Introduction to Service
Design Thinking + Doing
Jacquelyn Brioux
Service Design Lead

This is where I’ll do some talking and provide
an overview of service design thinking — the
mindset, skillset, principles, methods, tools,
and overall objectives of the discipline.
This is where you’ll get your hands dirty
and experience the collaborative and
participatory nature of service design
doing.
Session Breakdown
Service Design
Thinking
30-minutes
Service Design
Doing
60-minutes

Let’s get started.

Thinking
Service Design

What is service design?

Service design is a holistic, participatory,
and cross-functional approach to
improving end-to-end human experiences,
as delivered through digital, physical,
virtual, or human touchpoints.

Service design is a holistic, participatory,
and cross-functional approach to
improving end-to-end human experiences,
as delivered through digital, physical,
virtual, or human touchpoints.
Service experiences need to balance user
and employee desirability, business viability,
and operational and technical feasibility.

Service design is about thinking
• from beginning to end – consider everything the user needs to
do throughout their journey or end-to-end experience
• from front to back – including everything the user sees, as well
as the internal processes, software, and policies behind it
• across every channel – physical, digital, virtual, and human (IRL)
• in and out — adjusting your level of zoom based on user needs,
your audience, and project scope (budget, time, milestones)
https://www.gov.uk/service-manual

From beginning to end

From beginning to end
From front
To back

From beginning to end
From front
To back
Across every channel

First, let’s be clear—service design is the design
of services. However, search online for service
design right now and you’ll find a seemingly
endless array of ‘toolkits’ and ‘design
processes’. Five circled grids. Double diamonds.
Mental models. You’d be forgiven for thinking
that it was about the process of design, rather
than changing outcomes for users.
Lou Downe
Head of Design, UK.GOV

What does it take to be a
service designer

Hiring/Being a Service Designer
● Think visually and holistically
● Enjoy interacting with people
● Natural educator and facilitator
● Skilled at qualitative and quantitative research
● Comfortable zooming in and out
● Not intimidated by complexity or ambiguity
● Good visual and verbal storyteller
● Detail oriented
● Genuine relationship-builder
● Always able to exercise curiosity, compassion,
and courage

• strategic, relational, and critical thinking;
ability to zoom in and out — systemic design
• ability to visualize complexity —
information design
• qualitative and quantitative research chops —
design research
• ability to identify problems and brainstorm
solutions — design strategy
• ability to facilitate workshops, deliver
presentations, and tell a good story —
design education & verbal storytelling
• illustration, sketching, and visual note-taking
skills — illustration & visual storytelling
• [bonus] videography, photography, graphic
design skills to facilitate storytelling and the
production of compelling artifacts to drive
action — multimedia storytelling
• [bonus, future-state] D3, Python, Mode, etc.
ability to create products to help stakeholders
visually interact with complex data sets —
data science
Building a Service Design Capability

Understanding the service
experience lifecycle

The Service Experience Lifecycle
Adapted from Namahn and Practical Service Design

The Service Experience Lifecycle
Adapted from Namahn and Practical Service Design

The Service Experience Lifecycle
Adapted from Namahn and Practical Service Design

The Service Experience Lifecycle
Adapted from Namahn and Practical Service Design

Understanding the service
design process

Service Design Process
Adapted from Service Design at Capital One (2017)

Service design methods

Adapted from Service Design at Capital One (2017)
Service Design Methods
• Stakeholder
Interviews
• Hypothesis
Journey Map
• Alignment
Workshop
• Current-State
Service Blueprint
• Stakeholder Map
• Ecosystem Map
• Qualitative
Research
• Research
Insights
• Experience
Principles
• Journey Map
• Experience Map
• Touchpoint
Audit
• Personas &
Archetypes
• Ideation
• Storyboarding
• Service Storming
• Vision Stories
• Prioritization
Framework
• Future-State
Service Blueprint
• Evolution Plan
• Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs)
• Project/Feature
Cards
• Pilots
• Monitoring and
KPI Analysis
• Quantitative
Research
• Qualitative
Research
• Research
Insights
• Evolution Plan
(Revisited)
• Prioritization
Framework
(Revisited)
• Future-State
Service Blueprint
(Updated)
• KPIs (Revisited)

Customer Journey Maps
Create a customer journey map when you need…
✓ to identify customer pain points and service gaps
✓ to design a new service with customer experience at the core
✓ to examine the customer experience across all touchpoints of a service
✓ to define a vision for how specific touchpoints within a service could change the
customer experience
Experience-focused
Shahrzad Samadzadeh, Cooper (2015)

Create a service blueprint when you need…
✓ to identify process breakdowns and opportunities for process improvements
✓ to inform an implementation plan for a new service
✓ to examine service metrics in the context of a service delivery processes
✓ to define a vision for how specific touchpoints within a service could become
higher or lower touch
Shahrzad Samadzadeh, Cooper (2015)
Process-focused
Service Blueprints

✓ Map the value exchanges across touchpoints
✓ Clarify the interaction between customers, employees, and partners (where applicable)
✓ Reveal how these are supported by backstage activities
Izac Ross, Cooper (2014)
In short
Service Blueprints

Service blueprint
Service blueprints clarify the interactions between
service users, digital touchpoints, and service
employees, including the frontstage activities that
impact the customer directly, and the backstage
activities that the customer does not see.
Service
Blueprinting Basics
Sarah Gibbons, NN/g (2017)

Service blueprint
Blueprints can be adapted to context and business goals by
introducing the additional elements as needed.
• Arrows indicate relationships and dependencies.
• Time can represent the estimated duration of each
customer action.
• Regulations or Policy can help you understand what may
dictate how a process is completed.
• Emotion can be included for both customers and
employees to help you locate pain points.
• Metrics can be added in context to help you know what
data you can collect to determine value or success.
Additional Lanes,
Arrows & Annotations
Sarah Gibbons, NN/g (2017)

Izac Ross, Cooper (2014)

Sarah Gibbons, NN/g (2017)

Service design jargon

Frontstage /
Backstage
Jargon
In services, there are things the customer does and
doesn’t see—we call this frontstage and backstage.
Think of it like theatre: backstage is what is done
behind the curtain to support the actors, who are
frontstage, and they’re who you see in front of the
curtain. Those on the backstage do just as much to
shape the experience as those on the front stage.
They help to deliver the service, play an active and
critical part in shaping the experience, and represent
a company’s brand.

Touchpoints
Jargon
Touchpoints are the medium through which value
exchanges happen, leading to the outcomes of a service.
There are five different types of touchpoints:
• People, including employees and other customers
encountered throughout the service delivery.
• Place, such as the physical space or the virtual
environment through which the service is delivered
• Props, such as the objects and collateral used to
deliver the service.
• Partners, including other businesses or entities that
help to deliver or enhance the service
• Processes, such as the workflows that inform how the
service is

People
(a.k.a. “Actors”)
Jargon
Anyone who creates or uses the service, as well as
individuals who may be indirectly affected by the service.
• Service Customers purchase (or have the authority
to purchase) the service.
• Service Users directly use the service to achieve a
specific outcome.
• Frontstage Service Employees deliver all or part of
the service directly to the user.
• Backstage Service Employees perform background
functions in support of the service delivery; the user
doesn’t see or interact directly with these people.
• Partner Service Employees are involved in delivering
the service.

Props
Jargon
The physical or digital artifacts (including products)
that are needed to perform the service successfully.

Processes
Jargon
Any workflows, procedures, or rituals performed by
either the employee or the user throughout a service.

Places
Jargon
The physical space or the virtual environment
through which the service is delivered.

Partners
Jargon
Partners include other businesses or entities that
help to produce or enhance the service and
contribute to delivering the service outcome.

Doing
Service Design

Defer judgement. You never know where a
good idea is going to come from. The key
is make everyone feel like they can say the
idea on their mind and allow others to build
on it.
Build on the ideas of others. Being positive
and building on the ideas of others take
some skill. In conversation, try to use “and”
instead of “but.”
Stay focused on the topic. Try to keep the
discussion on target, otherwise you can
diverge beyond the scope of what you're
trying to design for.
One conversation at a time. Your team is
far more likely to build on an idea and make
a creative leap if everyone is paying full
attention to whoever is sharing a new idea.
Workshop Etiquette

01. Thinking
BLOCKERS
What might stop or slow you down from delivering
your service experience?
Who or what must be available for your service
experience to succeed?
ENABLERS DEPENDENCIES
What tools and training make it possible to deliver your
service experience?
FRAMING THE SERVICE
CONSTRAINTS & REQUIREMENTS
USER MOTIVATIONS
Adapted from www.servicedesigntoolkit.org
Which experience will you improve? For whom?
What outcome does the service user hope to achieve? What initiates the service experience? What causes the service experience to end?
EXPERIENCE SERVICE USER
OUTCOME TRIGGER ENDING
MOTIVATING DEMOTIVATING
What value does the service user seek from
the experience?
What can deter this person from using
the service?
01. THINKING
This worksheet is intended to help
you think holistically to frame and
scope the opportunity ahead.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
SUCCESS INDICATORS
What are 5 ways you can evaluate whether the service has been successful? This can be both qualitative and quantitative.

01. Thinking
Identify (or choose) a specific service experience
and complete the first worksheet to help frame
your problem space.
20-Minutes

• Emergency room visit
• Domestic air travel
• Hotel stay
• Dentist check-up
• Purchasing a home
• Purchasing a car
• Opening a credit card account
• Getting your driver’s license
• Renewing your passport
• Registering for health insurance
• Dining at a restaurant
• Food or meal delivery
• Ordering goods online
• Pet sitter / walker
Examples

02. DOING
This worksheet is intended to help you sequence the people, actions, touchpoints, and processes involved in
delivering your service experience, both frontstage (what users see) and backstage (what is behind the scenes).
LINE OF VISIBILITY
TOUCHPOINT
INTERNAL
TOUCHPOINT
Action
Service User(s)
Stage
Support
Process
Sub-Stage
Action
Action
Frontstage
Service Employee(s)
Backstage
Service Employee(s)
FRONTSTAGEBACKSTAGE
02. Doing

02. Doing
Start sequencing the details of your service
experience in a service blueprint from
beginning to end, front to back, and across
all channels. Use the template provided.
30-Minutes

02. DOING - [EXAMPLE] Early Use Rideshare Experience
The following is an illustrative service blueprint of the rideshare experience for an early use Uber rider.
LINE OF VISIBILITY
TOUCHPOINT
INTERNAL
TOUCHPOINT
(Android) Play Console
(iOS) App Analytics,
Sales & Trends
Schemaless (MySQL), Riak,
Cassandra, Hadoop, Redis,
Twemproxy, Celery
Braintree Payments
Node.js and PHP
Braintree Payments
& Database
SendGrid &
Twilio
Google Maps APIs
direction, distance matrix,
geo-fencing, google place,
google maps geo encoding
Google Maps APIs
direction, distance matrix,
geo-fencing, google place,
google maps geo encoding
Google Maps APIs
direction, distance matrix,
geo-fencing, google place,
google maps geo encoding
Amazon Simple
Notification Service
(SNS)
Action
Service User(s)
Stage Interested Join Early Use
Support
Process
App activity data
updated on
developer portals
User account
details stored in
database
Payment information
captured and
securely stored
Distance, location &
ETA returned using
Google Map APIs
Distance, location &
ETA returned using
Google Map APIs
Distance & location
returned using
Google Map APIs
Real-time payment
processing
& Driver/Rider
accounts updated
Transactional email
sent to Uber user
Push notification
sent from web server
to mobile app
Sub-Stage
Rider decides to
use Uber for
rideshare service
Rider registers for an Uber
account
Uber ride requested and accepted Uber transaction finalizedUber ride
Downloads Uber
mobile app
Creates a new
account
Adds payment
information
Requests ride to
the airport
Receives
notification
about nearby
ride to airport
Monitors app
activity and
performance
Monitors
security and
payment
verification
Monitors user
registration and
engagement
Ends ride and
rates rider
Receives ride
confirmation and
Uber driver info
Accepts ride
request to the
airport
Receives
earnings update
and compliment
notification
Gets into Uber
vehicle and
starts ride
Arrives at the
requested
pick-up location
Rides to airport
Drives to airport
Arrives at airport
Arrives at airport
to drop off rider
Adds tip and
submits driver
rating
Receives email
receipt
Action
Action
Frontstage
Service Employee(s)
Backstage
Service Employee(s)
FRONTSTAGEBACKSTAGE
Rider Rider Rider Rider Rider Rider Rider Rider Rider Rider
DriverDeveloper Developer
BizOps
MktgEng
DriverDriver Driver
Driver Driver Driver
02. Doing

Q&A

That’s all, folks.
Jacquelyn Brioux
jacquelyn.brioux@shopify.com
shopify.com/plus
jacquelynbrioux.com