r/servicedesign

What's been the hardest thing to navigate that nobody really prepared you for?

Hi all. I am a product designer have been for 10 years and had found success in my field for a while.

Lately I have not. As UX roles compress and change, the demands put on by management etc, to perform more, produce more and be more at a faster and maybe unsustainable pace has kinda burned me out.

A little more about me. I recently escaped a pretty toxic environment (for me). I have a learning disorder (adhd, cognitive disengagement syndrome) and require more time to do meaningful work. I’m also a big picture person. Great at visioning, etc.

I have done some service design when working at Kaiser though this was at the dawn of the ai revolution in 2022, and in the last 4 years know all fields have shifted and become leaner.

I’m interested in taking the plunge into service design. Even in UX I was much better at high level strategic thinking then i ever was on a given screen. I accelerated at and have always enjoyed the strategic end of the design spectrum and continue to.

So I guess with that context in mind I have a few questions.

1. How and where can I gain service design skills? Note. Currently. It working and taking a break.
2. Do you find the field to be growing, shrinking or just changing? If so, how?

I did do a cursory look at service design jobs, and didn’t see as many as other design roles like graphic or product. But maybe it comes down to naming?

3. Who is best suited for service design roles? Does the field reward slower more methodical thinkers like myself or does it require more now in terms of pace and expectations?

4. How much do you find satisfaction in your role? Are there many people staying in the field, leaving?

5. Do you find yourselves to be isolated or alone? I’ve been a solo designer in ux a few times. Not my cup of tea.

Any thoughts, ideas and help would be great.

I recently saw a UX post asking how designers are actually using AI in their workflow, and it made me reflect on something that happened in an interview for a Senior Service Designer role.

I was asked how I use AI in service design, and my answer was mostly around:
- summarising large documents
- structuring journeys
- organising information
- building presentations faster

The feedback was that my answer felt too surface level. That made me realise most AI conversations in design still seem very focused on UX/UI and productivity, while service design operates at a much bigger systems and organisational level.

So I’m curious:
How are service designers genuinely using AI in practice beyond admin/productivity tasks?
Where do you actually see value in areas like systems thinking, research synthesis, operations, blueprints, transformation work, dependencies, or decision-making?

As the title suggests, I'm going to begin doing desk research for a Canadian discount grocery. Next week I will do the site audit, etc.

My strategy is to take the Google Reviews from the specific branch to guide my analysis table. I could be wrong think the Google Reviews might be my most valuable resource here.

• Also, should a only grab insights from a specific date window? (e.g., last 1-3 years?)

Following Google Reviews, I'm wondering if it's good strategy (or mandatory) that we do the same but for another branch close by, or a competitor (there is a competitor across the street).

Any insight goes a long way for me. I'm very excited to be doing this. Thanks :)

Hoping it is ok to post here, and would welcome advice. I’m recruiting a team to work in the U.K. Parliament where service design skills would be highly desirable.

We have three roles available to join my team and we are looking for candidates who are motivated by helping organisations to unlock the most value from their use of digital, data and information.

- 1x Senior Digital Initiatives Manager (Grade 7 equivalent)
- 1x Digital Initiatives Manager (SEO equivalent)
- 1x Digital Initiatives Manager, maternity cover (SEO equivalent)

In particular, if you have experience of working in service design or applying user-centred approaches to solve organisational problems, we want to hear from you.

These are varied roles where you’ll be shaping strategic initiatives, working with teams across both Houses and in the Parliamentary Digital Service to diagnose problems and introduce solutions, and supporting delivery of Parliament’s Information and Digital Strategy.

You’ll need to be comfortable with ambiguity, good with stakeholders, and able to move between the big picture and the detail.

It’s an extremely interesting place to work and at the heart of decision making which affects so many others.

If this sounds of interest, the roles can be seen here:

https://housesofparliament.tal.net/vx/lang-en-GB/mobile-0/appcentre-11/brand-2/xf-72b6cba2f3c2/candidate/so/pm/3/pl/14/opp/6754-Senior-Digital-Initiatives-Manager/en-GB

https://housesofparliament.tal.net/vx/lang-en-GB/mobile-0/appcentre-11/brand-2/xf-72b6cba2f3c2/candidate/so/pm/3/pl/14/opp/6749-Digital-Initiatives-Manager/en-GB

Built a voice AI coach for service blueprinting — in Spanish, ~20 min, guides you through starting your blueprint like a senior would before the workshop.

If you want to try it: https://tally.so/r/kdOz4e — short form first, then the voice interview starts.

Drop a comment or DM if you want the dashboard after (and feedback if you have any)

https://preview.redd.it/apf0gug4zl0h1.png?width=2186&format=png&auto=webp&s=ae61e26200f9fd035aa994f81ea482be1bb62fdf

Hi everyone, I will be attending the Erasmus Service design and systems innovation masters in September (across Latvia, Estonia and Finland) for 2 years. My aim is to find work in the EU during or after my masters and I come from an advertising copywriting and brand strategy background in India (been doing that for 8 years now).

I know there is an overlap in what I have been doing and what I will go study, but I also wanted this thread’s opinion and thoughts about which countries and companies in the EU hire service designers + which other roles should I explore like Innovation Strategist?

If anyone here has worked or is now working In the Baltics or Finland, I would love to connect.