Service Design Emergency Kit

Doing a Service Design project can be at some moments overwhelming, blocking, boring and many other feelings that end in “ing”. Here we have prepared for Service Design practitioners and learners a little kit which offers for each of these feelings a little suggestion, prompt, tip or question to come out of the emergency.

Boring: I feel bored by my Service Design project

Take a break. Maybe you’re just too much in it. Take some distance, do something else. Do something totally unrelated. You’ll come back to it with fresh eyes.

Blocking: I feel blocked in my Service Design project

Option A: Bring in friends or coaches. You are not alone in this, you can always ask a colleague, a friend or a coach for a half hour of their time. Share to them how you feel, what blocks you, what are the contradictions that you are blocked in. And then ask your friend, coach or colleague to give you back in a structured way what they heard from you. Hearing back what you said usually clarifies things already a lot.

Option B: What would you recommend to a friend. Ask yourself, if my friend Bob would have a similar issue and would tell me about it, what would I, as a loving friend, recommend that he does. We’re often full of wisdom for others, but have a hard time to be it for ourselves.

Overwhelming: I feel overwhelmed by my Service Design project

Take a break. Putting more work in a situation that feels already overwhelming will make you feel even more overwhelmed. Define a number of days for which you are not allowed to work on your project, read about it, talk about it.

Breaks give you a critical distance that we lack when we feel overwhelmed.

Hating: I hate my Service Design project

Use the hate. Don’t solve the problem right away but instead use the energy that this hate gives you to do something bold. Design a provocation that shows why you hate the situation.

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