Service Design Jam Learning

Last month, I participated in the Global Service Jam which is a yearly weekend event around the world calling multi disciplinary teams together to cook a myriad of Service Design ideas around a common theme. The theme this year was ‘Grow ’. It had to be revolutionary Service Design idea with a prototype ready within 48 hours. The environment, people & the process were immensely conducive to create some path breaking ideas and that too with teams of people I was meeting for the first time. Unlike reading endless theory about all of this, this hands-on experience brought forward an insightful understanding of these 6 ingredients to strive for so called ‘Innovation in Service (or actually any) Design’ while conceptualizing an Idea.

 1.Random Real Collaboration is Motivating
The Jam encouraged the practice of bouncing off your ideas quickly on the table to get instant feedback and to build on ideas of others too. My team worked on the idea of ‘Grow Your Own Energy’. When one teammate floated an idea of growing your own Vertical Gardens in Highrise apartments, some liked it but others thought it wasn't revolutionary or feasible. So, the team iterated on it together for an hour until we struck the idea of growing your own electrical energy while you work out in your daily gym. That was well begun…

 2.Build Multifaceted Teams
Around 70 of us were divided into three teams of absolute random selection. The Architect in our team had some Brilliant ideas around taking this idea to an urban design level whereas the Management Graduate ensured we were well within some figures and the Engineers got all the Energy Calculations right.

3.Stop Watch can be a good Design Driver
The 4-2-1 ideation and the first round of brainstorming, took almost around 4 hours and we were still not sure if we had hit Gold. But, the constantly ticking stopwatch only kept us taking ahead. It made sure we had no time to get suffered by Analysis Paralysis. The Choose-Evolve-Discuss-Design cycle was so fast that it could do anything but fail.

4.Know your Numbers
Always keep a track of figures in your Business Model. Being a designer this for me is a Herculean task. But, it’s an inevitable skill. And one has to start soon on this in the ideation cycle.

5.Generate Instant POCs
Animation, Video Making or Simple Story Boarding : Service or Experience Designers should be able to use these skills to create quick Elevator Design Pitches. Any concept without these has high probability to remain only a CONCEPT. Quick Feasibility checks helps in screening of those Sounding -Practical -But -Actually- Utopian ideas. We did some quick multimedia presentations with skits, sketches, 3d animation all together.

6.Narrate Your Full Story with Aids & Actors in the End
Storytelling is that magical skill which finally wins hearts (and investors). Reinforce your idea with Smart Stories.

Looking forward to next Jam for more already!