Fundamental Changes

A 'must read' report from Swinburne University of Technology on user-led innovation.

"User-led innovation is transforming the way many organisations develop new products, services and knowledge. Service-based organisations in particular can benefit from leveraging the participation of their audiences, customers and citizens. Today’s consumers have much greater input into the creation and dissemination of the products and services they consume."

Download it here...

What The Hell? (Talking Service Design)

I've been spreading the word on how important it is to stop treating service as a commodity for quite some time. I am, as you might already know, an enthusiastic supporter of the methods and tools 'service design' provides us. I feel like a preacher sometimes.

But soon after I started answering my calling, there is one thing I learned. I had to change the language I used. There is a particular jargon that accompanies this new field of expertise, and it can take some time getting used to. It can make everything sound a bit mushy and alien.

If I start orating about co-production, empowerment, service-delivery-blueprints, costumer-journeys, touch-points, service-ecology and so on, my clients generally start to get nervous. "What the hell is he talking about? I thought we were working on a marketing plan?"

So I changed my language. I started using words from the more familiar fields of branding, experience-marketing and, my personal favorite, life in general. This sounds easy, but customised words are sometimes pretty handy if you want to get to the point very quickly.

But until everyone knows what exactly a 'service-ecology' means, I'm going to shut up about it. It makes my quest a lot easier. And if clients still don't know what the hell I'm talking about, at least the familiar words give them a warm fuzzy and comfortable feeling. And that's all I want really.