Last December 13, twenty-six committed designers joined us for an after-work co-creation session. This was the first SDN Portugal building session and an acid test for both our work and vision to make Portugal a Service Design Hub.

The session began with a quick introduction to our vision and associated pillars, SDN organisation and roles envisioned for community members: Ambassador, Go-Getter and Freestyler, from more to less commitment. This short introduction gave place to a great session where feedback, key challenges, opportunities and specific actions were discussed for each of the three pillars (see Figure 1) that represent the vision of Chapter to make of Portugal a Service Design Hub in the world: knowledge, business and community.

Results

In terms of commitment, 70% of the participants said in the post-event survey that they were ready to play a go-getter role, which means the willingness to share the burden, execute tasks and make things happen. This ample commitment is a clear representation of the excitement and also the need, verbalized by many, to professionalize this field in Portugal.

Now, to build solid foundations for each of the three pillars presented, this is what we learned:

• Knowledge: It was emphasized the need to partner with universities to implement courses of Service Design, but also it was highlighted that this offering should be offered online and in Portuguese. Another demand is curating the contents so the quality of what is published in Portugal in this field is guaranteed. 
  

• Business: The attendees urged us to show the value of Service design with case studies, best practices, methods and playbooks specifically addressed to c-level. Complementary and for the purpose of creating awareness, many mentioned the need of conferences that presented Service design. 
  
• Community: Create a database of professionals that included the key areas of expertise and level of experience. Provide different channels to facilitate the interaction and ability of the community to learn and grow from each other. A third key topic which was mentioned is the certification of professionals. 
  

Check some glimpses of the event here.