Event wrap: Understanding good service design thinking with Marc Stickdorn

Quite a few members of SDM were able to attend Marc Stickdorn's talk at RMIT back in November. This is a summary of my notes and reflections from the evening.

Marc Stickdorn, co-author of This Is Service Design Thinking (along with Jakob Schneider) was a delight to engage with on the topic of service design. His session took a more collaborative format than the usual "speaker circuit", and he was quite keen to encourage audience participation and engagement on his ideas. His presentation covered many of the key approaches and concepts that he feels are important to consider when designing a service, and he wrapped up his presentation with some high-intensity, quick (as in, 7 minutes!) breakdowns where several groups aimed to apply service design thinking to a particular service and customer group. It was a really well-paced session that explored a diverse range of ideas in a highly captivating manner. I got the sense that all who attended, whether new to the field, or service design Melbourne regulars, gained a lot from such a fun, concise and informative session.

My key takeaways from the event were...

Service-dominant logic prevails over goods-oriented logic of the past
What is the value of goods Vs value of service? Because the cost of most goods is now so cheap, businesses must differentiate in new ways. They way in which they service their customers is one of these ways. Products are vehicles for services and the experiences they deliver, eg, iPad for iTunes store, Kindle Fire for Amazon store, and so on. There is also value in co-creation (multidirectional relationships) that engages the customer / user.

Social media has the power to make bad service go viral
If you create great expectations for (potential) customers, you must then match them! Nothing is worse for your service reputation than promising the world and delivering a mediocre offering. These are the sorts of things that people will talk about to their friends and contacts in a very public way, as exemplified by musician Dave Carrol, when he flew United Airlines and baggage handlers broke his guitars through carelessness.

Touchpoints are more important than channels
Traditional marketing talks about "channels" through which you communicate TO people, whereas touchpoints are the many points at which a customer comes into contact with your brand. Any of your touchpoints have the potential to delight or disappoint: Facebook, Twitter, your website, your call centre, the sales reps who sell your product, its packaging...

Good service design thinking encompasses 5 basic principles:
1 It's user-centred - don't expect all people from each demographics to have the same needs. Eg, Prince Charles Vs Ozzy Ozbourne are both white, rich men born in the 1940s, but they have very different needs!

2 It's co-creative - Good services should engage the user and make them a part of the service. It should be a two-way experience, rather than the brand pushing their stuff onto the "consumer".

3 It's sequenced - You should be able to find the dramatic arc in good services: "Boom wow wow boom" -- similar to build-ups in a good action film

4 It's evidencing - They should make a mark on users or offer a clever take-away to remember you by, eg, beautiful steel bottle openers found in business class on an airline that read "stolen from "

5 It's holistic - Good services should think about all your senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch (get creative! eg, what can you actually taste in a service?)

Notes from Marc's Ideas about the design process...
The design process is a "squiggle". You start off with a bit of chaos, then you refine it, then you blow it apart again, and then finally, it all makes sense. Some people call this the "double-diamond", but it's all roughly the same. The design process doesn't always have to be "hard". Some of the best ideas come from rapid brainstorming, and by deliberately challenging our pre-conceived ideas with new perspectives. Think broadly and openly, collaborate and engage, and design great, meaningful services that are user-focussed.

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References:

"This is Service Design Thinking" by Stickdorn & Schneider
[http://www.amazon.com/This-Service-Design-Thinking-Basics/dp/906369...]

Kindle fire > service (not product) (Jeff Bezos)
[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-28/bezos-portrays-pocket-size...]

"The Experience Economy: Work Is Theater & Every Business a Stage" by Gilmore & Pine
[http://www.amazon.com/Experience-Economy-Theater-Every-Business/dp/...]

"United breaks guitars" by Dave Carrol
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo]

"The war of ecosystems"
[http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/08/nokia-ceo-stephen-elop-rallies-t...]
Stephen Elop, Nokia CEO, talks about Nokia's need to establish a service ecosystem around their products