Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Slava Shestopalov

Or not

This is a set of ten outstanding recommendations for those who want to come across as savvy service design guys and gals. For reaching the best results, follow at least five pieces of advice from the list.

1. Sticky-note everything

Sticky notes appeared right after God had created Adam and Eve, and they are His greatest gift to mankind. These holy colored squares of glossy paper can transform complex processes and products, bring order, transparency, clarity and more. If you call yourself a service design guru, your workplace must be covered with hundreds of sticky notes of at least four colors. Otherwise, how people around you will guess who you are? How will they recognize your unique expertise and intelligence? How will they find the way to the one who can help them in solving a problem?

2. Always make “design thinking” talks

There is nothing more important than design thinking. And your role is to teach them — illiterate dumbs — how to utilize design thinking in their area. “They should put more design thinking into the concrete packaging.” “If our Parliament used design thinking, they wouldn’t compose such stupid laws.” “Pandas will survive extinction if they know design thinking.” If something is wrong, obviously it’s because of putting too little design thinking in it.

3. Get a carpet with the value proposition canvas

A true service design guru should be ready to provide a professional service at any moment. Do not let a new project or client catch you on the hop. For being always ready to workshop, order a custom carpet with value proposition canvas (the business model canvas or customer journey template will also work). And an extra pro feature — wallpapers in your apartment styled as the empathy map.

4. Remember: if you can facilitate a thing, you can facilitate everything

Be a true design thinker every second of your life. If you don’t receive the full answer to your question, ask another one. For instance, the 5 whys technique might be a key to understanding your beloved. “Why do you love me? — You are my ideal.” “Why am I your ideal? — You have the traits of character, which I value most of all.” “Why do you value these traits of character? — Because sincerity and kindness are also the values of mine.” “Why are sincerity and kindness your values? — …Fuck off …I hate you!” “Why do you hate me? — [sounds of a frying pan hitting the forehead]”

5. Teach ’em all how to peel sticky notes

This is another point about — God bless them! — sticky notes. Never lose a chance to share your godlike note-peeling skills: from the side, not from the bottom to the top. Don’t deprive people of experiencing this magnificent “a-ha moment” after they see that your notes are firmly stuck to the whiteboard and don’t roll into scrolls like boiled shrimps and don’t fall down like autumn leaves (sounds like Chinese poetry, doesn’t it?). Oh, this perfect move along the sticky edge… accurate as the strike of samurai’s sword. Peeling sticky notes is practically a ninja skill of a service designer, a result of dozen years of training. It will help other people guess that you’ve been doing your job for a long time and you are 100% reliable.

6. Make a customer journey for your cat

First of all, it’s extraordinary. Secondly, cats are also members of modern society (empathy!). They have names, documents, personal doctors, and Instagram accounts; they even type in your messenger while you are making coffee in the kitchen. So, it’s a great chance to make your pet’s life better (empathy, again!). Start with creating cat’s persona by mapping its needs, wants, actions, goals, marital status and profession. Then choose a process you want to improve, for instance, self-washing or walking outdoors. Wait… why am I telling that to you? You know what to do! Just make a customer journey for your shaggy friend.

7. Hang Osterwalder’s portrait (Nielsen’s is also OK) at your workplace

“Who is this guy in the white shirt and glasses?” they will ask you, “Maybe your university teacher?” And then after a thoughtful pause, you will answer proudly, “This is the famous Swiss business theorist Alexander Osterwalder who invented the business model canvas!” [Their awe.] Hope you’ve already guessed why this is crucial. Firstly, you show respect to the genius; secondly, you show your intellectual level to others. Double profit!

8. Worship Her Majesty Empathy

If you call yourself a service design pro, it’s the biggest sin to undervalue empathy. You should evangelize user-empathy everywhere and be the live sample of an empathetic person. Feel their pain, eat their food, read their books, travel their journeys, watch their night dreams, pet their cats, write their Facebook posts, water their flowers, pick their kids up at school, clean their teeth, put on their socks and even more. Empathy rules the world (of service design). When someone is robbing your house, figure out their pain points and suggest finding better opportunities first.

9. Never agree to draw anything

Don’t allow these UIdiots to fool you and involve into their childish drawing exercises. An service design hero never draws! Period. Uninstall Photoshop, Illustrator, Inkscape, and Sketch immediately. Delete your Invision, Craft and Figma accounts and maybe you will be forgiven. Your tools are analytical mind and masterly communication.

10. Mention that this week you are conducting workshops in New York, Paris, and Singapore

Need any explanation? Okay, this one is easy as pie. People around you might stereotypically think you are a lazy moron who is producing nothing really valuable and “tangible”. Show them how busy you are. Otherwise, they’ll load you with — phooey! — drawing wireframes and mockups. I don’t advise to lie, of course. Just a little bit exaggerate your trips to protect your brilliant mind from distractors. Tell them by the by, “How boring were these workshops with enterprise stakeholders in [a large city]… Next week I’ll conduct three more in [another large city]. I’m soooo tired…”

“How many service design folks does it take to change a lightbulb?” — “Three. One person to change it, and two to shake their heads and discuss how much easier it should have been to change.”

Feel free to get in touch elsewhere. I got cute pics on Dribbble, full-size projects on Behance and design presentations on SlideShare.

How to Be a Service Design Pro was originally published in prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

How to Be a Service Design Pro

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