [https://a.co/d/hxVmlU9] --- [ 3. FIND THE SHOW ON ] --- * YouTube ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/229-youtube [https://go.servicedesignshow.com/229-youtube] * Apple ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/229-apple [https://go.servicedesignshow.com/229-apple] * Snipd ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/229-snipd [https://go.servicedesignshow.com/229-snipd] * Other (RSS) ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/229-other [https://go.servicedesignshow.com/229-other] --- [ 4. CIRCLE ] --- Join our private community for in-house service design professionals. ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle [https://www.servicedesignshow.com/circle/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=episode_description&utm_id=servicedesignshow&utm_term=v4&utm_content=ep_229]

It's time to continue our journey... In episode 1 of the Journey Management Playbook we pinpointed a key business challenge that we want to tackle. The focus of episode 2 was all about gathering qualitative and quantitative data to understand the 'what' and the 'why'. But now comes the big question: How do you transform all that valuable material into clear insights and identify the opportunities that will actually make a tangible impact, fast? Where should you even start to make sense of it all and prioritize your efforts? This is where the rubber meets the road, and it's exactly what we address in episode 3. We're diving into the crucial first steps of structuring and scoping. Just like in the past episodes, we're joined again by Tingting Lin from TheyDo, who shows us how to take our raw data and, with AI as our powerful co-pilot, quickly generate an initial, structured journey map. This episode helps you understand how to: Take your raw qualitative data (like survey responses or interview notes) and use AI to generate an initial, structured customer journey map Begin making sense of AI-generated insights by understanding different insight types and how to initially prioritize them. Enrich an existing journey structure with new data using AI, effectively showing how to augment prior work with fresh insights. Our goal with this whole series is to help you use journey management to make tangible impact faster, and as you'll see AI is a great tool to accelerate this process. Important Note: This episode features a lot of screen sharing as we build a journey live inside TheyDo. So to get the most out of it, I highly recommend watching the video version on YouTube or having the accompanying slides (link in the show notes) handy if you're listening to the podcast edition. Enjoy and keep driving that positive change. ~ Marc [ RESOURCES ] * Playbook Slides - https://go.servicedesignshow.com/0nz_4 [https://go.servicedesignshow.com/0nz_4] * Sign up for TheyDo - https://www.theydo.com [https://go.servicedesignshow.com/scjwb] [ GUIDE ] 00:00 Episode 3: What to Expect 02:30 Introducing Theydo & Tingting's 06:00 The Big Picture 07:30 Episode 2 Recap 08:30 Offboarding Sources 09:30 The Goodbye Email Data 12:00 Working with Unstructured Data 13:30 Miro Board: Structuring Insights 14:30 First Step in Journey Management 15:00 Generating a Journey with AI 18:00 Starting a New Journey in Theydo 20:00 AI-Generated Journey from Scratch 23:00 Enriching an Existing Journey 31:00 Blank Slate 36:00 Collaborating with AI: Verifying Insights 42:00 Check Mapped Insights 46:00 Workspace Insights Overview 49:00 3 Ways Prioritizing Verification 50:00 Prioritizing with Pain, Gain & Observations 51:30 Starting with Pain Points 1:04:00 Bonus Questions from Previous Episode [ RSS LINKS ] * 🍿 YouTube ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/journey-management-playbook-03-youtube [https://go.servicedesignshow.com/journey-management-playbook-03-youtube ] * 🎧 Spotify ~https://go.servicedesignshow.com/journey-management-playbook-03-spotify [https://go.servicedesignshow.com/journey-management-playbook-03-spotify ] * 🍏 Apple ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/journey-management-playbook-03-apple [https://go.servicedesignshow.com/journey-management-playbook-03-apple] * ✂️ Snipd ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/journey-management-playbook-03-snipd [https://go.servicedesignshow.com/journey-management-playbook-03-snipd] * 🎙️ Other ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/journey-management-playbook-03-other [https://go.servicedesignshow.com/journey-management-playbook-03-other]

Why does doing good service design often feel like an uphill battle... Okay, I'm on a mission this year to find the best recipe for BBQ Chicken Wings (recommendations are welcome, by the way). Over the weekend, I was experimenting with a new one (I'd give it an 8.5/10), and then it struck me. I can have the most delicious recipe, but if my guests turn out to be vegetarian, we spontaneously decide to go out for dinner, or the kids are just tired of eating chicken again, it won't matter. No one will appreciate my tasty chicken wings, no matter how hard I try. And obviously, the problem isn't with the recipe itself. Well, you might be surprised how often this exact scenario plays out in our work in service design. We pour our hearts and souls into crafting solutions that should create a positive impact on users and our organizations. Yet, somehow, a lot (maybe most?) of these well-designed solutions never actually see the light of day. Is it because they are bad solutions? Assuming you know what you're doing, most likely not. So, there must be something else going on. Are there other critical success factors (like knowing your guests are vegetarian) that we tend to overlook when we're so focused on perfecting the "recipe"? It turns out there are (which probably isn't a huge surprise to many of us). So what are these other success factors? And most importantly, how do we understand them and maybe even turn them in our favour? That's what we discuss in this episode with our returning guest, Brad Alphonso. Brad has led numerous service design initiatives from the initial idea all the way through to implementation inside a large, regulated, and pretty complex organization. He's open about the fact that not all of these initiatives had the impact he hoped for, but over the years, his success rate has gone up significantly. In this episode, we look back and reflect: Was it luck? Was there a magic breakthrough, or did the 'game' itself change somehow for him? So if you want to move the needle with your work, instead of it feeling like a constant struggle, this episode offers important clues – around understanding your organisation's real momentum and how decisions actually get made – that could help you navigate much more effectively. This conversation made me reflect on the fact that I see so many talented service design "players" out there. And I do wonder how many of us are, at times, playing the wrong game... let's try not to be that person. Keep making a positive impact! Take care, ~ Marc --- [ 1. GUIDE ] --- 00:00 Welcome to Episode 228 04:00 Brad's hopes for the conversation 06:00 Challenges in Brad's role 09:30 Business challenges 11:00 What gives teams headaches 13:00 Service design definition 15:00 Current operating systems 20:30 Importance of service design 24:45 Problem ownership 27:00 Alternative O.S. for solving wicked problems 30:00 Types of tools used 32:00 Strategy document examples 33:00 Three questions to ask your CFO 34:30 What is "good enough"? 36:30 Observing changes in your work 39:45 Tools for clarifying the operating system 42:00 Avoiding naivety 45:00 Winning the 'game' as a toolkit 47:00 What are we missing? 49:00 Obvious next steps - idea to inception 53:00 Why some projects fail 55:00 Pitfall perspective - pre-mortem activity 56:30 Summary of the Alternative O.S. 58:00 Question to ponder --- [ 2. LINKS ] --- * https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-alphonso [https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-alphonso] --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] --- Join our private community for in-house service design professionals. ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle [https://www.servicedesignshow.com/circle/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=episode_description&utm_id=228&utm_term=v3&utm_content=servicedesignshow]

Are they lying to us... You often hear people say that driving change as an in-house service design professional often feels less like a sprint and more like a marathon, right? But let's be honest, that's not quite true. In reality, it's more like running an ultra-marathon (and some more). We all know that "tangible" progress in service design can sometimes feel slow and far removed. Often, the real challenge isn't about which tools, methods, or frameworks you use. It’s about keeping your internal flame burning and maintaining momentum inside the organization, especially when things get tough. But here's the good news: some professionals have found ways to play the long game successfully. So, how do you sustain your energy, passion, and impact when the work feels like a long-distance race (without a clear path and unknown finish line)? That's what this new episode is all about. It’s part of our new series where we dive into the actual, unpolished practice of in-house service design. For this conversation, I was joined by two experienced professionals, Linn Jansson and James Field. They are both deep in the daily realities of this work and truly get what the "in-house marathon" feels like. Linn and James share some honest insights – not just about their diverse journeys into service design, but specifically about how they navigate these long-term challenges and, crucially, how they keep their motivation high. In this episode, you'll discover where they find their 'fuel', including: The power of supportive teams and communities. The importance of recognizing those small (but mighty!) wins. How they’ve learned to see and appreciate the long-term shifts they are making, even when it's tough to notice day-to-day. So, if you're looking for some encouragement, practical perspectives on resilience, or simply the reassurance that you're not running this marathon alone, I think you'll get a lot from this episode. And on that note, I'm curious: What keeps you motivated when you're deep in the in-house design marathon? Hit reply and let me know. Enjoy the conversation and keep making a positive impact! Take care, ~ Marc --- [ 1. GUIDE ] --- 00:00 In-house Service Design Realities 03:30 Linn's Journey 06:00 James's Journey 07:30 Defining Success 09:00 Linn's Success View 10:30 Measuring Progress 14:00 James on Influence 17:00 Measuring Enablement 18:30 Articulating Value 22:00 Why IMGD Helps 23:45 James on Influence 26:45 Org Influencing Designers 27:45 James's Sales Example 29:00 Keeping Design Sensibility 34:00 Misconceptions about SD 37:30 Linn's In-house Challenges 38:00 Linn on Failure 42:00 Gentle Activism 46:00 What to Strive For 48:30 Learning More 49:30 James's Motivation 52:30 Linn's Motivation 54:30 James's Final Point 55:00 Linn's Final Say --- [ 2. LINKS ] --- * https://www.linkedin.com/in/linn-jansson [https://www.linkedin.com/in/linn-jansson] * https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesadamfield/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesadamfield/ ] --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] --- Join our private community for in-house service design professionals. ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle [https://www.servicedesignshow.com/circle/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=episode_description&utm_id=002&utm_content=insideservicedesign]