Service Design. Just what exactly is it and how do you do it? After reading a couple of articles and attending a few talks I still wasn't completely sure. It seemed like 'making things better'. OK, sounds good, but where's the techniques and how are they different to User Centred Design methodologies?

Roll on Global Service Jam 11. After forming teams, with people from different background who we'd never worked with before the brief was revealed - superheros. Nice. Where can we go from here. For those of us who'd been around the block it is interesting, for the graduates it scared the hell out of them.

Friday night - quick brainstorm, getting thinking of ideas, sleep on it and come prepared for show and tell in the morning.

Forming gets underway

The team had some pretty different people in it. A graphic design graduate, an engineer, a mobile designer and a couple of UX focused folks. As this was a voluntary event there were no self-appointed leaders or directors. Could we move forward with anything? Could we like hell.

Storming gets stormy

A few ideas started to complete, but no consensus could be built in the team. The devils advocate kept popping up and pyramid polishing and no one would accept the 80/20 rule. The young were being idealistic. It was certainly one of the most frustrating 12 hours I've ever done.

Norming is nice

Two members of the team realised we had 5 hours to go and nothing to present, so they elected me to team director. Agreeing on the concept was now straightforward - we wanted a service that was usable, unique and ultimately one where awareness was already high. From our research other similar services existed but no one knew about them or remembered them. That was our killer insight - extend a already much used service.

Performing art

The team came together and we all agreed we had cracked it. Now just two hours to actually do the weekends work. Everyone had their own role and responsibility and it came together like clockwork. Perfect (well almost).

We didn't have time to think through how we would really present, so that was a little average, but fine. Overall everyone seemed to think it was a viable service and since the Jam I've had feedback from others that they think it should be developed. 

Did I learn about service design? I'm not sure. I still don't know exactly what it is, other than making things better. For now I'm leaving my own description as UCD in an agile methodology - and certainly not just digital. Jam out. 

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