Many of us are wondering when businesses will recover, and most importantly where and how each of our skills will fit into the recovery.
I, for one, am very optimistic about the future. In past economic downturns, recovery took years due to a collapse in financial infrastructures that impeded the circulation of money, causing greater risk. But with the current situation, our economies are fine, just asleep and primed to ignite as restrictions are eased.
As I write this, we are starting to see some businesses re-opening, including a lot of retailers. Some, including the larger companies laden with debt, have used this time to restructure their operations. So, many who have been furloughed won’t be returning, at least to the same jobs.
Don’t Count on Business As Usual
When asked how business leaders should progress from this pandemic, American entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban said during a closed-door March 28, 2020 meeting, that this is a great time to be innovative. “I think there are a lot of good opportunities out there,” he said, adding, that businesses and entrepreneurs need to recognize new market needs and fulfill them in innovative ways.
To my thinking, those of you aligned to specialties in UX, innovation, new services development, service design and other similar professions, need be prepared for what’s coming. That includes, at minimum, the ability to adapt to new businesses environments, but ideally to lead innovation. Both or either require the right skills, knowledge, methods and techniques.
Free Skills Assessment
To help, International Service Design Institute has developed an online service design assessment. It includes a series of progressively thought-provoking questions designed to score service design skills. The skill sets are banded by difficulty and aligned to stages of professional development. They also neatly align to reference materials and online courses for those wishing to progress in their fields.
I helped create the assessment with a team of experienced service designers, those who have decades experience building and improving new lines of services across economic sectors, including public sector and non-profit sector, along with many top Fortune-ranked companies in telecom, oil & gas, Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), IT, human capital, financial services, and other service-based industries.
To take advantage of this offer: https://internationalservicedesigninstitute.com/assessment/?et_fb=1&PageSpeed=off
Steven
Steven J. Slater, co-founder, International Service Design Institute