The document outlines the 'Festival Design DNA' project aimed at enhancing festival experiences through a user-centered design approach. It offers practical tools and workshops for festivals to apply service design principles, encouraging teams to engage in hands-on activities such as mapping customer journeys and brainstorming ideas. The initiative, created by Snook for the FestivalsLab, emphasizes collaboration among cultural professionals to improve audience, talent, and organizational experiences.

1. TEST DRIVE
FESTIVAL
DESIGN
DNA
{A SMALL TRIAL PROCESS FOR YOU OR YOUR
ORGANISATION TO ROAD TEXT A DESIGN PROCESS}

2. WHERE HAS THIS COME FROM
Festival Design DNA is a project produced by Snook for festivalslab.
It is both a set of practical tools and an exciting new conversation
about what happens when cultural professionals and organisations
start to think like designers and work to make the experiences they
create better from a person-centred point of view.
festivalslab or the Edinburgh Festivals Innovation Lab works with
and for the twelve Edinburgh Festivals on how to use new thinking
and new tools to the experience of the world’s festival city even better
for audiences, creative talent and festival organisations.
Snook is a Glasgow-based service design and social innovation
agency focusing on transforming the way services are delivered in
Scotland, ensuring people come first.

3. TRY OUT FESTIVAL DESIGN DNA
Purpose For a one day workshop
Warm up;
The purpose of this pack is introduce Service Servicize (10 minutes)
Design to your team or organisation. You can
do this by organising a workshop or splitting Discover;
the tools up into exercises for your staff to Interview (Lite) (30 minutes)
undertake. We want you to get your hands 50 Things (30 minutes)
on some of the basic tools that will help you
to break down how design can work for your Define;
organisation and experience using design tools Customer Journey Map (30 minutes)
to look at festivals in Edinburgh through a Persona (30 minutes)
service lens. POPI (30 minutes)
Brainstorm (20 minutes)
Time Frame
Develop;
We recommend you run a one day workshop, Storyboard (30 minutes)
giving about 45 minutes to try out each tool. Prototype Challenge (Lite) (30 minutes)
This is an intense and fast paced workshop and
could be split over two days if you’d rather work Deliver;
at a slower pace. Blueprint (Lite) (30 minutes)
Service Evidencing Poster (30 minutes)
Alternatively, you could breakdown each WWWWWH (30 minutes)
section of Design, Discover, Develop, Deliver
into half day sessions for your staff to do over
the course of two days.
Re-framing the questions
As this is a hands on workshop where
people are having a go for the first time, we
recommend setting up a challenge with a rough
theme like improving customer experience
during the Science Festival. Design your
workshop around this theme so the tools can be
used in different contexts.

4. SMALL SERVICE DESIGN PROJECT
AGENDA:
This is the ‘do it in a day process’.
Each stage of the Service Design process could run for 2 hours.
This could be just a whole day workshop or it could split in to different workshops, depending on
your team size.
Hour 1: Begin the day with an introduction to the days activities, what each should
involve and what you aim to achieve. 20 minutes. If you want to add more
context to the day and Service Design, you can download the slide deck on
http://design/festivals...
“Servicize” 20 minutes
Servicize is an activity that helps people get their thinking caps on at the start
of a workshop.
Hour 2 & 3: “50 things” 1 hour
“Interview lite” 1 hour
Hour 4 & 5: “Customer journey map” 1 hour
“Persona” 30 minutes
“Popi” 1 1/2 hours
Hour 6 & 7: “Brainstorm ideas” 45 minutes
“Storyboard” 1 hour
“Protoype challenge lite (mock up, Lego, staging)” 2 hours
Hour 8: “Blueprint lite” 1 hour
“Service evidencing poster” 45 minutes
“Wwwwwh” 10 minutes
Remember to have fun!
FESTIVAL
DESIGN
DNA

5. TIMELINE FOR YOUR TESTER DAY
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FESTIVAL
DESIGN
DNA

7. DISCOVER
THE INTERVIEW LITE
This tool is a great way to meet
people associated with your idea
USE ME TO:
and talk to them in an informal
• Gain a far more holistic
setting. It’s best to carefully
understanding of the people
consider who you should interview
you are designing for
and what you want to find out
from them. For example if you are
trying to improve the process of YOU WILL NEED:
applying to be an act in the Fringe
Festival, interview an act who • Someone willing to be
found the experience brilliant and interviewed.
another who found it frustrating. • Equipment for recording your
interview
Interviews can be conducted • Prepared open question
with customers, staff and other
relevant stakeholders. Ideally,
you should visit the person you
would like to interview in their
own environment and use a
combination of questions and
observations to generate the
“I TALKED TO SOMEONE ABOUT
insights you want and need.
You can document your
WHY THEY DIDN’T COME TO OUR
interview via audio recordings
and photographs - this means
you have rich visual information
FESTIVAL”
to present back to the project
team. A lite interview usually lasts
between fifteen and thirty minutes.

8. INTERVIEW (LITE)
This tool is a great way to meet people associated with your idea and talk to them in an informal
setting. It’s best to carefully consider who you should interview and what you want to find out
from them. For example if you are trying to improve the process of applying to be an act in the
Fringe festival, interview an act who found the experience brilliant and another who found it
frustrating.
What 5 questions do you want to cover with your interviewee?
What did you find out?
r
you
hat re and
ut w a
P ull o ndings your
n fi nto
mai these i ase.
take ition ph
n
defi
FESTIVAL
DESIGN
DNA

9. DISCOVER
50 THINGS “50 THINGS REALLY SHOWS HOW
HARD IT CAN BE FOR A CUSTOMER
This tool is a great way to put
yourself in someone else’s
USE ME TO: TO ACCESS OUR FESTIVAL”
shoes. • Gain a new perspective on
experiences related to your
Pick one activity that is relevant idea
to your project and task
everyone in the project with
completing this activity. YOU WILL NEED:
They then have to write down a • An activity
list of 50 things related to their • Pen and paper
task. What happened? How did
they feel? What did they hear?
For example if you are trying
to improve the way finding of
a particular festival, task the
team with finding their way to
the toilet with vision restricted
glasses. (You can do this using
tape, buying a cheap pair of
sunglasses and colouring
them in etc) Then ask them
to write 50 things about that
experience.

10. 50 THINGS
Pick one activity that is relevant to your project and task everyone in the project with complet-
ing this activity. They then have to write down a list of 50 things related to their task - What hap-
pened? How did they feel? What did they hear? For example, if you are trying to improve the way
finding of a particular festival, task the team with finding their way to the toilet blindfolded in a
venue. They then have to write 50 things about that experience.
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25 50
FESTIVAL
DESIGN
DNA

11. DEFINE “WE WORKED WITH CUSTOMERS TO MAP
CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP THEIR JOURNEYS FROM THEIR HOMES TO
THE SHOW, IT SHOWED US NUMEROUS PAIN
Customer journey mapping USE ME TO:
(or sometimes referred to
as user journey mapping,
POINTS”
• Gain user insights
or just journey mapping) is • Discover latent needs
about capturing a customer’s • Evaluate existing services
experience of a service on • Communicate new ideas
paper. It breaks down the
experience step by step by
recording interactions with
YOU WILL NEED:
touchpoints (ticket machines, • A long sheet of paper (or a
websites, staff, waiting areas). journey map template)
• Post its & pens
Most importantly, it considers • Red & green for positive &
how the customer feels at negative experiences
each stage of the journey. This
allows you to analyse what
areas of the service might need
improved.
Customer journey mapping can
be done using personas and
‘walking’ the personas through
the service. An even better
way to map a journey is with
the customer themselves. By
asking them what they did and
how they felt, you gain a rich
insight into their experience.

12. CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP
Start by thinking about all of the places that your customer visits, all of the elements of the service that they come into contact with. It’s sometimes easier to start in the middle of the story and work backwards
and forwards, drawing each stage. Think about the emotions that your customer experiences at each stage of their journey, pinpiont these on top of your drawings against the + and - signs e.g. “frustrated”
“confused” “excited” Link these together to show the emotional journey undertaken. Take this completed tool on to help you with a P.O.P.I. excercise.
FESTIVAL
DESIGN
DNA

13. DEFINE
PERSONA “WE MADE CHARACTERS OF
OUR FESTIVAL CUSTOMERS TO
USE ME TO:
HELP US UNDERSTAND THEIR
Personas are based on fictional
characters whose profile
summarises the features • Inspire and inform new
of an existing social group.
This means the personas
ideas
• Synthesise user
NEEDS”
assume the attributes of the personalities into categories
groups they represent: from • Maintain a customer
their social and demographic centred process
characteristics, to their own • Test new ideas against
needs, desires, habits and reality
cultural backgrounds. They
are designed to help you see a
festival experience from lots of
YOU WILL NEED:
different perspectives.
• To observe users
• Customer insight
The tool will prompt you to give
information
the persona a name, a photo,
• To get this information you
age, occupation and tell their
will to conduct interviews,
background story.
talk to customers/staff, use
quantitative information to
The persona should tell us
create customer segments
what that person does day to
day, what does their life look
like, what are their personality
traits? Use a key quote to sum
up that person’s thinking, this
makes a persona quick and
easy to understand.

14. PERSONA Fill in the blanks:
Image / portrait / sketch
NAME
AGE
DRAW
HERE OCCUPATION / BACKGROUNDS
CHARACTERISTICS
“
MOST LIKELY TO
”
LEAST LIKELY TO
Why would they attend your festival?
What would they say?
FESTIVAL
DESIGN
DNA

15. DEFINE
P.O.P.I. (PROBLEMS/OPPORTUNITY/PRINCIPLES/IDEAS)
POPI is a framework for driving USE ME TO:
the development process.
• Tell a story about how your
POPI enables you to work work evolved
through insights and research • Drive forward a project
to create principle statements. • See the big picture
• Create well crafted principle
Ideally, this can be used as statements
a framework to discover and
define stages of a project and
be used as a point of reference. YOU WILL NEED:
It is an activity to converge lots • A wall
of research into a vision. • Some post its
• People involved in your
POPI can be used to lay project
findings and ideas on a wall
space so coherent stories
and patterns can be easily
identified.
“WHERE DO WE FOCUS OUR
EFFORTS ON DEVELOPING THE
FESTIVAL EXPERIENCE?”

16. P.O.P.I.
POPI enables you to work through insights and research to create principle statements.
Ideally, this can be used as a framework to discover and define stages of a project and be used as a point of reference. It is an activity to
converge research into a vision. POPI can be used to lay findings and ideas on a wall space so coherent stories and patterns can be easily
identified.
PROBLEMS OPORTUNITIES PRINCIPLES IDEAS
FESTIVAL
DESIGN
DNA

17. DEFINE
BRAINSTORM “BRAINSTORMING ALL OUR
IDEAS TO IMPROVE OUR
USE ME TO:
FESTIVAL WAS EXCITING”
A brainstorm exercise is
when everyone in the room is
encouraged to add ideas onto • Come up with ideas
either a wall or paper. The best • Include everyone in the project
way to do this is to use post its to
add a small sketch or title of an
idea. The purpose is to allow an
allocated time to come up with
YOU WILL NEED:
as many ideas as possible. This
• Pens & post its
requires a few basic rules.
• A large sheet of paper or a
wall
1. Set a timer and stick to it.
Depending on the circumstances
you might want to do short bursts
of 1 to 5 minutes. You may want
to give an hour.
2. Everyone must contribute.
3. Draw in chunky pens (this
means everyone can read it).
4. Every idea counts (no matter
how eccentric).
Even if an idea is about a flying
pig that takes your customers
from one venue to another, it still
counts. Returning to ideas like
this can uncover those nuggets of
brilliance!

18. BRAINSTORM IDEAS
A brainstorm exercise is when everyone in the room is encouraged to add ideas onto either a wall
or paper. The best way to do this is to use post its to add a small sketch or title of an idea. The
purpose is to allow an allocated time to come up with as many ideas as possible. This requires a
few basic rules.
Set a timer and stick to it. Depending on the circumstances you might
want to do short bursts of 1 to 5 minutes. You may want to give an
hour.
Everyone must contribute.
Draw in chunky pens (this means everyone can read it)
Every idea counts ( no matter how silly )
get
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FESTIVAL
DESIGN
DNA

19. DEVELOP
STORYBOARD
We’ve all seen films, read books,
told a joke; stories are one of the
USE ME TO:
easiest ways to get an idea across.
• Communicate an idea
Services benefit from being turned • Develop an idea around how
into stories because they happen people use it
over time, they have a natural • Think about all angles of a
narrative. Using stories allows service
for central characters (users)
supporting cast (staff) and a
beginning, middle and end (service
YOU WILL NEED:
blueprint).
• Paper & Pens
Use a simple template to build
one, like a comic book layout, and
• The storyboarding template
“I HAD A NEW IDEA FOR THE
DELEGATE EXPERIENCE,
draw (yes, even stick men) a visual
story. Start in the middle with the
outcome/the value your idea offers
STORYBOARDING ALLOWED ME
and work on either side if you are
stuck where to begin the story.
TO COMMUNICATE HOW IT
You might start with the idea of a
website showing you where venues
are and if they have disabled toilets
or not, but elaborate on this idea by
thinking about how the information
got there, and if people review the UNFOLDS FROM THEIR COUNTRY
information about the amenity after
they have used it. Storyboarding will
allow you to think this through and TO THE HOTEL””
really work up an idea.

20. STORYBOARDING
We’ve all seen films, read books, told a joke; stories are one of the easiest ways to get an idea
across. Services benefit from being turned into stories because they happen over time, they have
a natural narrative. Using stories allows for central characters (users) supporting cast (staff) and a
beginning, middle and end (service blueprint). Start in the middle with the outcome/the value your
idea offers and work on either side if you are stuck where to begin the story.

21. DEVELOP
PROTOTYPE CHALLENGE LITE (MOCK UP, LEGO, STAGING)
Prototyping is a quick way to test
your ideas. We all prototype every
USE ME TO:
day when we try a new recipe or take
a new route to work. Prototyping your • Test Ideas
idea may involve cardboard, paper or • Develop ideas
lego. It doesn’t matter what it looks • Get user feedback
like. To use this method you will need • Communicate the idea in your
your imagination to bring your ideas head
to life. Working with a partner or team
is great for this to run through how an
idea might work.
YOU WILL NEED:
You could run a challenge to really get
people to make their ideas real in a • Pens & paper
workshop - all you need to do is put • Imagination
down a box of materials and make it
mandatory for participants to show
how their idea looks and feels using
the materials in the box. Try using
techniques from the Festivals Design
DNA toolkit like ‘mock up’, ‘desktop
walkthrough’ or ‘staging’ to get
people making their ideas.
Your prototypes should develop
“WE MADE OUR IDEA REAL IN
UNDER 10 MINUTES.
as your idea does. Starting off
with montages of existing services
and elements that you would like
WE PROTOTYPED A NEW APP
to include/draw inspiration from,
through to more realistic examples of
touchpoints and interfaces. The idea
of a prototype is to test your idea and
receive feedback, so you shouldn’t
be too precious about it. Keep your
prototypes quick and simple.
FOR THE FRINGE”

22. PROTOTYPE CHALLENGE (LITE)
Your mock-ups should develop as your idea does. Starting off with montages of existing services
and elements that you would like to include/draw inspiration from, through to more realistic
examples of touchpoints and interfaces. The idea of a mock-up is to test your idea and receive
feedback, so you shouldn’t be too precious about it. Keep your mock-ups quick and simple.
You could ....
Model it: working in 3D is Build it: buy a domain or
a great way to construct use a wordpress site.
the look and feel, and
change your ideas quickly.
Roleplay it: a quick and Diagram it: this might help
easy way to test people’s to explain the component
reactions to your ideas. parts of your idea.
FESTIVAL
DESIGN
DNA

23. DELIVER
BLUEPRINT LITE (SMALL)
A light blueprint is a great way USE ME TO:
to showcase the user journey,
the stages of the service and • Display what is in place
the touchpoints in one tool. It is within your service to
not as detailed as a developed support your user at various
blueprint but it shows us the stages
basic customer journey and • Communicate your service
the process of how a service as a whole.
or product is delivered and • Document where/if
consumed. alterations need to be made
• List the touchpoints
We work through a lite blueprint involved
in the following way;
1. Start with the customer YOU WILL NEED:
journey
• Pen & paper
2. Outline what the process
stages are
• Blueprint lite template
• Post its “A QUICK BLUEPRINT HELPED
3. Highlight what touchpoints
are used
US GET TO GRIP WITH HOW TO
4. Consider who would deliver
this backstage
DELIVER OUR NEW TICKETING
SERVICE”

24. BLUEPRINT (LITE)
Service blueprints are a way to specify and detail each individual aspect of a service. They are visual documents that can detail the entire process and actions involved in consuming and delivering a service.
It follows a customer’s actions across multiple touchpoints. It can also detail staff actions and back stage ‘invisible to the user’ actions.
CONSIDER THE USER’S PERSPECTIVE, SHOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING
CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP
HIGHLIGHT TOUCHPOINTS USED BY THE USER
WHO IS INVOLVED IN THE FRONTLINE DELIVERY OF THIS SERVICE?
WHO / WHAT ELSE IS SUPPORTING THIS SERVICE IN THE BACKGROUND?
FESTIVAL
DESIGN
DNA

25. DELIVER
SERVICE EVIDENCING POSTER (SMALL) “MAKING A POSTER IS A
REALLY QUICK WAY TO EXPLAIN
USE ME TO:
OUR CONCEPT TO PEOPLE IN OUR
A poster is the perfect way to
communicate any new service/
product/offering your festival • Showcase an early idea
organisation has created. •
•
Get user feedback
Develop your idea
ORGANISATION”
By drawing or using • Communicate the value of
photographs you can show your idea
exactly what your idea would
look like if it was real.
YOU WILL NEED:
The key is to take a photograph
of your newly designed poster • Paper & pens
in context - this really brings • Camera
your idea to life. • Blu-tack/Sellotape

26. SERVICE EVIDENCING POSTER
Evidencing is a way of exploring the proposed touchpoints of a service; how they will look, feel
and communicate with the service user. This is about mocking up elements of the service you are
developing. It could be a poster, a leaflet, a ticket you receive or a text message. Any element of
the service which is tangible can be mocked up and photographed in context to bring it to life.
What’s your idea called?
Use this space to bring your idea to life. Show it as if it is real.
FESTIVAL
DESIGN
DNA

27. DELIVER
W.W.W.W.W.H. (Who.What.Where.When.Who.How) “ANSWERING SIMPLE
QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR IDEA
USE ME TO:
REALLY GETS YOU OUT OF THAT
Who, what, where, when, why and
how are guiding titles to ensure
you think about your user and the
• Communicate your idea
FESTIVAL CABIN FEVER MODE”
reasons they are using the service
• Design a pitch for your idea
or product you have designed.
• Begin a project meeting
Use it anyway you like throughout
the process, but during the
delivery stage you can use this in
YOU WILL NEED:
the final project phase to clearly
• The WWWWWH template
communicate and pitch your idea.
• Pens & paper
For example you can use both a
general and specific question;
Who will use this?
Who is our customer base?
What is our new festival offering
called?
What are we delivering?
Where does this new festival
offering happen?
Where does this take place?
Why would people use our new
festival offering?
Why is this valuable?
How do people find out about our
new festival offering?
How do people use it?

28. W.W.W.W.W.H
POPI enables you to work through insights and research to create principle statements.
Ideally, this can be used as a framework to discover and define stages of a project and be used as a point of reference. It is an activity to
converge research into a vision. POPI can be used to lay findings and ideas on a wall space so coherent stories and patterns can be easily
identified.
WHO WHAT WHERE WHEN WHY HOW
FESTIVAL
DESIGN
DNA

29. A day process you can take your team through
to understand and learn more about service
design for the festivals
Includes;
Interview (Lite)
50 Things
Customer Journey Map
Persona
P.O.P.I
Brainstorm
Storyboard
Prototype Challenge (Lite)
Blueprint (Lite)
Service Evidencing Poster
WWWWWH
Servicize
find out more at
design.festivalslab.com
FESTIVAL DESIGN DNA
An initiative of Edinburgh’s Festivals