Hey, service design job seekers, we need to talk.
You’re after a job that companies don’t even know they need. But don’t give up… you have what it takes.
So, you want to be a Service Designer. Like, officially. You’ve probably caught the same bug that I caught a few years back, that itch to design beyond the screen, to work more holistically, to become a true co-creative, silo-busting, service design superhero. And you feel ready to make this transition in a formal, LinkedIn update kind of way.
Well, I believe you have what it takes. But “what it takes” might not be what you think.
I’ve been where you are. Two years ago I caught the service design bug, and began working on my journey to service design, and transitioning from a primarily UX design role to doing service design. With a lot of hard work and support from my community (and not to mention several ounces of good luck), I was able to formally create a new Service Designer role in the heart of my organization and make that transition. That was 15 months ago.
Over those 15 months, I worked hard to show the value that service design can offer, and last fall I was promoted and given funding to build out a small (but mighty!) Service Design team, which takes me to Chapter Two of my service design career journey — being a manager, and hiring a service designer.
So, with this journey in mind, I want to talk to you about my experience hiring a Service Designer, and share some frank truths about the state of our field.
When I posted the Service Designer job, I had no idea what to expect.
All I knew is that I had a vision, a passion, and if I shared that with the service design community, I hoped to inspire people to consider making that leap themselves. (You can check out the post I used to promote my open position here.)
Within a few weeks, I had ~40 applications. Now, I know that’s not very many, but what surprised me was how many of them were really good. And how none of them had ever had a job title that was “Service Designer.”
People were coming from all over — the globe, I mean — and coming from a diverse range of backgrounds (e.g. project managers, business analysts, program managers, UX designers) . People were applying because of the chance to formally make the transition to Service Design, and inspired by the position and team I was creating.
Here’s where my heart began to sink.
These people applying for my position were just a small fraction representing the larger new-to-service-design community that is growing at a rapid rate. And each and every one of them is hoping for that break-through opportunity — the job title of “Service Designer” — where they can gain “real service design experience” in the field. There is huge interest in making this transition, and from my vantage point, there are no jobs.
The Mythical “Service Designer” Role
The sad truth is that organizations don’t even know they need service design (yet), and this movement we have been seeing in the field of Service Design has primarily been from practitioners adopting mindset and methods into their current work, and not from a new job opportunity standpoint.
If you are looking for a “Service Designer” job, there are slim pickings (though there are a few awesome companies taking the leap!), but not because we don’t need service designers! Organizations just don’t know what service design is yet, or how to make the space for service design-interested people to thrive.
You see, service design offers a different way of thinking and working than how most companies (even the most design-mature companies!) currently operate. It means a much more fundamental change in how companies approach designing, improving, and growing their offerings. Just in the way that a traditional, waterfall company might have a very hard time adopting agile practices, so it is the same with service design in a product-oriented business culture.
Many organizations are still very product-oriented in how they are structured and how they approach design. This makes it difficult to figure out where service design might fit — Whose responsibility is service design? At what level of the organization would service design need to operate? How would service design work with the existing design team? How would service design work with marketing, or customer service teams? There are a lot of questions that until an organization takes a chance to allow for this new way of working, they won’t be able to see how this approach could benefit them.
This puts pressure on us in the field to do a better job at articulating the value of Service Design, and the way it works in an organizational context.
And it also highlights my second point (which will come at no surprise to those practicing service design), which is that until organizations are ready to make the space for service design to take root, we as Service Designers must be Design Leaders.
Service Design (for now) is Design Leadership
Because service design is so new to so many companies, the challenge with making that space for service design to thrive is really a design leadership challenge. To be the first Service Designer in your organization means that you need to step up as a design leader. And if you happen to be seeking a more junior or mid-level service design practitioner position at a company, they just don’t exist, simply because the design leadership hasn’t made the space (or there isn’t any design leadership).
This is at the heart of why service design is having trouble creating footing in various industries and organizations. There are very few service design leaders (or design leaders with a service mindset) to create opportunities for entry-level service design positions. (And when I say “design leaders,” this could also be executive leadership with design as a priority, not just designers who lead design teams.)
I hear this question often in the Service Design Slack community, “Hoping to make a transition to service design… not sure where to start.”
And every time I hear this, it breaks my heart, because I wish there were more formal “places to start” to become a service designer. Which is why I firmly believe that if we are to see a “sea change” in various industries and have service design take root, we have to help each other bring service design to unlikely places.
Adapt your role to be a Service Designer role
Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, the first step in gaining relevant experience in service design, and for laying the groundwork for service design to take root in your organization, is by finding ways to make your current role into a stealth Service Designer role. It may not be your official job title, but honestly, that does not matter. What matters is that you are able to demonstrate core concepts and methods in practice, and tackle relevant business problems.
You could be a Business Analyst, a Project Manager, a Data Scientist, a Marketing Specialist, a Customer Service Agent, or a Program Assistant. It will not, and should not stop you from applying service design principles and practice to your work.
Ultimately, this is the key to “becoming a Service Designer.” Not finding a new job, but transforming your current job. And this is what will make you the most competitive candidate in a field of scarce opportunities.
Where to start on your service design journey
So, if you want to be a Service Designer, and are still wondering where to start, I say, start where you are. Start identifying opportunities to test out service design methodology in your current workplace. Find ways to run rapid experiments, to show value, to get buy-in, and to creatively apply service design concepts to your particular area of focus.
For example, if you are a program manager in charge of the end-to-end organization and execution of a program, maybe take some time to lead a blueprinting exercise to map out the service that you provide through your program, or do a rapid set of user interviews to better understand the experience your customers are having and turn that into a journey map to tell the story to your stakeholders.
Service design is a set of tools. You do not have to be a designer, but you do have to adopt design mindset and methods. If this learning curve feels too steep, here are some tips to “get started in service design.”
The getting started tips list:
- Join the Service Design Community of Practice in Slack to find others to support you and help you in your journey
- Check out our Service Design 101 page to get oriented on some terminology
- Read Service Design for Business, and This is Service Design Thinking
- Get your hands on the LUMA Institute book of innovation methods (my favorite, accessible method reference book), and download our Guide to Practical Service Blueprinting, and the Adaptive Path guides to Service Blueprinting and Mapping Experiences
- Check out #servicedesign posts on Twitter
- Watch all the amazing videos from past Service Experience Conference events and Service Design Global events
- Participate in a Global Service Jam event (February)
- And most importantly start identifying opportunities to practice service design and cement some of these ideas in doing.
And if where you are is truly hampering your ability to practice service design, then here are some other ideas for building service design experience:
- Formal degree programs to study service design — Studying service design formally can get you grounded in the practice and theory of the field
- Job transition as stepping stone — Take a new job that allows you great flexibility and closer alignment to service design as a practice
- Side projects — Create your own opportunities by doing side-projects that are service design focused to build experience and your portfolio
- Freelancing — Find ways to offer service design as a freelancer to gain experience
You have what it takes
At the end of the day, it’s not whether you have a formal stamp of approval as a “Service Designer” that matters. What matters is your dedication towards adopting service design both in principle and practice.
Here’s what ended up mattering most to me in hiring a Service Designer to join my team (and nowhere in this list will you see “Previously held a Service Designer role”):
- Courage, adaptability, willingness to try new things
- Passion for research, experimentation, rapid prototyping, testing, and iteration
- Understanding of core service design mindset, methods, and practice
- Demonstration of service design core capabilities (see my list here)
- Applied service design to real work contexts
- Leadership skills (influence, communication, listening)
- Emotional intelligence (EQ)
- Relevant or comparable industry experience (in my case, higher ed and IT context)
Organizations need to take a chance, and make space
We as organizations need to do better at creating opportunities to realize the value of service design. We need strong design leadership to champion a more horizontal, service design perspective. We need to make space for entry-level service designers to explore the practice, experiment, and try new methodologies. We need to hire for competency and potential, not for direct service design experience, and we need to be willing to grow and mentor those new to the field. We need to encourage our designers to lean on the global community and grow together to advance the practice. And we must acknowledge that service design requires strong leadership, and we must step up to the plate to make that space for others and transform the way we work.
So if your organization is ready to make space for service design, here are some starter ingredients:
- Read Org Design for Design Orgs — This book awesomely explains how service design might be positioned in a growing design practice
- Send your design leaders to a Service Design conference (SXConf SF, SDN Global, or SXChicago)
- Copy and reuse my posted job description (scroll to the bottom of the post) — Seriously… I did a lot of research and worked very hard on it, feel free to re-use it, as well as my hiring criteria (above)
- Take advantage of the Service Design Job Board and the global community of practice to spread the word about your open position(s)
- Become a Service Design Leader and help make space for this new practice to take root in your organization
Wherever you are on your journey to service design, know that many others are on this same path, facing similar challenges to adopt this new and emerging field of practice. Stay inspired, stay confident, take risks, and don’t be afraid to dive into the deep end. I believe you have what it takes.
