Service Designers who understand the practice of service design, are becoming a hot commodity among employers seeking competitive advantage by creating a greater user connection.
The service design practice follows a user-centric approach common to non-aesthetic design disciplines, including product design, industrial design and even systems engineering. Understanding the techniques, models and tools of service design, service designers help organizations (service providers) focus services on user experiences. Service designers are ideal for developing and improving Lines of Business (LOB), also known as Lines of Service (LOS).
The uptick in demand for these skills is due to businesses-service providers realizing service designers hold the keys to growth, and so career prospects for them are exploding.
A quick search and LinkedIn jobs and Indeed show senior level service designer jobs around the globe. Our analysis show opportunities in the Australia, Chili. Denmark, Finland, Germany, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Singapore, Switzerland, the U.K., and U.S.
While in the U.S., service design doesn’t seem to have caught the same recognition as elsewhere, though most every global consulting firm with offices in the U.S. offer service design to clients—including Accenture, Booz Allen Hamilton, Deloitte, Sapient, and PWC, off the top. These firms pay quite well at mid- to senior-levels. Practice leaders can earn 7-figure salaries w/bonuses.
Additionally, there are opportunities at a growing number of boutique firms. Palo Alto, Calif. -based IDEO is a pioneer employing up to 700 in Cambridge, Mass., Chicago, London, Munich, New York City, San Francisco, Shanghai and Tokyo.
Learning opportunities are also proliferating with graduate programs at schools based in China, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, South Africa and the U.S. — available at this link. In the U.S. increasing numbers of prestigious colleges and universities are developing service curriculums, among them MIT Sloan and Carnegie Mellon.