What is Service Design?

in a government service context…

A friend asked my view of service design in a practical and logical way. I used to think service design is end-to-end design of a service, but it’s more than that. Here’s how I’m starting to understand it.

Service design is:

3-Dimensional

1. from end-to-end (1D): user journey through a service from discovery to transaction or transaction-adjacent.
2. from front to back (2D): not just the front-end of the service (user-facing), but also the back-end (officer-facing), internal processes, and supporting policy or legislation
3. in every channel (3D): online, phone, and/or physical touch points.

Agile and iterative.

Service design constantly sees the whole-of-service, even when working in agile.

We work in agile: break down a seemingly large project into smaller chunks, or sprints. This helps the team focus on making one thing work at a time.

We work iteratively: delivering in sprints give us the ability to see what is working, what isn’t, and if we need to change direction before we go too far in the wrong one. It promotes the culture of “test and learn”.

Requires a range of skills

Including but not limited to:

• business architecture
• user experience design
• business analysis
• problem-solving
• providing clarity across teams
• communicating properly

Sees Government as a platform

The government is not the sole provider of services. It is a platform that brings together the building blocks (foundation) that would enable others create efficient and scalable solutions.

In this way, Government is meant to function as an “open marketplace of services.” Yet, today it mostly operates a siloed, bureaucratic system — for government, by government, to goverment. People should be able to access public services as easily as they order things online. Service design brings this thinking into the room.

Sometimes goes unnoticed

I heard this recently on a podcast (The service design show) and think it fits aptly:

The service design show

I will keep adding to this list as I learn more.