Service designers can use their competencies and skills to create positive change within an organisation in many ways. In this article I share experiences from three roles in which I was able to integrate service design thinking into an organisational culture, navigating between operational, tactical and strategic levels.

Unique challenges and opportunities exist when working as a service designer within an organisation. Building on insights I gained after moving to an in-house role at adidas three years ago, this article will highlight essential skills beyond traditional design, while still emphasising that continuous learning, persistence and commitment can empower you to make a real impact.

Not all service design clients are the same. As a service designer, you need to adjust your engagement model accordingly, if you want to be successful. As a service design consulting firm, we have learned these lessons over the years while developing our in-house model. To determine the best approach for different client types, we developed a simple animal framework as part of our in-house model. The framework can be useful to other service design agencies, but also for organisations that hire agencies. Knowing the type of organisation you’re working with – or, if you’re an organisation, knowing your type – will help the engagement run smoothly and be successful.

Interdisciplinary service design combines methods and tools from various disciplines. However, when designing a new public service, the integration of these interdisciplinary visions can create tension between the pragmatic perspectives of a feasible design and the critical perspectives on the desired outcomes, carried out with stakeholder consensus and validation.

How do we help today’s college students make the most of their time, energy and money invested? This question is at the heart of ongoing discussions among educators, policymakers and stakeholders. Many solutions lie in new programmes, policies and structures, particularly to support minoritised populations. But are they really working?

Service experiences feature a high degree of empathy. As service designers, we know the term’s meaning and recognise its value, but it can be difficult to specify whether it is truly present or simply an aspiration. Many tools are available for facilitating services, but how much do they really allow us to empathise with others?

In this interview, Touchpoint Editor-at-Large Prof Birgit Mager talks with Ndonye Njoroge, who is based in Nairobi, Kenya. He helps lead Marathon XP, where 35-40 people are engaged on a variety of projects from brand design, to building digital application and spatial design, and from where he hopes to draw wider attention to service design.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the world needs 4.5 million new nurses by 2030.1 Nurses are a critical touchpoint of health and social care services. Without them, the services could not exist as we know them. The nurse shortage is a vicious service design problem.

Today, designers are bringing both data and data practitioners into the design process in increasingly diverse ways. These sorts of collaborations were once orchestrated by overarching product teams without input from a design team, but now, design teams have become active collaborators. ‘Data thinking’ and quantitative reasoning can be applied in the design process itself, rather than simply to the products of the design process. This often involves partnering with analytics or data science teams throughout the design process, instead of at the end of the process when seeking to evaluate output.

A shared vocabulary creates mutual understanding and is paramount to designing meaningful outcomes. This article explores how co-curating a shared vocabulary can support and nurture understanding during interdisciplinary collaborations. The insights are drawn from service design research on soundscapes thinking in city-making and experience from the medical device industry.

Organisations' future visions should consider the needs of both internal and external stakeholders. However, the individual wills of the organisation's employees - each being members of related projects involved in realising these visions - are often not considered. This article introduces a process for incorporating the individual wills of project members into the future vision through workshops, and discusses three main challenges as well as their solutions.

Public services are not transformed by service designers, at least not alone. Designing, implementing and changing a service requires numerous skills, roles and areas of expertise. Governments around the world have realised this and are implementing quality working standards for new public services, all of which call for multidisciplinary approaches. The United Kingdom pioneered this approach over a decade ago, leading to exceptional public services like ‘Register to vote’1 and ‘Renew a UK passport’2. It has been replicated in several other countries worldwide since then.

Achieving inclusive services requires systemic awareness and interdisciplinary collaboration. The Belgian 'City Deal E-inclusion by Design' initiative unites cities to create inclusive digital services by involving end-users in research, design and development. Service designers guide local authorities in adopting effective methods and mindsets, fostering a network for mutual learning and impact.

Technology and data are at the heart of services. By integrating each others’ methodologies, technology and service design can collaborate more effectively, ensuring they both keep up with the rapid pace of change in the technological landscape.

The early stages of service design projects are defined by empathy, awareness and a deep analysis of the context in which designers engage. Therefore, understanding our cognitive capacities (‘neuro-related tools’) enhances the ability to detect environmental cues, enriching the service design process, especially within innovative and creative explorations, to envision desirable futures.

Both in academia and in professional practice, multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity offer unique pathways to innovation and holistic understanding. But what sets them apart? And why should we care? Imagine diverse experts tackling the redesign of a digital service, improving the experience of citizens or solving a complex service challenge. Each scenario requires different levels of collaboration, reflecting these three approaches. The shift from pooling knowledge to fully integrating and transcending boundaries can transform problem-solving.