An Introduction to the Why Service Design Thinking Podcast
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Welcome to Why Service Design Thinking, the podcast that helps businesses do things better and do better things. I am Marina Terteryan, your host and the founder of this podcast.
Before we get started with the regular programming, I wanted to take a few minutes and talk to you about the purpose of this podcast and what you can expect from the episodes.
Service Design is an important practice in business that is quickly increasing in popularity. There are many different ways to define it, but at its core, it is the process with which a business can innovate its offerings, provide delightful customer experiences, and solve problems.
These days, services are everywhere, in both the private and public sectors. For example, service based businesses account for 80% of the GDP in the United States, and 70% or more in Japan, Australia, and the countries in Europe.
Service Design is a subsection of a method called Design Thinking or human-centered design so you’ll hear a lot of those terms used throughout. There are a few cornerstones of this practice, which include gathering insights through different forms of research, developing ideas with multi-disciplinary teams, and testing out different experiences.
Throughout the podcast, we will discuss each of these concepts in detail. And of course, we will talk about about why service design is important and why it is not a luxury but a necessity for a business to thrive.
It is my goal to make this podcast as educational and entertaining for you, so there are four unique components of this podcast:
The episodes will contain a very specific interview with industry experts that focus on one of the important topics in service design. For example: we’ll talk about gathering consumer insights, developing a service blueprint, or creating a prototype for an idea. Each guest will give us invaluable insights as well as actionable tips that you can implement immediately.
We will have special episodes that feature case studies, with in-depth examples of how businesses are successfully implementing service design and design thinking.
Each episode ends with a design challenge to encourage you to try out service design in your own business. You can share your experiences right here on this website and get feedback from the community.
You will notice that this podcast does not have a traditional theme song the way others do. Instead, the episodes will lead with an improvised jazz riffs by talented jazz musicians. This is partly a tribute to my love of jazz and my history of working in the jazz industry. But jazz music also has a lot of fascinating parallels to design thinking plus insights on teamwork and creativity, that we can learn from, all of which we will explore further in a future episode.
So who am I and why am I so excited about service design?
I am a design strategist and entrepreneur in Los Angeles, with a background in marketing, and a history of working with corporations, nonprofits, and business of all sizes. I operate The Why Lab, where I help businesses create human-centered strategies through service design, business design, and integrated marketing.
I discovered service design a few years ago, when I attended a 3-day event called the Global Service Jam. This event made me realize that Service Design is the actualization of my biggest core values: innovation, empathy, strategic thinking, collaboration, and problem solving.
At the time, I was working with small businesses and nonprofits on marketing strategy, and it became immediately obvious that there was a knowledge gap between this game-changing processes of service design, and the business community that could benefit from it the most.
Currently, I work with businesses and lead workshops and events in Los Angeles, including serving as a co-organizer of the Global Service Jam Los Angeles, which started it all. I am also currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Global Strategic Design Management at Parsons Paris in The New School.
It’s safe to say that I’m pretty much in love with service design and the design thinking process. So with all of this energy, I hope to serve as an ambassador for this topic and bring together members of the community with helpful resources and discussions.
If you want to keep in touch, you can sign up for the mailing list, so that I can send you lots of useful freebies and bonus resources that won’t be available anywhere else. And I would also love to ask you to take a moment and hop on to iTunes, Stitcher or your favorite podcast app, to rate and review this podcast. It will go a long way towards helping spread the message and building our community.
And of course, I would love to hear from you so please do reach out, to share your own case studies, introduce me to a potential guest, or just say hello.