If you have heard of Service Design and want a stronger, more applicable understanding of the practice, the courses offered at the International Service Design Institute will provide you with the foundations to design and develop better services.
The curriculum is unique with respect to the Service Design practice because the techniques and know-how evolve in a logical order, allowing Service Designers to begin from a single idea.
You will learn to evaluate new ideas like how to identify and segment new and existing users (members, donors, consumers, and stakeholders), use personas; discover loyal users using Net Promoter Scoring (NPS); and build a demand model for converting prospects into new users – including some who will become fans, loyalists.
We provide you with the building blocks for business acumen as you develop strategies for systematic critical-thinking and problem-solving, while learning about real-world and theoretical applications of Service Design.
Meet Your Instructors
Steven J. Slater
As a service design pioneer, Steven has put his skills to use for building lines of service, otherwise known as new lines of business. He practices service design from a systems engineering approach supported by modeling and analytics
For nearly twenty-five years, he has successfully transformed the performance of a wide range of organizations in professional services, healthcare, financial services, hospitality, energy and utilities, consumer packaged goods, telecommunications and IT as well as government agencies, trade groups, fundraising organizations, and cause-related nonprofits.
Among his accomplishments:
- Personas and Demand Models:
- Identified new markets and service offerings in financial services for top global management consulting firm. New market entries netted more than $1 billion in traceable revenue growth.
- Participated in a leadership team constructing a line of business in the field of systems engineering. Developed personas and demand models based on secondary research—which were repeatedly tested. Orchestrated touchpoints and service timetables; additionally, tested service concepts through touchpoint feedback.
- Developed personas for HMS Host (Marriott) to help identify business opportunities.
- Helped BlueCross/BlueShield develop communications and modes of communications for targeting select audiences.
- Spearheaded initiative to identify markets, messages and communications on behalf of Montgomery County, Department of Economic Development. Project was in part to stem flow of businesses department, and also support the development and growth of a nascent public-private bio-tech community.
- Participated in U.S. Department of Labor’s America’s Labor Exchange launch, identifying markets and communications.
- Service Blueprinting:
- Developed and improved six new non-dues revenue programs on behalf of the global trade group International Council on Systems Engineering INCOSE). One included dissecting a certification program, which led to the need for a re-certification program. Others took advantage of improved web services, including a learning management system.
- Helped design a service for FEMA to overcome challenge of faster emergency deployment.
- Created a disaster mitigation service for top global management consulting firm to address clients’ growing concern of the increased costs of disaster recovery.
- Spearheaded new line of service for regional recruiting firm seeking to enter new markets.
- Developed concept for a public-private partnership providing software development training individuals who are blind (National Industries for the Blind and the U.S. Department of Labor, fulfilling a $10M seed grant.
- Conceived a fundraising portal for United Jewish Communities, representing 148 Jewish Federations and 300 independent Jewish communities across North America. The concept and launch achieved lower costs for web development and web management across the federations and Jewish communities, which also contributed an 18% overall growth in fundraising dollars, plus many more participating donors.
- Touchpoints:
- Provided planning to improve communications for leadership interactions with staff at Hospices of the National Capital Region.
- Journey maps:
- Devised ways for SAIC to monitor and report activities of online users. A new reporting system, based on results of journey map, led to long range and near real-time system improvements.
The summary of Steven’s enterprising seems to stem from perennial curiosity, which at times has manifest into challenging the boundaries of possibilities. Along those lines, he spent six years as a journalist figuring out how services were developed and operate, earning multiple awards and prizes. He developed his first service, meanwhile, at the start of his career serving on behalf of the U.S. Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff/Manpower and Personnel at the Pentagon. In that position, he created an online network that he used to gather and sort data generated across the Air Force, including health expenditures and retirement payouts, improving the quality of data for his work preparing Defense Department budget submissions to Congress. Steven earned an M.S./MBA from the Carey School of Business at Johns Hopkins University; an M.A. in Public Affairs from American University; and a B.A. in International Relations and Communications from the Maxwell and Newhouse schools at Syracuse University.
Naomi Lantzman
Naomi Lantzman has developed dozens of digital marketing, web development and graphic design courses for universities and colleges, and continues to teach in classrooms and online for a number of colleges and universities.
Specializing in helping non-profit fundraising organizations grow their number of donors and their donations, she uses service design methods and tools, including JourneyMaps maps, digital communications, and touchpoints.
She co-founded and continues to run with her husband as partner, Signify Studio, a highly successful boutique graphic and web design company based in Tampa, Florida.
Naomi earned a B.S. in New Media Publishing, and an M.S. in Communications and Media Technologies from Rochester Institute of Technology, and loves living in sunny Tampa with her husband Jared and their two beautiful children.