Slides of the presentation given by Chris Ferguson, Bridgeable at Service Design Marathon, 2020

1. Can Service
Design Help
Restore a World
in Crisis?
Chris Ferguson
Founder, Bridgeable
April 23, 2020

2. 2
Hello, my name is… Chris Ferguson
Founder
60+ Person Design
Consultancy:
Designers
Business Strategists
Researchers
Professor of Business
Design and Design
Research at the
Rotman School of
Management
Exec in Residence
Design Methods at the
Executive Masters of
Law Program
Co-founder of Service
Design Network of
Canada providing
market insights,
advocacy and an annual
conference on Service
Design

3. As a result of Covid-19, will the
world be better or worse off?

4. 4
Service Design responding to Crisis
What can we learn by looking at the work of
designers?
• Share an example of a typical service design
challenge
• Share 3 principles that inform design
• Discuss how you and your team can apply
these principles in response to COVID-19
Service Design in the time of COVID-19

5. 5
Case Study: Typical Service Design Challenge

6. 6
MOBILE PHONE RENEWAL
Redesigning the renewals journey to reduce
cost while improving the customer experience
P R I O R I T I Z I N G A N D D E S I G N I N G K E Y C U S T O M E R E X P E R I E N C E S

7. 7
Phase 3Phase 2Phase 1
Prioritize pivotal
points for action
Co-create, validate
and iterate solutions
Embed in the
organization
3-phased Service Design approach to the challenge

8. 8
Created a shared view of known customer problems, business problems, and
corresponding initiatives and metrics related to this end-to-end experience
Aligned internal working team from 15 departments

9. 9
Through activity-based Learning Labs and 1-on-1 interviews, revealed customers’
unmet needs, attitudes, motivations and behaviours
Gained deeper understanding of customers

10. 10
Discovered the ‘pivotal points’: key moments where there is an opportunity to
impact the customer experience and create value.
Visualized the end-to-end customer journey

11. 11
Internal functional teams, frontline staff and actual customers worked together to
design actionable concepts that can create value
Co-created solutions with customers, front-lines and leadership

12. 12
High-fidelity prototypes were shared with customers in their context of use, and
rapidly iterated to develop solutions that meet customer needs, shift customer
behaviors and provide business value.
Prototyped, validated and iterated

13. 13
Achieved Significant Business and Customer Impact
4x increase
in online adoption
within 3 months
(from 2.5 to over 10%)
Customers consistently
ranking experience
top-two-box on L2R
Each online
transaction delivered
$142 of
OPEX savings
compared to other
channel interactions
400%
$142
per customer

14. 14
Some Principles that guide our Service Design work

15. 15
We’ll discuss how you can apply these design
principles during COVID-19

16. 16
Boundary Objects
Star and Griesemer
• An object that creates coherence
across different social groups
• Have different meanings to
specific audiences, yet are
common to more than one
group
• Can be adapted to the
constraints of specific groups
Sales
Marketing
Analytics
Digital Retail
Call Centre

17. 17
Boundary Objects
Multiple functions deployed the Service
Blueprint as a tactical artifact to define
their budgets and plans
Video Prototype was used by the
CEM team at the beginning of each
meeting with different functions to
ground them on project outcomes.

18. 18
Trading Zones
Peter Galison
• A space for temporary exchange
and co-creation, existing despite
differences in language and
culture
• Agreed to rules of exchange
• Develops/Uses "pidgin" dialect

19. 19
Trading Zones
Assembled stakeholders who had never
been in the same room together, have
different terms, using human-centered
design process as a common frame.
Co-creation included a variety of
functions along with actual customers, to
solve problems in a way that extended
beyond traditional skillsets.

20. 20
Invisible Social
Structures
Josina Vink
• An organization or group’s
underlying beliefs, rules, norms
• Often unconscious and invisible
to the eye and not usually seen
as a designable material
• Can create a fixed mindset that
limits what is possible

21. 21
Invisible Social Structures
Confronted the different internal team’s
logic, measurement schemes and KPIs.
Exposed overlaps and discrepancies
between “sources of truth” and proposed
modifications and new measures.
Had difficult conversations about the
implications of transparency with
customers. Stated consequences.

22. 22
Applying these design principles during COVID-19

23. Service Design During COVID-19
Community support service for elderly

24. TRADING ZONES
Convened stakeholders within slow bureaucracy within 48 hours

25. How to recognize:
Individuals have
deeply ingrained
and specific
expertise, norms
or metrics.
Anything that
challenges their
expertise will face
resistance.
Design Principle
Anchor on a shared objective - such as the
changing needs of the end-user during the
crisis.
Hold a co-design process and include end-
users. Focus on developing specific solutions
to their problems. Frame it so that everyone
understands how their individual skills can
help solve the problem.
—
What are the different kinds of disciplines
required to design solutions to COVID-19?
How would you include them in a Trading
Zone while honouring their expertise?
Opportunities to apply
Trading Zones:

26. BOUNDARY OBJECT
Developed Service Blueprint to coordinate stakeholders and volunteers

27. How to recognize:
Individuals or
groups have no
shared
understanding or
responsibility of
the challenge,
leading to
problems pushed
from one group to
another.
Design Principle
Find a common artifact that brings to life
the realities of your challenge.
This could be in the form of an Experience
Map, Blueprint, Simulation or Prototype.
—
Think of the stakeholders needed to
support COVID-19 response. What kind of
Boundary Object could you design that
would have meaning and help align
around a new future?
Opportunities to apply
Boundary Objects:

28. Name *
INVISIBLE SOCIAL STRUCTURES
Questioned the traditional process and logic for responding to community needs
ccv - call centre volunteer
dv - delivery volunteer
pc - payment coordinator
crisis hand off
decision point
termination point
call comes in
on duty ccv
answers call
identify senior address
ccv identifies need of
interpreter
ccv contacts volunteer
interpreter and adds to call
budget confirmation
ccv takes remaining
order details
open senior request form
food bank map
conduct health
screening protocol
google translate
start 3-way call
crisis screening
protocol
consult senior response
spreadsheet for order number
senior request form submitted
returned to email thread
via text or email
payment
coordinator email
dv pays for order
Senior Request Form
Crisis Phone Lines
Senior Request Form Log
Approved Volunteers Spreadsheet
Senior Request Form Log
Approved Volunteers Spreadsheet
FNH - Call Centre - phone/email
FNH - Payment Coordniator - phone/email
email
email
email
phone call
email
yes
yes
symptoms
present?
cash
payment?
able to meet
in lobby?
able to access money?
no
yes
nono
no
no
yes
symptoms present - ccv
refers senior to primary care
or telehealth
crisis screening
ccv designates food
bank order
connect with support services
ccv sends broadcasts
order to dvs
ccv confirms details with senior
and indicates will call back
once volunteer assigned
dv sees alert
dv accetps order
ccv connects with dv to share
order details and establish
delivery window
dv purchases/picks
up order
dv takes photo of order
receipt with order #
written on receipt
dv delivers order to
senior
dv keeps original
of receipt
pc receives
image of receipt
pc pays dv via
e-transfer
pc makes collection
attempt (one)
dv sends receipt
image to pc
dv recevies e-transfer
payment
payment
recevied by dv?
payment
recevied from senior?
pc marks order
complete & paid
food bank order
completed
ccv confirms first name
of dv and order delivery
window with senior
ccv sends
“claimed” notice to broadcast
group
no
yes
no
dv collects cash
payment from senior
dv provides receipt
orignial to senior
dv gives order to
senior and leaves
pc calls dv to confirm
partial or non-payment
yes
no
yes
Friendly Neighbour
Flowchart
Key Map
refer North Toronto
addresses to SPRINT
pc marks order
complete but not paid
ccv - call centre volunteer
dv - delivery volunteer
pc - payment coordinator
Tech Needs

29. Design Principles
How to recognize:
People say “we’ve
always done it this
way”. The pervasive
attitude limits what
is possible. New
concepts are
abandoned or
altered to fit
current mental
models.
Respectfully expose mental models, in a
neutral way. Examine long-held beliefs, roles,
and rules or procedures.
Acknowledge the potential areas that may be
limiting and examine what stays and what
needs to go.
—
What are the underlying mindsets that will
limit our ability to transform as we recover
from COVID-19? What beliefs, roles and rules
would you create, disrupt or maintain?
Opportunities to apply
Invisible Social Structures:

30. 30
Designing During COVID-19
Can Service Design help restore world in
crisis?
• Use ”Boundary Objects” – designed objects,
as a way to create shared understanding
• Facilitate an inclusive process that honours
expertise by creating a “Trading Zone”
• Respectfully surface “Invisible Social
Structures” and work with internal teams to
redesign rules, norms and mental models
Design Distinctions

31. 31
Infrastructure becomes visible
when it breaks.
Susan Leigh Star
Social Scientist

32. 32
THANK YOU
www.bridgeable.com
chrisf@bridgeable.com