The Service Design Imperative by Nick Leon Service Design is the application of design practice to the other 80% of the economy. It demands new skills, tools and techniques, perhaps even a rethinking of what we mean by design itself. Designing product service systems and the business models that enable them, means crossing boundaries between design disciplines, business and technology. It means changing the processes and practices not only of designers but how firms innovate and organize themselves. This isn’t easy as we share different working practices and cultures, but, it’s essential, for service designers, if we are to collaborate or even lead innovation. Innovative service systems can create rich and integrated customer experiences – delivering real social and economic value, opportunities for self-expression, and bring meaning to peoples’ lives, as well as to the world we share. We live in extraordinary times, a perfect storm faces us; the environment and climate change, an ageing demographic, pressure on resources, rapid urbanization and issues of social and economic exclusion. These systemic issues need a systemic design response and that’s the role of service design if we are ready to take up that challenge and responsibility.

1. Commercialising Design Led Innovation
RCA
Service Design
Module 2

2. Commercialising Design Led Innovation
RCA
Service Design
Module 2
The Service Design Imperative
Redefining Design, Transforming
Business, Contributing to a Better World
Dr Nick Leon
Head of Service Design, Royal College of Art

3. Commercialising Design Led Innovation
RCA
Service Design
Module 2
Service Design at the RCA
Blending design expertise at the RCA with technology,
entrepreneurship and business management from
Imperial College‟s MBA and its world class Department
of Computing

4. Commercialising Design Led Innovation
RCA
Service Design
Module 2
Our take on Service Design
• Design that addresses the other 80% of the
economy
• Transforming the quality and value of public
services – from healthcare to justice
• Delivering innovative customer experiences
that are game changers in the market place
• Translating technological innovation into
new levels of user and business value

5. Commercialising Design Led Innovation
RCA
Service Design
Module 2
Services as a % of US Economy
Source: US Bureau of Statistics
100%
90%
80%
Agriculture
70%
Industry
60%
Electrically Powered
Industrial Revolution
50%
40%
30%
20%
Post - Industrial
Revolution powered
by Digital
Coal Powered
Industrial Revolution
Services
10%
0%
1800
1850
1900
1950
2000
2050

6. Commercialising Design Led Innovation
RCA
Service Design
Module 2
A worldwide phenomenon
Sources: OECD Yearbook
% GDP
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
% GDP

7. Commercialising Design Led Innovation
RCA
Service Design
Module 2
Internet of Things
Mobile Internet
Big Data, Analytics
Cloud Computing
Social Media and
Collaborative Innovation
A Perfect Storm of Technological Change… transforming services

8. Commercialising Design Led Innovation
RCA
Service Design
Module 2
Urbanization and Inequality
Global Warming
Ageing Demographics
Bio-Diversity
Natural Resources
Globalization
A Perfect Storm of Social, Cultural and Environmental Issues

9. Commercialising Design Led Innovation
RCA
Service Design
Module 2
The Business Imperative

10. Commercialising Design Led Innovation
RCA
Service Design
Module 2
IBM Service Evolution
100%
90%
Hardware
Hardware
19%
79%
80%
70%
Services
59%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
Services 5%
10%
0%
2008
1988
IBM‟s smarter cities
not just smarter
computers

11. Commercialising Design Led Innovation
RCA
Service Design
Module 2
IBM and Rolls Royce
Power by the Hour
from Rolls Royce
100%
Hardware
90%
19%
80%
All other
Revenues
47%
70%
Services
60%
59%
50%
Services
40%
53%
• Rolls offers
“Power by the
hour” rather than
jet engines
30%
20%
10%
0%
Software
22%
IBM
Rolls Royce
• IBM‟s smarter
cities not just
smarter
computers

12. Commercialising Design Led Innovation
RCA
Service Design
Module 2
Social Imperative

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RCA
Service Design
Module 2
Downing Street October 2012
Public Sector spend in top 25 nations is 42.8% to 57.9% of GDP
US is 41.7% and ranked 27th

14. Commercialising Design Led Innovation
RCA
Service Design
Module 2
Downing Street October 2012
Running workshops for the Cabinet Office

15. Commercialising Design Led Innovation
RCA
Service Design
Module 2
We are working on witness support for the Ministry
of Justice as well as Social Services

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RCA
Service Design
Module 2
Alignment: Translating Government Policy
into Practice
Policy
Propositions
Process
Practice

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RCA
Service Design
Module 2
Orientation: Putting the user right at the centre
Health Service
Patients
Doctor
Patients
Specialist
Doctor
Health
Service
Patients
Specialist
Patient
Patients
…design of new services based on users needs not ministries‟ – Francis Maude, 2013

18. Commercialising Design Led Innovation
RCA
Service Design
Module 2
A New Agenda for Design
• Responding to the global challenges we
collectively face
• Focusing on product service systems not just
system components or gadgets
• Blending deep customer insight with
technological innovation
• Generating enterprise value for companies
and their customers as well as for public
sector and citizens

19. Commercialising Design Led Innovation
RCA
Service Design
Module 2
Exploring the Service Landscape
Material World
World of knowledge and content
World of Actions
The opportunity: address the “world of
actions” with innovative services, share
in the creation of content, and
increase the overall global value for
citizens/customers and the
organisations that serve them

20. Commercialising Design Led Innovation
RCA
Service Design
Module 2

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RCA
Service Design
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Service Landscape: Education
Tablets, Projectors,
Course Materials Authored Content
Libraries
Media Content
Bought in Services
Interviews
Course Development
Workshops
Feedback Grades
Validation
World of Actions
Authoring
Attendance Monitoring
Assessment
World of knowledge and content
Admissions
Timetabling
Teaching
Material World
How much of the landscape can you cover?
How much value can you capture?
How much of what the client does, can you do?
How much new value can you create for their
clients or users?
What is the business model – supplier or partner?

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Service Design
Module 2
Service Design at the RCA

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RCA
Service Design
Module 2
Sainsbury‟s: If you can order on the subway what‟s the future of
retail superstores….?
23

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RCA
Service Design
Module 2
Sainsbury’s: re-inventing how staff interact with 20m customer a
week – reassigning from checkout to serving customers

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RCA
Service Design
Module 2
Combining in-store café with bakery and a „flour bar‟ creating
personalised mixes of ingredients and recipes

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RCA
Service Design
Module 2
UK Design Museum – Visitor Experience of the Big Picture

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RCA
Service Design
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Co-Creation with Potential Visitors on themes, programmes and
delivery models: digital, physical, outreach

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RCA
Service Design
Module 2
User Centred Design Research –
Observation, Ethnography, Interviews, Service Safaris

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RCA
Service Design
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Output: a collaborative programme with Universities and industry
– the co:studio and wall, a digital platform for outreach

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RCA
Service Design
Module 2
NHS: Is technology alone the answer to diabetes? What other
services are required and by whom?

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RCA
Service Design
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…yesterday I was diagnosed with diabetes,
today life tastes bitter

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RCA
Service Design
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…we are developing the support service required to transform
despair in to a life worth living

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Service Design
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Systemic Solution

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RCA
Service Design
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…Telecom and Financial Services in
Phone Charging Service: Only 4% can charge Africa
their phone but for
80%, their livelihood depends on the phone

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RCA
Service Design
Module 2
Creating a phone charging service currently transforming the lives
of 10,000 farmers in Uganda already and will help millions more

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RCA
Service Design
Module 2
Loowatt: Waterless Sanitation and Energy System
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Service Design
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Service Design
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Service Design
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RCA
Service Design
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The Service Designer: a truly Transdisciplinary role
Design
Business
Digital
Goal: Envisage and then enable a holistic and seamless
user experience, and create new levels of value not only
for the recipient but all the stakeholders involved

41. Commercialising Design Led Innovation
RCA
Service Design
Module 2
Summary
• Services are the other 80% of our economy
• Digital technology is transforming their delivery and
expectations
• Service Design – transformative design
• Two perfect storms are colliding
...creating value, designing with values