Jared Cole and I ran a one-day workshop at UX Week 2011 called This Is Service Design. The title borrows from the the title of the book, This Is Service Design Thinking, which I contributed to. The workshop builds off last year’s workshop, From Products to Services, but with a couple changes. We dropped sketch ideation and storyboards, and instead added acting as prototyping (or ideation) and the business model canvas.

Acting as prototyping was an activity I ran at SF Service Design Drinks earlier this year. It’s a great way to quickly articulate a rich service experience with multiple stakeholders and touchpoints over time. Faster than paper and pencil! The business model canvas seemed like a good addition as it speaks to the increasing importance of service design, and design in general, to address business needs. Both were well received. The two other activities covered were customer journeys and service blueprints.

Overall, the response to the workshop very positive. Though we did find areas for improvement. The good news is we’ll have a second go at it in October at Design by Fire, which has already sold out!