Service Design bootcamp

2021

Project: Teach a television company how to apply design thinking to their work

Teach the senior leadership at national (UK) TV company about the service design process, its benefits and a framework of how to embed it in their organisation.

This was a unique brief and a unique opportunity. I spent a week meticulously planning the 2-day workshop, carefully constructing every phase, activity and warm-up.

Structure: the bootcamp was structured around the double-diamond, with half a day given to each phase. Each phase was split into Theory and Practice, to allow for a hands-on, engaging few days.

Approach:

High engagement: keeping senior clients engaged for 2 full days is a big ask, so whenever we taught about the theory of Service Design we always followed it up with warm-ups and activities for participants to quickly apply the theory to their designated briefs.

Story time: real stories were used to bring the content to life, for example McDonalds’ journey to uncovering that the JTBD with their milkshakes was to liven-up long, boring commutes. This helped bridge the theoretical with the practical, whilst making the sessions more enjoyable by driving discussion amongst the participants.

Real briefs: beyond giving the client a practical framework for running service design projects in the future, two real briefs were worked on in the bootcamp, with ready-to-test ideas coming out of the sessions.

Results: The Service Design Bootcamp was really effective at teaching design thinking in a practical way. The participants were able to quickly apply the theories and processes to their work. As a result the client is now much more mature in their design thinking and problem solving capabilities.