Rosenverse
Increase your confidence, influence, and impact (through a Professional Community)

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Increase your confidence, influence, and impact (through a Professional Community)

Gold
Tuesday, December 3, 2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Share the love for this talk
Increase your confidence, influence, and impact (through a Professional Community)
Speakers: Marc Fonteijn and Ru Butler
Link:

Summary

Doing good service design is hard. You know what makes it easier? Having a supportive community of smart and generous professionals who are rooting for your success. In this session, we'll explore the power of professional communities, what makes them thrive, and help you decide if joining one is the right move for you. Plus, we'll share how to start and grow your own community based on the lessons we’ve learned from designing the community for in-house service professionals.

Key Insights

  • 49% of service design professionals do not feel connected to their peers, impacting their confidence and productivity.

  • Feeling connected doubles the likelihood of individuals perceiving that they make significant impact at their organizations.

  • The Circle community started from a simple email invitation and grew intentionally to 20 countries with a focus on quality over size.

  • A curated and selective admission process helps build trust and ensures community alignment and safety.

  • Regular, structured sessions with a familiar rhythm (biweekly meetings, themed quarterly seasons) enhance commitment and participation.

  • Slow, intentional communication avoids overwhelming members with constant notifications, encouraging presence and focus.

  • High quality personal connections, including one-to-one video calls, foster deeper trust and peer support.

  • Interactive session formats like Water Cooler (open topic, voting-based discussions) and Dinner Table (hosted, thematic, story sharing) enrich learning.

  • Active member involvement in governance through councils and working groups sustains community relevance and continuous improvement.

  • Community design is an ongoing prototype that evolves with member feedback and changing professional landscapes.

Notable Quotes

"Half of the service design professionals do not feel connected to their peers, which is significant."

"If you don’t feel connected and you’re standing alone, the challenge looks much bigger."

"Respondents who feel very connected are twice as likely to say they’re making a significant impact."

"We design a community that would be missed if it were gone for our service design leaders."

"Everyone goes through quite an extensive application process, but it was stress-free and informal."

"A regular heartbeat and familiar structure are really important principles to keep a community alive."

"Slow and intentional communication allows you to be fully present rather than distracted by constant notifications."

"High quality personal connections mean you can engage on a level playing field with serious professionals."

"We encourage one-to-one video calls to build rapport and feel comfortable reaching out for advice."

"The community is an ongoing prototype; members have a strong, frequent voice in shaping what good looks like."

Ask the Rosenbot
Dave Malouf
The Future of DesignOps
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Tatyana Mamut
Opening Keynote: Breaking Conway's Law--or How to Work Differently and Not Ship Your Org Chart
2019 • Enterprise Experience 2019
Gold
JD Buckley
Communicating the ROI of UX within a large enterprise and out on the streets
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Mark Interrante
AI for Prioritization (3rd of 3 seminars)
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Natalie Dunbar
DesignOps and Content Strategy: Envisioning the Future Together
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Uday Gajendar
Day 2 Welcome
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Jim Kalbach
Jazz Improvisation as a Model for Team Collaboration
2017 • DesignOps Summit 2017
Gold
Jemma Ahmed
Convergent Research Techniques in Customer Journey Mapping
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold
Brigette Metzler
Scaling ResearchOps: Helping Researchers do Their Best Work
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold
Onur Kocan
Understanding the Strategy for Civic Design in a Complex City: Istanbul
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Joerg Beringer
Scaling User Research with AI: Continuous Discovery of User Needs in Minutes
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
Abbey Smalley
Today’s Design Ops and Programs Landscape & Career Paths
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Louis Rosenfeld
Opening Remarks
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Lena Shenkarenko
Collaborative Wireframing for Creating Team Alignment and Shipping Better Products
2020 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Ali Jeffery
How DesignOps Helped Enable Wall Street to Work Remotely
2020 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Peter Van Dijck
Building impactful AI products for design and product leaders, Part 2: Evals are your moat
2025 • Rosenfeld Community

More Videos

Anna Avrekh

"Being human, authentic, humble, and showing vulnerability can take you a long way as a research leader."

Anna Avrekh Dr. John Pagonis Klara Pelcl Sina Schreiber

Expert Panel: Leading in and with Research

March 10, 2022

Taylor Klassman

"The UX field's expansion leads to pushback—people ask why researchers talk about areas owned by others like OCM."

Taylor Klassman

Shaping the Next Era of UX Research: Collaborative Forum

March 11, 2025

Dr. Jamika D. Burge

"We have to figure out the strategic, unique value to our clients, stakeholders, and customers."

Dr. Jamika D. Burge Steve Portigal Alba Villamil Sam Ladner

The Future of Research: Bridging the Gaps

July 29, 2021

Marisa Bernstein

"Use plain language in all communication. No design or technology jargon."

Marisa Bernstein

It Takes GRIT: Lessons from the Small, but Mighty World of Civic Usability Testing

December 9, 2021

Dan Mall

"A key metric for a successful design system is how early the design system team is invited into project conversations."

Dan Mall

“Ask Me Anything” with Dan Mall, Author of Upcoming Rosenfeld Title, Design that Scales

October 2, 2023

Chris Geison

"Participatory research, decolonization, and research justice are vital takes on human-centered discipline."

Chris Geison

Theme 1 Intro

March 9, 2022

Bruce Gillespie

"The inverted pyramid shares details in descending order of importance so key information comes first."

Bruce Gillespie

Learning from journalism: Balancing impactful communication with compassionate storytelling

March 13, 2025

Nancy Douyon

"The nobility complex is when we in the West unintentionally create solutions without accounting for our own biases."

Nancy Douyon

We'll Figure That Out in the Next Launch: Enterprise Tech's Nobility Complex

June 15, 2018

Liz Ebengo

"Our job as innovation managers is to build the playgrounds where people play—designing the built environment to complement policy and sustain future generations."

Liz Ebengo

The Burden on Children: The Cost of Insufficient Post-Conflict Services and Pathways Forward

December 4, 2024