Positioning Service Design within Social Organizations: the Poliferie case

The role of Service Design in the Social Economy,
through an action-research approach on a case study.
POSITIONING
SERVICE DESIGN
WITHIN SOCIAL
ORGANISATIONS
THE POLIFERIE CASE
Riccardo Agosto
Master Degree Thesis in PSSD

Table of Contents
• Genesis
• Methodology
• Background Research
• Field Research
• Project
• Conclusions
RICCARDO AGOSTO → POSITIONING SERVICE DESIGN WITHIN SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS → JULY 24TH, 2020

The Poliferie Case
I’ve joined Poliferie
during the summer
of 2018, when it was no
more than a group of
about 10 people
with a project in mind.

What is Poliferie?
Poliferie is and Italian nonproﬁt organization
operating in the educational industry.
Its aim is to reduce inequalities of opportunities
for peripheral high-school students.

Observation Perspective
Internal and cross-team.
My role in the association:
• General Design manager;
• Task-force for orientation;
• Design support for vertical team;

Research Question
What could be the role of Service Design
in connecting organisation
and service levels
in a small-medium social organisation?

Action-ResearchAction Research Interacting Spiral
Adapted from STRINGER (2013)

Overall Process: Triple Diamond

The Pestoff Triangle
A simple description for the social
economy is the generation of goods and
services through entrepreneurial risk-
taking - as it happens in the private
market, but with associative or voluntary
organisation models to create public
beneﬁt rather than revenues solely - as
the public sector behaves
Adapted from THOMPSON (2020)

Social Organisations Challenges
• Social impact KPIs and economical tension
at scale;
• Rely heavily on volunteering and miss to
translate business practices;
• Business model change ﬁnd a sustainable
model to impact.
Leung et Al.(2019), Davies & Doherty (2018), Tykkylainen & Ritala (2020), Islam (2020)

• Structure of the organization;
• Competencies of the individuals;
• Process designed to reach the goals.
Organizational Layers and Change

Adapted from JONES (2013)
Organizational Theory,
Structure, Culture, Design and Change.

Adapted from STICKDORN, LAWRENCE and SCHNEIDER (2018)
Service Design Principles

Adapted from JUNGINGER and SANGIORGI (2009)
Levels Of Potential Impact Of Service Design Projects

Social Organisation Quadfecta
Designed from BROWN (2009), JONES (2013), THOMPSON (2020), et Al.

Service Spectrum
Designed from OSTERWALDER & PIGNEUR (2010), SHOSTACK (1984), SERVICE DESIGN TOOLS, et Al.

Research Matrix

Framework
Is the organisation level connected
to the service level in Poliferie?
Which are the main challenges evinced?

Dataset
• 2 unstructured 1-to-1 interviews;
• 2 general feedback calls;
• 2 lectures from the Poliferie’s curriculum;
• 8 weekly meetings of the task-force.

Analysis

Insights
• Service and organisation levels
are deeply connected;
• The same challenges could report
problems in different areas, making
the solution needed systemic.
• Service design roles could go beyond
the direct support to the service
offering.
• The main concerns are clarity of
internal communication, engagement
with students, management of the
volunteers, offering improvements,
long-term economical and impact
sustainability.

Framework
Which are the challenges in each area
and how are they connected in complex problems
that the organisation should solve?
How is design perceived internally?

Dataset
• 15 structured 1-to-1 interviews of 5 questions.
✦ Experience in Poliferie:
‣ 4 co-founders;
‣ 7 early members;
‣ 3 recent members..
✦ Roles in Poliferie:
‣ 3 managers;
‣ 9 coordinators;
‣ 3 designers.

Insights
The association presents four key complex problems:
1. Information and knowledge diffusion;
2. Coordination and task division;
3. Close the gap with the target;
4. Affective team building.

Framework
Is the association capable
to generate solutions internally?
Which degree of change in the organisation
will the solutions require?
Will they look for more integration?

Tracks of the Polihack

Dataset
• 11 co-designed concepts
by 11 teams of 4 people each.

Analysis
Social Orgasation Radar
(Change-Beneﬁt)
✦ Inner circle → Improvement
✦ Middle circle → Transitional
✦ Outer circle → Transformational

Insights
• Ideation is not a critical area
• Improved management and
coordination is required
• Integration is seen through multiple
roles and responsibilities.
• Concepts could be effective for results
and long-term.
• But diffucult to implement due to lack
of competencies and capabilities.

New product/service timeline in Poliferie

Concept
The design facilitator will support
the members of Poliferie who need
to develop a new mid/long-term project,
involving organisational changes,
by providing a digital collaborative tool
(guidelines + editable template) to guide them
simply and clearly into the design process.

Phases
Research Solution Team Planning Evaluation

Timeframe

GSlides Template
Collaborative template to be
completed and developed
during the four session.
It improves knowledge
transmission and retention, as
well as deﬁnition of the project
at each step.

GSlides Master Slides
Each master slide include key
questions to support the discussion,
samples of answers to simplify the
complexity, an example and tips in
the comment box, and a timer.

GSites Guide
Introduction to the framework
and step by step guide with
links to the Google Slides
template.

45 minutes feedback session
with 5 members: four from
the task-force for orientation
and one designer.
Main suggestions:
• Add testing phase;
• Build a shorter version;
• Include a plan B.
User Testing

Adapted from ACKLIN (2017) and ZAHRA & GEORGE (2002)
Design Management Absorption Model

Goals and Benefits
Service level:
• Foster user needs perspective
to deﬁne the scope;
• Include service evaluation
for better decision-making;
• Reducing uncertainty
and complexity of the process;
Organisational level:
• Acquire design management
knowledge for competitive advantage;
• Enhance cooperation among
members, teams and stakeholders;
• Transform tacit knowledge in explicit
and shareable information.

Conclusions about Service Design
• Service Design role in a small-medium
social organization could be enabler
and facilitator of design and project
management.
• Service Designers should aim to an
organisational dimension, scaling
their impact.
• Project management becomes a key
competency to drive impactful
results quickly.
• Being part of a social organisation,
it could boost the Service Designer
capability operate in complex
systems

Collaboratively
made in Miro.
Thanks Chiara for the suggestion

Positioning Service Design within Social Organizations: the Poliferie case

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