Mapping the Customer Journey

Imagine you're planning a trip to a new city. You probably wouldn't just jump on a plane and wing it - you'd do some research first, right? The same principle applies when you are trying to understand your customers. You shouldn't try to engage with customers without understanding their journey.

Customer journey mapping is all about figuring out what your customers are thinking and feeling at each step of their journey with your business. It's a way of putting yourself in your customer's shoes and seeing things from their perspective.

Figure 1. What is it?

Figure 2. An Example

Figure 3. Touchpoints on the Customer Journey

Figure 4. Digital and Analogue Touchpoints

Figure 5. Journey Mapping

Figure 6. Touchpoint Design

Figure 7. Creating your own Customer Journey Map

Quietly Brilliant: Design Thinking for Introverts

Despite what many practitioners of design thinking may say, collaboration and group brainstorming are not normal behaviours for many. Design Thinking requires confidence in our own creative capabilities and prompt us to exhibit a playfulness and extroversion that may be unsettling at first. This can be particularly acute for introverts who may find group collaboration, of the kind advocated by design thinking, deeply uncomfortable. A secondary issue is that people are often simply embarrassed to attempt to do something creative, having been discouraged from such behaviours in school and at work. To some, sketching on a whiteboard, or simply suggesting an idea, may seem as terrifying as having to sing in public.

Whether you are merely a sceptic, lack creative confidence, or the thought of brainstorming in a crowded room fills you with terror, there is positive news. Studies have shown that online brainstorming, the likes of which have become most popular during the Covid-19 pandemic, are often more effective than face-to-face interactions. Tools such as Miro, Mural and Figma allow remote teams to brainstorm remotely. My own experience has shown that students who are sometimes reluctant to engage in the classroom, are often highly engaged on collaborative platforms such as Miro. For those who feel more confident in a private setting, individual brainstorming exercises have also been shown to be highly effective for idea generation.  Design prompts and Crazy 8s are an excellent starting point.  For the applied group research and development project, on our MSc Design and Development Digital course, we encourage students to engage in solo ideation before joining in group ideation exercises. It means all students have an opportunity to flex their creative muscles without getting drowned out by the loudest voice.

Susan Cain’s excellent book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, should be mandatory reading for introverts and extroverts alike. Susan describes how society is modelled on an “Extrovert Ideal” that both misunderstands and undervalues introverts. Introverts are often sensitive, thoughtful and skilled observers. Introverts also place a premium on establishing rich meaningful connections. Such qualities make them ideal candidates for UX research and design thinking which places an emphasis on empathising with users. Margaret Hagan, Executive Director of the Legal Design Lab and lecturer at Stanford Law School, suggests some tips for supporting introverts: giving space, not pushing into the spotlight and designating time for both personal work and public sharing time.

Analytical Thinking, Intuitive Thinking...Design Thinking

Roger Martin in his book “The Design of Business” describes how some companies protect themselves from the randomness of intuitive thinking. Companies that adopt this analytical thinking approach, attempt to replace instinct and gut feeling with quantitative data and rigorous analysis. This is sometimes the case in universities too, where students are taught to question assumptions and plan for the future by critically analysing the past. Best practice is often favoured over next practice.

An alternative “intuitive thinking” approach places an emphasis on creativity and human ingenuity above all else. The inability to systemise and routinise best practice means that organisations adopting this approach find it difficult to achieve economies of scale.

Neither singular approach is enough. Design thinking organisations, argues Martin, are those that can bridge the seemingly irreconcilable nature of intuitive and analytical thinking. I would argue that graduates who can effortlessly cycle between intuitive and analytical thinking modes are similarly unstoppable.

A Big List of Service Design Jobs

Trying to establishing a career in a relatively new field can be difficult. Service design is multidisciplinary and often ill-defined. Sometimes it’s hard to know the boundaries between UX, design thinking and service design roles. The sheer number of different role types can be overwhelming.  I’m often asked by students about how to get a job in service design? In the past I’ve searched through jobs sites and LinkedIn and maintained a spreadsheet of openings and deadlines which I share with them.  Recently I came across a Service Design Jobs board created by Daniele Catalanotto. Daniele has gone to a lot of trouble to create a list of all currently active service design jobs from around the world (currently there are over 600 jobs listed across almost 40 countries). Jobs can be searched by country, or region, and by appointment type (experienced vs. entry level). This really is an amazing resource that puts my excel spreadsheet to shame. Well done to Daniele on creating this fantastic resource.  

Service Design Jobs

Design Thinking is not a Silver Bullet

In a recent Harvard Business Review article, Natasha Iskander, NYU Wagner Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Public Service, declares that “Design Thinking is Fundamentally Conservative and Preserves the Status Quo”. Understandably, the article drew some pretty strong reactions. Iskander makes some good points and highlights some of the misgivings of many pragmatic design thinking practitioners i.e. design thinking is not clearly defined, design thinking is a re-branding of old methods, many of the benefits of design thinking are anecdotal. None of these concerns are new and have been shared many times before including here. However, what concerns me most is the assertion that Design Thinking preserves the status quo and protects the powerful. Both of these assertions undermine the philosophy and goals of design thinking which seeks to democratise the design process through values of participation, equality, and, most importantly, challenging “what is?” and asking “what could be?”.

My experience has been that design thinking has allowed me to engage with people and organisations regardless of status. I’ve worked with hierarchical, conservative organisations where tools such as journey mapping and stakeholder mapping provided the ultimate level playing field. Design Thinking is a challenge to the status quo. Sure, we don’t change the world every time but normally everybody walks away with a much deeper understanding of the people they are designing for. As a researcher who places a premium on engaging with industry, DT has provided an effective collaboration framework. There is no doubt that we are experiencing the equivalent of Design Thinking’s very own “Dutch Tulip Mania”. Going forward we will see lots of examples of Design Thinking being offered as a solution to problems which it is ill equipped to deal with. We’ll also see misappropriation of the method and countless failed projects. None of these development undermine Design Thinking but perhaps they will engender a more pragmatic approach going forward.

The International Service Design Experience Cork

Yesterday marked Cork's first Service Design Conference. The conference was organised by ServiceRepublic - a joint initiative by Cork Institute of Technology and Cork County Council. The lineup of speakers was diverse. The UK has led the way in service design for many years and the UK public sector was well represented with Louise Downe (Head of Design, UK Government Digital Services), Cat Macauley (Head of User Research and Service Design at the Scottish Government) and Samantha Jones (Former Director of New Care Models Programme, NHS) who all provided great examples of how service design can be used to transform people, organisations and government. Simon O'Rafferty's presentation on design at the Environmental Protection Agency was another highlight of the morning session. I was really looking forward to hearing him talk again after his excellent presentation at the Service Design Masterclass in Cork in 2015. 

Michelle Nelson (UCC) and Heather Madden (CIT) did a great job of describing how service design is being used to transform the student experience in Cork.  Great credit must go to Heather and Catherine Murphy at CIT for all their efforts in making Cork a hub for service design excellence in Ireland. 

Dave Sammon and Paidi O'Reilly's presentation on the "Messiness of Design" warned against the use of design for the design's sake, and made an impassioned plea for designers to learn from the design process. This pragmatic view of design was echoed by Lorna Ross of Fjord design which for me was the highlight of the day. Lorna's warts and all view of design was a breath of fresh air. She warned against the fetishisation of design artefacts and rise of "design by the yard". One only has to look at the countless Pinterest sites collecting Journey Maps and Service Blueprints to realise that we have become as obsessed with the artefacts of service design as the practice itself! 

How Coca Cola Uses Service Design

Nice short video explaining how Coca Cola uses Service Design internally

Service Design at Coca-Cola GBS from Michal Steckiw on Vimeo.

What is Service Design

What is service design? from Design Council on Vimeo.

Service Design Master Class Cork

Service Design Master Class from Cork Institute of Technology on Vimeo.

Great to see an emerging community of Service Designers emerging in Cork!

Frog Design: Collective Action Toolkit

The Collective Action Toolkit from Frog Design, puts design thinking tools in the hands of non-designers with the aim of allowing communities to come up with tangible solutions to real world problems.  Similar in vain to IDEO's Human-Centered Design for Social Innovation,  the kit encapsulates Frog Design's take on design thinking in an effective, fun, and practical manner. More information about the kit and the download here.