1. WORKSHOP WITH FESTIVAL LEARNINGS FROM THE
STAKEHOLDERS WORKSHOP
19.08.11
We held a small get together in August to test out So where does Service Design fit in? People
our assumptions around how festival stakeholders are at the very heart of the Service Design
would react to service design language and process and we introduced tools that encourage
methodology. empathy and a user-centred approach. Firstly, we
The participants were interested and enthusiastic created Personas based on fictional characters
so we kicked off by introducing them to the that represented the social and demographic
design process, also know as the 4 D’s ( discover, characteristics of a wide range of festival
develop, define, deliver ) stakeholders. Personas have to be created so they
represent stakeholders who are engaged as well
The aim of the first half of this session was to as disengaged. They describe the needs, desires,
understand how well the participants engaged with habits and cultural backgrounds of people and
transition from writing to visualising. The results are designed to help you see a festival experience
were ultimately positive and almost natural, the from lots of different perspectives.
team could immediately see the value in drawing
their thoughts and ideas rather than writing The tool prompted the team to give the persona
them. This came into play when I told a detailed a name, a photo, age, occupation and tell their
account of my last festivals experience - the team background story. The persona should tell us what
interrupted to ask questions and probe for more that person does day to day, what does their life
information whilst they sketched my story into a look like, what are their personality traits?
storyboard template. Afterwards, the problems and
touchpoints were highlighted with a red felt tip. In In order to get the information necessary to
a matter of minutes we had rich stories visualised create personas we tasked the team with phoning
and analysed…ready to be servicized! individuals and interviewing them on the phone
to gain the information they needed. This was
We then introduced Relationship Mapping and a huge success if a little nerve racking for the
tasked the team with mapping their personal lives team - within the space of a short phone call their
onto the tool made up of concentric circles. We assumptions were challenged and they had a clear Workshop with Festival Stakeholders: the design process.
asked them to draw their networks, the people picture of the person at the other end of the phone
they interact with on a daily basis and think about and what their festival experiences looks and feels
how these networks join up. like.
The team all said they would use the tool again in The team used a key quote to sum up that
a personal capacity as it encourages reflection. person’s thinking, this made the persona quick and
Although, there were some questions around the easy to understand. The results included young
level of detail required. For example, drawing your first time performers:
family is more valuable when you break the family “We just want to know what is on the next two
down into siblings and parents. We realised that hours”, an older couple from USA
showing examples of completed tools is a great “We just came here to see The Tattoo and the rest
way to boost the confidence of people who are of the city!”, a disengaged professional woman in
tackling these tools for the first time. her 50s “The fringe is all about comedy - is there
more happening at the same time” and a local
Of course, the real value came from creating young professional “I want to find hidden gems,
a detailed relationship map of one festival in just for locals - just for me!”
particular. The team choose to work with The
Fringe as this was the festival they were most Then it was time to get bums off seats and into
excited about. The result was a physical and the streets! The goal of this task was to get the
visual representation of all the groups, people and team talking to strangers about their festival
organisations remotely linked to The Fringe. By experiences. This aspect of Service Design is
representing stockholders in this way the interplay about weaving a rich story! They took to the
between groups was analysed and understood; streets of Edinburgh on a mission to collect stories
who could the festival collaborate with to improve from a wide range of people. We gave them a list
the festival experience? Who does the festival of questions to ask to help them along the way;
want to have a better relationship with? What How would you describe the festival in three words
opportunities is the festival missing? It also and why? What is the one thing you would change
sparked off interesting debate between team about the festival? Draw a picture that captures
around what relationships should be priority and your relationship with the festival?
they all discovered new relationships from each
other that they hadn’t been aware of at the start of Engaging strangers in a conversation about
the exercise. their service experiences is a difficult thing to do
and the results reflected this. The team could
This tool helps you better manage, and expand see the value in it but found it tricky. Once the
the networks particular festivals wants to cultivate. conversation starts well everything else flows, the
This activity proved that mapping links between problem lies in getting the conversation to begin Working with collected themes and feelings from users.
people and places and everything in between in the first place. We realised the output of this
brings new ideas and new thinking to the surface. piece of work had to include descriptive advice
and guidelines to make the process as easy as
A natural progression from mapping relationships possible.
is mapping assets. Asset mapping is the best way
to share needs and discover resources. Again, the We combined the elements of being out in the
team created personal asset maps to get a flavour streets with the personas created earlier to
for how this activity unlocks the power residing produce a tool that challenged the team to find the
in current networks to help people harness their answers to questions whilst acting as someone
assets. For example, in mapping the assets of your else. For example, you are a single mum in your
best friend you realise that you should be making 20’s who recently moved to Edinburgh and you
more of the fact she can speak french fluently! would like to know where you can take your five
year old to eat lunch? We asked the team to
Again, we decided to create one in-depth asset document their journey of finding the answer,
map of The Fringe considering questions such including who they met and who they talked to.
as; Do venues ever work together? Do hotels This exercise worked really well in terms of the
and hostels talk to The Fringe? Who is involved? team shifting their perspective very quickly and
Where are the local resources? What could be realising what some festival experiences must feel
better? Where are the networks? Where are the like for people very different to themselves.
important places?
We spent some time talking about touchpoints
The result was a visualisation that showed local and challenged the team to deconstruct several
resources, networks, places of importance. Using touchpoints such as The Fringe catalogue, help
felt tips and post-its the team added how the section on website and a phone number. We asked
assets could be connected differently. them to draw the touchpoint whilst answering
questions such as: What do they offer? What
do they look like? What do they feel like? When
you phoned the number did you get the help you
needed? Can the catalogue help you find out when
your last train is?
We then created new storyboard combining these
touchpoints and the personas we created earlier.
We gave the team homework to think about
these tools on their own away from a workshop
environment. The results speak for themselves. Homework sent in from the Festival Stakeholders.

2. WORKSHOP WITH ROHAN
03.10.11
The aim of this work is to assist Edinburgh in We will create a toolkit that people can print on
maintaining it’s position as world’s leading festival demand as well as a diagnostic tool in the form
city. of a website. This will include materials, process,
options, case studies and projects. There will
We spent an intense afternoon with Rohan to be a small, medium and large scale. We spent
outline the details of the outputs of this piece of time delving into a typical festivals calendar and
work. The first question we tackled was ‘who’; mapping this process alongside it so we could
who will be using this toolkit and who is it for? visually see where it fits.
The answers ranged from festival management to
generic arts organisations. Our audience breaks We also want to showcase this approach working
down into two main categories; people who are in the new context of festivals! We decided up
doing Service Design and those who are interested on various events we could hold or tap into. We
in it. identified the range of options and product offers
for the wide range of the audience by creating both
There are also two key characteristics that this very small and very big challenges. Feedback is
work has to be embrace; it must be sustainable also very influential in this context, we want people
for obvious reasons and it must also be cross- who use this output to give us feedback and share
festival / multi-disciplinary. Of course, there is their feedback with the rest of the cultural sector.
the important aspect of legacy that an multi-
disciplinary output will help us achieve. We are sharing all of this, we want it to be
accessible and useful and most importantly, help
A huge part of this work is showing people how festivals think differently about the service they
and why it is relevant to them and their role in the offer.
festival. It was important for us to work with Rohan
to really understand these trigger points; “I want to
make the delegate / performer / artist experience
better” This toolkit can help you form a bid, sell
more tickets or improve how your staff access the
festivals data. Creating the toolkit - stage 1 with Rohan.
WORKSHOP WITH THE LEARNINGS FROM THE
SCIENCE FESTIVAL TEAM WORKSHOP:
26.07.11
Edinburgh Festivals are some of the finest cultural We spent time exploring personas as a way to
experiences in the world. Snook have been provide the team with different perspectives on
working with them to explore what they can learn the services they offer. After building up clear
from Service Design. We are working closely with pictures of typical characters who do engage with
the festivalslab; a unique and exciting programme the festival the team created their own personas of
of work which identifies and develops ways to people who do not engage with the service.
improve the world’s festival city – for audiences,
for artists, for partners and for the festival This exercise revealed assumptions around how
organisations themselves. and why people engage with the festival: “People
decide they want to buy a ticket beforehand and
then invest a long time in booking”. Creating
This project kicked off with a basic introduction to personas sparked off interesting debate around
how Service Design tools are relevant to designing the barriers to engagement and how people seek
festival experiences as services. We spent the advice and recommendations around what event
afternoon with the Science Festival Team – to attend and why.
including the development manager, the business
director, the marketing manager, the generation We then took these personas through a
science manager and the deputy director. typical customer journey. This revealed many
opportunities for innovation within the festivals
Initially, the group carried out small exploration such as getting to and from events and the
exercises focused on seeing the world differently. contrast between the touchpoints of an adults
Participants tried to book a festival ticket online festivals experience to that of a child.
and simultaneously wrote down a list of fifty things
to capture this experience. Relevance is a big theme for the festival staff
and they are clearly facing all the challenges that
This was very simple yet revealed key insights into come with moving away from traditional science
the experience of booking a festival ticket online. education to a more modern representation
Key insights were “the site never shows me an of science. As well as balancing the breadth Creating Customer Journey Maps with the Science Festival team.
alternative, I want to give up and phone, why do and depth of their program they are focusing
I need to create an account? Why do they need on helping people navigate their festival. We
so much information? Why can’t you book tickets discussed key questions such as: How can we
through the mobile application?” build communities and loyalties throughout the
year with all stakeholders? How can we truly
Participants described these exploration tools combat the stigma of science? How can we
as a “great chance to think virtually”. One tool actively seek out the voices of our audiences?
was designed to encourage thought experiments
whilst walking around a public space. This resulted Snook are really excited about this project. In it’s
in metaphors around accessibility; the festival small way it may very well be another revolution
offers multiple messages for multiple customers, in how the cultural sector innovates in the UK.
and this metaphor encouraged thinking around We intend to bring design thinking and doing to
who chooses what at what point. Why do people the festivals and showcase the notion of seeing
choose the events they do and how can we festivals as service experiences.
understand this better?

3. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE
PROJECT
FESTIVAL
DESIGN
Festival Design DNA is a project produced by festivalslab or the Edinburgh Festivals Innovation
Snook for festivalslab. It is both a set of practical Lab works with and for the twelve Edinburgh
tools and an exciting new conversation about Festivals on how to use new thinking and new
what happens when cultural professionals and tools to the experience of the world’s festival
organisations start to think like designers and work city even better for audiences,creative talent and
DNA
to make the experiences they create better from a festival organisations.
person-centred point of view.
Snook is a Glasgow-based service design and
Due to its origins the tools and approaches are social innovation agency focusing on transforming
“festivized” but will be relevant to all types of the way services are delivered in Scotland,
cultural organisation so we’d love to hear what ensuring people come first.
you think about them and how you might be using
them.
SNOOK’S DESIGN PROCESS
What if we approached festival innovation through Working with the base-structure of the Design
the eyes of a designer...and in particular a service Council’s 4 D’s (Discover, Define, Develop, Deliver)
designer? This is the central question for this we built a Design DNA for the festivals, focusing
festivalslab project and conversation and one on the festival team’s perception of that stage of
which Snook think is relevant for everyone working the process. The purpose of this approach is to
in arts & culture. break a complex process into small, digestible
chunks.
Snook have a created a series of bespoke
tools and templates to help you make festival Each stage, for example ‘Discovering Festival
experiences even better. We’ve packaged these Customers’ houses several different design tools
into easy-to-use bundles that can be downloaded to help you do this. It’s up to you as a team to
in different shapes and sizes. decide which ones fit your project best.
This piece of work is an opportunity for Edinburgh We wanted to design information and guidance
festivals to re-design services, processes and on using the tools, as well as the templates
ways of working. We’re giving you the building themselves. The outcomes are easy to print, store
blocks. Each project will be unique so we have and use.
designed a way for your to find exactly what you
need at the right time. For example, if you want The design process is not linear, that’s why
to find out how to sell more tickets at a particular we represent it as a circle containing the 4
time, this toolkit will point you in the right direction. D’s. This means that designs and projects are
continuously rotating over time, going through
So how did we do it? We spent time with Festival different iterations as they develop and grow. The
stakeholders to understand connections and process we used to design this toolkit was exactly
relationships within the Edinburgh Festivals the same. We went through several iterations
landscape. We asked them to interview members of producing the design DNA wheel layout, the
of the public to truly understand how different templates and the tool cards.
people perceive the festivals.
This project also involved the production of
We spent time with the Science Festival team in information about the toolkit, a website and an
particular, harnessing their expert knowledge to exhibition space. Prototyping methods of displaying information visually.
learn the specifics of one particular festival. Again,
we ran design-led activities to help the team This project has been designed to have a wider
discover the value of Service Design, and help effect on the cultural sector in Scotland, with the
Snook really understand where this toolkit fits. Edinburgh Festivals as a central flagship.
We began to create a picture of the different types Are you ready to innovate your festival?
of questions and projects people would use this
toolkit to tackle.
Prototyping versions of downloadable/printable tools.