The International Service Design, a professional development organization solely dedicated to improving the skills and knowledge of service designers, will publish its annual survey in a fortnight. The results include salaries of service designers, which industries are hiring service designers, and perspectives of the field.
The survey ran for eight months and gathered 223 respondents representing a span of ages, competency, and geography.
Defining Service Design
Among the findings, service designers offered a preference for the definition of service design. The question was included due to the abundance of definitions we continually come across in research.
To get to the crux, we narrowed down often repeated definitions from Wikipedia, Human-Centered Design, ISDI and others. At ISDI, we think the definition is continually changing, much to the detriment of the field. So we thought it best to hear directly from those who practice service design.
Qualifications to be a Service Designer
Many respondents were senior leaders, so we took the opportunity to ask them the skills they look to hire. For this question, respondents were encouraged to write down their answers. Admittedly, the results at first appeared wide-ranging nestled in long paragraphs and bullets. Yet an analysis of word choices, including word pairs, there left no doubt that most agreed on 10 distinct requirements.
- Empathy
- Systems Thinking
- Problem Solver
- Qualitative Research and Analysis
- Communications and Presentations
- Holistic viewpoint, big picture perspective
- Facilitation Skills
- Business Understanding
- Active listening
- Curiosity
Service Designer Salaries
Every year we conduct our survey, we are pleasantly surprised that service designers earn livable wages for the countries where they live. In the full report, we dissect salaries into industries, ages, and gender.
When it is available, the report will be distributed to all newsletter subscribers.
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