The what not the how of Service Design

@rufflemuffinSarah Drummond @wearesnook
The what not the how
of Service Design
Where do we go from
here?

The How not
the What

Show me
something you
made

Our people designing
services are architects,
product designers, data
nerds, art producers,
business analysts,
strategists.

An emergent industry
building it’s tools and
aesthetic

“We saw phase one was dominated by a small set of
pioneers building the first generation tools like
customer journey maps and blueprints, evangelising
the benefits of service design in an emergent digital
world. Phase two was when Organisations started to
get hold of those tools, and then they were trying to
deploy those tools, trying to find a way of learning
those tools. Projects started to become more about
capability building, people learning to think about
customers and journeys. In phase three, those tools
have been learned and are being mastered, so
people are now using those tools, they are not
making them or learning them, they are using them.”
- Chris Downs, Boss One, Normally
http://bit.ly/77servicedesign

We started out
challenging the status
quo, designing services
using new materials and
models
bit.ly/chrisdownsondata

wearesnook.com/mypolice-launches/

"The issue of inconsiderate
parking ... can have a significant
impact on those with disabilities,
parents using pushchairs and just
be a general nuisance to
pedestrians. MyPolice has helped
highlight this problem to us and
as a result we are working
together with Perth and Kinross
local authority to proactively
tackle the issue."
- Sergeant, Amanda Nicolson

@#%$*&#)

Commoditisation
of Service
Design

The sharp end
of purchasing
Service Design
bit.ly/procuringservicedesign

“I only make blueprints
for a living”
"Service Design by numbers. The misconception
that cookie-cutter mapping and blue-printing
exercises alone are the act of service design
itself rather than being some of the
methodologies employed to help
multidisciplinary teams holistically design &
continuously improve services"
- Paul Wells

Our awards often celebrate a
‘service design’ by ‘designers’
delivered in a ‘we finished way’
How about best decommissioned
service or what is people who
weren’t designers entered design
awards?

The emergence of the industry
was funded by Telcos, Utility
companies and Banks. There
isn’t much to innovate in a
highly regulated environment

We got commissioned
into a tinkering delightful
experiences
The advent of the digital
created a pseudo digital
service design

Service RepublicWe are Snook | @wearesnook @wearesnook
Digital transformation and ‘the
website’ is the power of the McGuffin

We’ve commoditised Service
Design to sell it and in order to
make it accepted by business,
made a set of processes, tools
and methods to make design
predictable. It’s become the
risk-averse way to make
decisions.

The formula we’ve
created has eclipsed the
original intention, that
services are better when
they are designed.

Where once it was an exciting opportunity for services
to be designed by designers and challenge delivery
models of 21st-century business, the over processing
of it has made it as predictable as the businesses we
were trying to change in the first place

The reframing
of the how

Role
Service Design
as a role and
responsibility in
a process
Service Design is an ongoing
team sport
Collective
Action
Service Design
as a perpetual
collective verb

Camden Council @wearesnookSarah Drummond | @rufflemuffin
Designful organisations
are a weak link sport
“To truly be design-infused, the
organization must ensure every
influencer of a project has that
same design literacy and fluency.”
- Jared Spool

Embedding Design @wearesnookSarah Drummond | @rufflemuffin
Building people’s
design literacy and
capacity to implement
good design
Literacy
>
Detailed
knowledge of
what
differentiates
good quality
from poor quality
Fluency
>
Repeated
practice of
procedures to
create good
quality outcomes
Mastery
>
Comprehensive
knowledge and
craftsmanship for
intuitive work

“Some places are 
14 days: if they have 30
then that would make me
more likely to return.”

Our job is to teach
people the core
tenants of what
design is

Embedding Service
Design in teams at Cork
County Council to
re-design their housing
services

Teaching participatory
design techniques to
communities in Glasgow
so they can set up their
own micro enterprise
scheme

The what now
the how

We need to build design
literacy
Even if ‘everyone’ is a
designer and can journey
map, this doesn’t mean
we’ll have good design

Birmingham Design FestWe are Snook | @rufflemuffin @wearesnook
We are all designing
We have unconsciously
designed complex, broken
and hard to run and use
systems and services

We don’t talk about what
good looks like.
We talk about the how not
the what

15 principles
for good
service design
bit.ly/goodservicedesign

How do we scale
good design and
practice?

“There is alot of research
but not always much
engagement with the
evidence.”
- Tim Hobbs, Darlington Children Lab

Design Patterns for
Mental Health

We’re building the world’s
first free public domain
pattern library for mental
health services
design patternsformentalhealth.com

No Hidden Cost Positive
Updates

A fully designed pattern
defines the problem, a
repeatable way to solve
it, explains why and how
you can implement it, and
connects to the wider
pattern set

We’re reviewing this
approach for internet
safety and asking, how
can we increase literacy
on how to design safe
services?

We have to scale the
capacity for design and
research practice across
organisations and
systems

We built a user research
library with Hackney
Council
We’re building it across
local government

Why Design MattersSnook Presentation | @wearesnook | @ruﬄemuﬃn Sarah Drummond
Defining the
Digital First
Service Standard

How do we move
towards the what not
the how?

Embedding DesignSarah Drummond | @rufflemuffin @wearesnook@rufflemuffinSarah Drummond @wearesnook
We need to learn
the materials of
how services are
made

Deep stack
of Service
Design
“Most practitioners aren't technically strong enough
to ensure intent of a service is operationalized. Not
generally commercially savvy enough to eliminate
commercial trade oﬀs, which is part of service
design”
- Kristin Low

We need to
look up, down,
left and right
“Without disrespecting the work of our brilliant
service design specialists, I notice that some of the
most actionable, impactful, service design work is
done by our interaction designers. They encounter
problems ﬁrst at the micro level that force them to
explore holistically”
- Matt Edgar

We need to stop our
fetishising of methods
and familiarise ourselves
with the materials of how
services are made and
build stuff

Making
services
journeys
Power and
business
models

Lets get back into the
business of making and
crafting services, not
speculating their future

Supporting Addaction to re-design
their Increasing access to
psychological therapies (IAPT)
services in 2 weeks

IAPT challenge
Losing too many people
between referral and
assessment (51%
Incomes affected as
payment by results

+ 30% increase in appointments
booked
+ 700-800 people are entering
treatment each month
+ NHS England and NHS
Improvement recognise as best
practice

Camden Council @wearesnookSarah Drummond | @rufflemuffin
“We learnt that our current systems are
opaque — and not only to our clients but often
to our staff. User research and feedback
helped us to listen, adapt and be responsive
to people’s needs. We need to not be afraid
to hear that we could do things better.”
- Hannah, Service Manager, Addaction on
our two week design sprint
Designing therapy journeys

We perpetuate service and
business model design in
relation to the power
structures we experience
This is related to our privilege
and view on societal order

“Without changing our
patterns of thought, we will
not be able to solve the
problems we created with our
current patterns of thought”
- Albert Einstein

Always challenge the
material of power in your
service design
'You need to be a vigilant
against creating
concentrations of power
as you are in creating
efficiency.’
- Richard Pope

How might we shift the
power of research
investment to people and
communities to lead?

http://bit.ly/citizenresearchcentre

http://bit.ly/citizenresearchcentre
Where does
power sit and
what are the
new
governance
designs
needed to
support this?

From paternalism and
transaction to platform
Can we re-think service
providers as platforms that
facilitate and empower
people and communities
to thrive?

Design against
deficit Start with strengths
Focus on what people can
do before we consider
what they can't or need.
Strengths and assets are
your first currency and
material to design with

Council as a platform
Developing Camden Council’s new
leisure centre contract to support a
system of Physical Activity across the
borough

Moving from leisure
centre and service model
to platform for the system
of physical activity in
Camden

We’re designing a
platform approach into
the new contractual
tendering process
A provider who will go beyond the
service model into supporting the
system of Physical Activity across the
borough

If we are to challenge
power and privilege and
design inclusive services
we need diverse teams

#inclusiverecruitment

Relational Design
Combining a region’s assets to
create new livelihoods and viable
services

Neighbourhood watch
Communities that care: A community based
approach to fraud prevention

53% of over 65s have been victims of fraud
Older people are 54 times more likely to be a
victim of fraud or computer misuse than they
are robbery

Long term impacts, especially
for older people include
anxiety (82%), isolation (39%),
lose confidence (79%)

How might we train NHW volunteers from
existing schemes to advise and encourage
older people (aged 65+) to better protect
themselves from fraudsters and give practical
and emotional support to older people who
are victims of fraud and their support circle?

Unaware Aware
Targeted Crime
Aftermath
Report
Areas of
opportunity
Know

Co-design workshops
Through co-design workshops
we created ideas of how
Neighbourhood Watch could
support these personas
at various stages of their
fraud journey.

Barry, 91
Friend/neighbour
Daughter / Family
member
NHW volunteer
for elderly
Scam Marshall
Police / SNT
Action FraudBank
NHW local
Coordinator
Local Trading
Standards
National Trading
Standards

Gail Steed
Cheddington
[police approval stamp]

The what not the how requires
a re-connection with our
values to drive our designs
Is our ‘user focused’ rhetoric
putting society at risk?

There are no
user needs if
there is no
planet

"Frustrating is too much concession to
improved delivery of business-as-usual
in the face of structural societal
challenges like climate change; what
we could do better is show solidarity
when some amongst us refuse to
service a company not willing to
undertake big transitions”
- Cameron Tokenwise

We have to balance ‘user
needs’ of the tourists and
residents with the
conservation of the
environment

Service Design ™ isn’t
bold anymore
We need to be bold again
and reconnect with our
values

Start questioning power
Lets really look at the models powering
our services, not just the delightful
experience

Play with the material of the Service
Design stack
Just as glue, wood and resin were my
materials its time to grapple with new
materials like relationships, policy, data,
ethics, values

Redefine how we educate Service
Design
Lets help people gain experience of
delivery whilst they are training

Build diverse teams and
challenge our privilege
Ensure we are really challenging
our bias, power structures and
privilege of the ‘problem solving’
culture

It’s all of our business
Lets stop worrying if it is or isn’t Service
Design and collaborate on building a
literacy of what good design looks like

We will never get ‘there’
because there is no there.
There is only the best intent

“We’re born to be
architects of the future,
not its victims”
- Buckminster Fuller

Thanks
sarah@wearesnook.com
@rufflemuffin
@wearesnook

The what not the how of Service Design

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