Over the last two decades, service design has steadily attracted adopters from both practitioner and academic realms. The diverse origins of these adopters pose challenges for the further advancement of the discipline. To address one of those challenges, an automated text analysis technique was used to identify discursive elements of service design practitioners’ narrative to address organizational change. The findings identified three basins of meaning in the discursive construction of service design practitioners: STORIES, TEAM, and IMPLEMENTING. It also identified a strong lack of consistency of service design discursive elements regarding implementation.

1. Three Overarching Perspectives for
Service Design
Mauricio Manhaes, Ph.D.
mmanhaes@scad.edu.
Savannah College of Art and Design
Savannah, GA, United States.
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2. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Constructing an Approach
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3. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Constructing an Approach
• Study to investigate the characteristics of a service design
discourse
• Fall 2016 - Present
• Four phases and counting:
• Phase 1 – Service Design Approach
• Phase 2 – Topics from Automated Text Analysis
• Phase 3 – Proto-discourse about Service Design
• Phase 4 – Proposing Three Overarching Perspectives
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4. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 1
Service Design Approach
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5. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 1 – Service Design Approach
• Fall Quarter of 2016
• Research:
• How service design
practitioners describe their
approach to complex projects
(Basore, Dhawan, Dong,
Moore, & Sin, 2017).
• Organizational Change
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6. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 1 – Organizational Change Managers
# Manager Location Company Position
1 MGR1 HK Consultancy Convenor
2 MGR2 USA Industry Design Practices Director
3 MGR3 USA Industry Global VP, User Experience & Design
4 MGR4 UK Consultancy Senior Executive Coach & Trainer
5 MGR5 USA Industry Human-Centered Innovation Leader
6 MGR6 USA Consultancy Organizational & Program Development
7 MGR7 USA Consultancy Innovation Manager
8 MGR8 USA Consultancy Design Transformation Lead
9 MGR9 Brazil Consultancy Founder and Service Designer
10 MGR10 USA Consultancy Talent & Culture Manager
11 MGR11 USA Industry HR Business Partner

7. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 1 – Service Design Practitioners
# Respondent Scenarios Location Company Position
1 R4/S1 S1 USA Consultancy Experience Design Lead
2 R5/S1 S1 USA Consultancy Senior Art Director
3 R7/S1 S1 Canada University Organizational Psychologist in Training
4 R2/S2 S2 UK Company Senior Consultant and Design Director
5 R4/S2 S2 USA Consultancy Founder and Service Design Consultant
6 R5/S2 S2 USA Company Experience Designer
7 R1/S3 S3 USA Company Design Director
8 R2/S3 S3 USA Consultancy Lead Service Designer
9 R3/S3 S3 Germany Company Founder, Service Design Consultant and Author
10 R1/S4 S4 USA Company Service Designer
11 R2/S4 S4 China Consultancy Innovation Consultant
12 R2/S5 S5 Hong Kong Consultancy Senior Design Research Consultant
13 R5/S5 S5 Germany Independent
consultant
User Driven Innovation, Research and Strategy
Consultant

8. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Affinization

9. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design

10. Phase1-DifferentPaths

11. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 1 – Service Design Approach
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12. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 1 - Touchpoint 8-3
Organisational change is currently an
intriguing topic in the field of service
design. Effective change efforts help
drive innovation and promote other
positive cultural practices within
organisations.
However, dealing with cultural
change within an organisation is a
complex endeavour. As we all know,
organisations vary in size, hierarchal
structures, mission, values and other
factors.
These all present a number of
challenges when trying to implement
cultural change. While there are
similarities in approaches, there is
not one standard way to tackle these
issues.
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13. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 2
Topics from Automated Text Analisys
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14. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 2 – Topics: Automated Text Analysis
No Keywords Eigenvalue % Var Freq. Cases % Cases
1 STORIES; SERVICE; PROJECTS; MAPS;
IMPACT; PHASE; WORK; INTERNAL;
PROTOTYPES; INNOVATION; JOURNEY;
MAPPING; METHODS; DESIGN;
WORKING
8.41 16.97 62 5 100.00%
2 TEAM; DATA; INTERVENTION;
IMPORTANT; ORGANIZATION;
EMPLOYEES; CULTURE; WORKING;
CHANGE; BUY-IN; MANAGEMENT;
PROJECTS
3.69 15.33 59 5 100.00%
3 IMPLEMENTING; CO-CREATE; PEOPLE;
BUY-IN; UPPER; MANAGEMENT;
PROTOTYPES
2.79 10.27 29 4 80.00%
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15. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Topic 1: Word Cloud
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STORIES
SERVICE
PROJECTSMAPS
IMPACT
PHASE WORK
INTERNAL
PROTOTYPES
INNOVATION
JOURNEY
MAPPING
METHODS
DESIGN
WORKING

16. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 2 – Higher Consistency Topic: “Service Stories”
No Keywords Eigenvalue % Var Freq. Cases % Cases
1 STORIES; SERVICE; PROJECTS; MAPS;
IMPACT; PHASE; WORK; INTERNAL;
PROTOTYPES; INNOVATION; JOURNEY;
MAPPING; METHODS; DESIGN;
WORKING
8.41 16.97 62 5 100.00%
2 TEAM; DATA; INTERVENTION;
IMPORTANT; ORGANIZATION;
EMPLOYEES; CULTURE; WORKING;
CHANGE; BUY-IN; MANAGEMENT;
PROJECTS
3.69 15.33 59 5 100.00%
3 IMPLEMENTING; CO-CREATE; PEOPLE;
BUY-IN; UPPER; MANAGEMENT;
PROTOTYPES
2.79 10.27 29 4 80.00%
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17. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Service and Stories

18. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Service Design 3OPs: nothing new…
• State A: Now
• State B: Preferred Future
• Bridge: Implement
(Simon, 1968)
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Topic 1
Stories/Service
Topic 2
Team/Data
Topic 3
Implementing/Co-create
“A new logical structure of the design
process is:
1 Instead of a problem, we have: state A of a
system;
2 Instead of a solution, we have: state B of
the system; and
3 The designer and the user are part of the
system (stakeholders).”
(Findeli, 2001)

19. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 2 – Topics with Different Consistencies
No Keywords Eigenvalue % Var Freq. Cases % Cases
1 STORIES; SERVICE; PROJECTS; MAPS;
IMPACT; PHASE; WORK; INTERNAL;
PROTOTYPES; INNOVATION; JOURNEY;
MAPPING; METHODS; DESIGN;
WORKING
8.41 16.97 62 5 100.00%
2 TEAM; DATA; INTERVENTION;
IMPORTANT; ORGANIZATION;
EMPLOYEES; CULTURE; WORKING;
CHANGE; BUY-IN; MANAGEMENT;
PROJECTS
3.69 15.33 59 5 100.00%
3 IMPLEMENTING; CO-CREATE; PEOPLE;
BUY-IN; UPPER; MANAGEMENT;
PROTOTYPES
2.79 10.27 29 4 80.00%
15 words
12 words
7 words
Table 2 – Topics Extraction from 9 Respondents of Phase 1
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20. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 2 – Topics with Different Consistencies
No Keywords Eigenvalue % Var Freq. Cases % Cases
1 STORIES; SERVICE; PROJECTS; MAPS;
IMPACT; PHASE; WORK; INTERNAL;
PROTOTYPES; INNOVATION; JOURNEY;
MAPPING; METHODS; DESIGN;
WORKING
8.41 16.97 62 5 100.00%
2 TEAM; DATA; INTERVENTION;
IMPORTANT; ORGANIZATION;
EMPLOYEES; CULTURE; WORKING;
CHANGE; BUY-IN; MANAGEMENT;
PROJECTS
3.69 15.33 59 5 100.00%
3 IMPLEMENTING; CO-CREATE; PEOPLE;
BUY-IN; UPPER; MANAGEMENT;
PROTOTYPES
2.79 10.27 29 4 80.00%
15 words
12 words
7 words
Table 2 – Topics Extraction from 9 Respondents of Phase 1
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21. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 2 – Excerpts of Topics
• Topic 1 - ‘STORIES’:
• Q6 – R2 / S2: “Opportunity STORIES, […]. User STORIES (Epic, Themes and STORIES) […].”
• Q7 – R3 / S3: “Keep on communicating both success as well as failure STORIES.”
• Topic 2 - ‘TEAM’:
• Q7 – R7 / S1: “After the large group intervention, the TEAM would meet to consider next steps.”
• Q7 – R3 / S3: “Create a formal internal TEAM (or council) or service design experts […].”
• Topic 3 - ‘IMPLEMENTING’:
• Q5 – R7 / S1: “Collect this qualitative data from customers and employees to get a pulse on the
overall buy-in of the organization on a potential change initiative before IMPLEMENTING
anything.”
• Q7 – R1 / S1: “[…] absolutely has to be co-create with the people that will be IMPLEMENTING
changes […].”
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22. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 2 - SERVDES 2018
• ABSTRACT: Over the last two decades, service design
has steadily attracted adopters from both practitioner
and academic realms. The diverse origins of these
adopters pose challenges for the further advancement
of the discipline. To address one of those challenges,
this text investigates the use of an automated text
analysis technique to explore the possibility to identify
discursive elements of service design practitioners’
narrative to address organizational change. The author
presents results of an automated text analysis of
textual responses to a survey that reveal the main
topics associated with 9 service design practitioners’
approaches to 5 different scenarios. These findings
identify three basins of meaning in the discursive
construction of the survey respondents: STORIES,
TEAM, and IMPLEMENTING. It also shed light on a
possible framework for apprehending the social reality
of service design practices through discursive elements.

23. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 3
Proto-discourse about Service Design
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24. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 3 – Proto-discourse about Service Design
• Understand the Topics from the automated text analysis
• Analyse Topics under the results of the previous phases
• Relate Topics to the available literature
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25. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 3 – Proto-discourse for STORIES
Topic 1: Stories (Excerpt)
• The analysis and synthesis of Topic 1:
• STORIES; SERVICE; PROJECTS; MAPS; IMPACT; PHASE; WORK;
INTERNAL; PROTOTYPES; INNOVATION; JOURNEY; MAPPING;
METHODS; DESIGN; WORKING;
• […] DESIGN of innovative SERVICE propositions demands
crafting and telling the right kind of practical and
emancipatory STORIES (Alvesson & Karreman, 2000;
Feldman & Sköldberg, 2004) to the right audiences at the
right PHASE. […]
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26. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 3 – Proto-discourse for TEAM
Topic 2: Team (Excerpt)
• The analysis and synthesis of Topic 2:
• TEAM; DATA; INTERVENTION; IMPORTANT; ORGANIZATION;
EMPLOYEES; CULTURE; WORKING; CHANGE; BUY-IN; MANAGEMENT;
PROJECTS;
• […] in which an organisation “lives” by analysing its relationships
with current and prospective stakeholders (ORGANIZATION;
CULTURE), as well as the nature and the role of said stakeholders
(EMPLOYEES; TEAM; MANAGEMENT). To understand
stakeholders’ contexts most IMPORTANT (prioritizing) aspects,
service design relies on producing valid DATA. […]
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27. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 3 – Proto-discourse for IMPLEMENTING
Topic 3: Implementing (Excerpt)
• The analysis and synthesis of Topic 3:
• IMPLEMENTING; CO-CREATE; PEOPLE; BUY-IN; UPPER;
MANAGEMENT; PROTOTYPES
• […] influence and contribute to IMPLEMENTING
organizational change. In order to do that, service design
efforts should CO-CREATE an understanding in middle and
lower MANAGEMENT, and then obtain UPPER
MANAGEMENT BUY-IN-in […]
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28. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 3 and 4
SERVSIG 2018
• Opportunities for Services in
a Challenging World
• Paris, June 14-16, 2018
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29. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 4 – Proposing Three Overarching
Perspectives
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30. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 4 - Constructing a Discourse
1. Understanding Stakeholders Contexts (Topic 2: Team/Data)
With training in qualitative and quantitative research methodology and tools, coupled with
advanced design and co-creation skills, a SD is able to develop and communicate a holistic yet
detailed analysis of the various factors that impact the relationship of an organization with current
and prospective stakeholders;
2. Understanding Innovation Dynamics (Topic 1: Stories/Service)
Having a deep understanding of service and of the complexities involved in its lifecycles (which may
include a solid knowledge about the Service-Dominant Logic), a SD is able to identify and
communicate strategic opportunities and to ideate and design innovative propositions with the
power to disrupt, thus propelling institutions into preferred futures;
3. Understanding Institutional Transitions (Topic 3: Implementing/Co-create)
Possessing a broad socio-historic perspective on the economic landscape, a SD is able to develop
and communicate a constantly updated understanding of macro and micro-trends that may
contribute to effectively encourage and manage institutional transitions into the future.
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31. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 4 - Reviewers of Prototype Discourse
# Reviewer Location Company Position
1 REV1 USA Consultancy Executive Director
2 REV2 Germany Company Founder
3 REV3 USA University Director Graduate Program
4 REV4 USA University Associate Chair
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32. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 4 – Journal’s Editorial Board
# Ed. Board Location Company Position
1 EDT1 Netherlands Consultancy Principal Service Designer
2 EDT2 Denmark Company Senior R&D User Research Lead
3 EDT3 Finland Company First Vice President
4 EDT4 UK Consultancy Design Team Lead
5 EDT5 UK Consultancy Communication Designer
6 EDT6 Germany NGO Founder and President
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33. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 4 - Touchpoint 9-1
“From a critical standpoint, it was preferred to
designate overarching perspectives rather than
specific human characteristics or practices, so
that these three conceptual spaces can be
applied by all sorts of companies and individuals,
freeing them from defining specific tools,
practices, personalities, professional skills and
capabilities.”
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34. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Phase 5 – …?
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35. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
8 Topic Extraction by Document

36. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Topic 1 (Document): PLANNING; INNOVATION

37. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
8 Topic Extraction by Paragraph

38. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Topic 1 (Paragraph): HUMAN; CENTERED; EXPERIENCES

39. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
8 Topic Extraction by Phrase

40. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Topic 1 (Sentence): DESIGN; RESEARCH;

41. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Hiring a Service Designer…
Why? What?
Understanding
Stakeholders
Contexts
With training in qualitative and quantitative research
methodology and tools, coupled with advanced
design and co-creation skills, a SD is able to develop
and communicate a holistic yet detailed analysis of
the various factors that impact the relationship of an
organization with current and prospective
stakeholders.
Assess the candidate on his/her:
(a) qualitative and quantitative research skills on human-centered
design (including workshop facilitation) and business-related
aspects affecting an organization,
(b) ability to locate, acquire and analyze data, and provide a context
related interpretation through specific methods and tools, and
(c) competence in visualizing and communicating effectively and
meaningfully the results of research.
Understanding
Innovation
Dynamics
Having a deep understanding of service and of the
complexities involved in its lifecycles (which may
include a solid knowledge about the Service-
Dominant Logic), a SD is able to identify and
communicate strategic opportunities and to ideate
and design innovative propositions with the power to
disrupt , thus propelling institutions into preferred
futures.
Assess the candidate on his/her:
(a) understanding of the organization’s offerings (goods and
services), production and delivery system in context,
(b) ability to identify strategic opportunities and how to leverage
them, and
(c) proficiency in designing propositions that both differentiate and
propel the organization’s offerings towards innovation.
Understanding
Institutional
Transition
Possessing a broad socio-historic perspective on the
economic landscape, a SD is able to develop and
communicate a constantly updated understanding of
macro and micro-trends that may contribute to
effectively encourage and manage institutional
transitions into the future.
Assess the candidate on his/her:
(a) socio-historic and economic understanding of social contexts,
(b) ability to identify and screen the relevant trends attending to
different criteria and goals, and
(c) empathy and collaboration skills that can facilitate both internal
and external organizational transition.
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42. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Three Overarching Perspectives
42

43. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Service Design 3OPs: a critical thinking perspective
• State A: Now
• State B: Preferred Future
• Bridge: Implement
(Simon, 1968)
43
Topic 1
Stories/Service
Topic 2
Team/Data
Topic 3
Implementing/Co-create
“A new logical structure of the design
process is:
1 Instead of a problem, we have: state A of a
system;
2 Instead of a solution, we have: state B of
the system; and
3 The designer and the user are part of the
system (stakeholders).”
(Findeli, 2001)

44. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Literature
• Karpen, I. O., Gemser, G., & Calabretta, G.
(2017). A multilevel consideration of service
design conditions: Towards a portfolio of
organisational capabilities, interactive
practices and individual abilities. Journal of
Service Theory and Practice, 27(2), 384–407.
https://doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-05-2015-0121
• Akaka, M. A., Vargo, S. L., & Wieland, H. (2017).
Extending the Context of Innovation: The Co-
creation and Institutionalization of Technology
and Markets. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-
319-43380-6_3
• Vargo, S. L., & Lusch, R. F. (2015). Institutions
and Axioms: An Extension and Update of
Service-Dominant Logic. Journal of the
Academy of Marketing Science, 44(1), 5–23.
http://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-015-0456-3
• Findeli, A. (2001). Rethinking Design Education
for the 21st Century: Theoretical,
Methodological, and Ethical Discussion. Design
Issues, 17(1), 5–17.

45. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
A multilevel consideration of service design conditions.
(Karpen, Gemser, & Calabretta, 2017).
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46. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Uncertainty
Understanding
Stakeholders Context
Understanding
Innovation Dynamics
Understanding
Institutional Transitions
Prototyping
Experiments
Tests
Pilots
Higher
Lower
Critical Thinking Path

47. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
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48. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
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49. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Service Design as a Discoursive System
Common
Discourse
“From a critical standpoint, […] freeing
them from defining specific tools,
practices, personalities, professional
skills and capabilities.”

51. Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
@mcmanhaes - mmanhaes@scad.edu - mauricio.manhaes@liveworkstudio.com.br
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Thanks!
Reflections?
Questions?