With the 10th anniversary Service Design Global Conference being held this year, it was an opportunity to look back on the developments we have seen through the conferences and how this reflects Service Design as a whole. It's almost impossible to encapsulate the sheer volume of content and discussion across the 9 years since the inaugural conference held in 2008 but there are some themes and conclusions we can draw.Over the years so many people have contributed to the conferences, the core SDN team, individual conference organising committees, and of course those who spoke at and attended the sessions. The number (and backgrounds) of attendees alone gives an indication of the development of Service Design since 2008, going from around 220 to a reported 650+ in Madrid. Three times the number of people, and increasingly from organisations who would not have traditionally attended a ‘Design’ conference.PDR’s own relationship with the conferences really kicked off in 2013 as we played our role in bringing it to the UK - hosting the Service Design community in our hometown of Cardiff for three busy days.
With the talks exploring the ability of Service Design to transform organisations, there was a mix of speakers from across design organisations and those looking to build design capability within bigger organisations. Ben Terrett’s Keynote explaining the role of Service Design within the UK’s Government Digital Service particularly stood out, especially after the Gov.uk platform had won the Design Museum’s ‘Design of the year’ award.
Other memories of the event included Kerry Bodine (Forrester) challenging the over-reliance on ‘Big Data’ and the need for a balance of qualitative and quantitative research gathering, as well as Lee Sankey (Barclays Bank) questioning whether Service Designers are more in love with processes than outcomes.
PDR took a strong public-sector focus to the conference in New York, with Anna and Paul jointly presenting on ‘Service design in policy trends 2105 -2020’. As well as PDR’s presentation, representatives from Veteran affairs, the Public Policy Lab in the US and the UK Cabinet Office were also present. In fact 28% of presenters were from public-sector bodies, demonstrating the recognition that Service Design can bring value to public services.
Alongside this strong public-sector theme, was another of applying service design within Healthcare. Ryan Armbruster from Harken Health called for a move from transactional healthcare to relationship-based with a focus on “care” to build trust between patients and providers. Marnie Meylor of the Mayo Clinic for Innovation presented her work redesigning Pre-natal care, moving to a wellness model focused on the mother-to-be as opposed to the clinic. Farhad Attaie and Hellosmile had developed a new non-profit to empower children to take control of their own health and ultimately prolong their life. Different perspectives, but all seeking to use Service Design to improve healthcare outcomes.
Madrid saw a continuation of speakers from across design and industry, with BBVA having a strong presence in their native Spain, along with a keynote from Jamin Hegeman at Capital One. As established financial services providers, their market has been significantly disrupted by Fintech in the past 5 years. They have both recognised the benefits of service design to provide greater value to their customers and ultimately maintain their market share despite the new competition. BBVA demonstrated examples of them empowering their staff to make design-led decisions, and Capital One’s acquisition of Adaptive Path (Including Jamin) shows a clear commitment to bringing design to the heart of their operations. Capital One’s Money Coaching Service was one of the shortlisted pieces of work for the SDN Service Design Awards in Madrid.
A trend that was apparent in Madrid, but cuts across the years, is the talk of mergers and acquisitions of Design specialists into larger organisations.
This includes Management Consultancies:
It also includes direct service providers