The way to adopt service design in your organization is to find an organization’s challenge and apply a service design solution. As I write in our book, The Apprentice, two good places to start is with a Service Concept or a Service Evaluation. The service concept is an exercise to help your organization define what it stands to achieve daily. The exercise boils down to the top attribute that is its reason for existence. Every organization should have one. Disney’s service concept is making people happy. Our own organization, ISDI, is to build and maintain a body of knowledge.
A service concept is used and is valuable as a way to communicate succinctly what the organization does and for whom. It also serves to guide those with responsibility for carrying out the organization’s mission.
The second is service evaluation, which is a problem-solving tool used to evaluate new ideas. This tool balances users’ needs with an organizations’ interests. Before any resources are extended, this tool, used with colleagues and superiors, can help determine whether a new idea has merit.
Both of these work well in group exercises and produce results for the organization. When others see the process and can be part of the results, service design problem-solving is often integrated into the organization’s strategic planning.