Summary
Our panelists discuss the day's conference sessions. Moderated by Patrick Quattlebaum
Key Insights
-
•
Service designers must embed within organizations, shifting from external consultants to integral team members to enable real change.
-
•
Trust is foundational yet often unspoken in successful service design engagement and collaboration.
-
•
Facilitation skills are core to service design work, often more critical than craft or visual aesthetics.
-
•
Complex systems require embracing messiness and continuous probing rather than seeking fixed, linear solutions.
-
•
Service design’s unique value lies in orchestrating experiences by connecting organizational dots, not just user touchpoints.
-
•
Multiple disciplines see themselves as 'dot connectors' but service design’s orchestration focuses on experience and ecosystem perspectives.
-
•
Language and jargon can create barriers; transparent communication and co-creating shared vocabulary help inclusion.
-
•
Leadership in service design transcends titles; influence grows through relationships, care, and knowledge over time.
-
•
Reframing problems from stakeholders’ perspectives and testing assumptions collaboratively drives better engagement and outcomes.
-
•
The interplay between formal organizational structures, informal networks, and value flows shapes design opportunities and challenges.
Notable Quotes
"Gina was closing the dots and shifting perspective from a designer closer to the business."
"People appreciate when you acknowledge your limitations in blending into an organization."
"Design will never be able to stay static; it is how you show up responding to probing the system daily."
"If you want to bring dots closer together, you have to constantly notice how things change in the moment."
"Leadership is unlocking potential in people and processes and taking responsibility for doing that."
"We come in like water—hanging out, listening, figuring out where the blood flow is in the environment."
"Sometimes you have to make something wrong on purpose to learn and improve it with others’ help."
"Connecting dots goes beyond just linking user experience; it’s about engagement with the organizational system."
"Trust, facilitation, change, and complexity—if you wrap your mind around those, you’ll get reasonably far."
"Often we designers are in IT departments, separate from the larger organization; that boundary is a hurdle to overcome."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"When teams lose a sense of agency, they act strange, cutting corners and racing to get something out the door."
Standardizing Product Merits for Leaders, Designers, and Everyone
June 15, 2018
"The only people who can effectively map a space are those who work and understand that space intimately."
Simon WardleyMaps and Topographical Intelligence (Videoconference)
January 31, 2019
"We can’t solve systemic problems with surface-level solutions or checklists."
Sandra CamachoCreating More Bias-Proof Designs
January 22, 2025
"We’re all capable of creating and perpetuating toxic work relationships."
Darian DavisLessons from a Toxic Work Relationship
January 8, 2024
"After each interview, I input the transcript into ChatGPT and ask for three key takeaways that I can quickly share with stakeholders."
Fisayo Osilaja[Demo] The AI edge: From researcher to strategist
June 4, 2024
"Nobody wants to buy or use a sloppy product, especially when enterprise users engage daily for hours."
Uday GajendarThe Wicked Craft of Enterprise UX
May 13, 2015
"We formed a small core task force empowered to make decisions to avoid delays from formal reviews."
Davis Neable Guy SegalHow to Drive a Design Project When you Don’t Have a Design Team
June 10, 2021
"People were very adverse to changes because a small 0.5% conversion increase meant millions in revenue."
Eniola OluwoleLessons From the DesignOps Journey of the World's Largest Travel Site
October 24, 2019
"Product managers feel design is a black box; they want visibility, transparency, and accountability on timelines."
Aurobinda Pradhan Shashank DeshpandeIntroduction to Collaborative DesignOps using Cubyts
September 9, 2022
