Organising the Process of Developing New Services

Bill Hollins of Direction Consultants and the University of Westminster had to explain the idea of service design to AIGA experience design London. He seemed resigned to the fact that it needed explaining. The relevant standard, BS7000 pt3 (1994), is only purchased by manufacturers. 'Service providers don't seem to realise you can design a service,' he told the packed room at the Design Council in late April.

Hollins pointed to several features that distinguish a service from a manufactured product: services are not tangible, transportable or storable for peeks in demand. They are harder to judge for quality. And they involve customer contact, so that production and consumption takes place at the same time.

Only 17% of service providers had an effective process for designing new services, he said, and of these most of them developed a greater turnover from recent product launches than the norm. 'The main reason for failing products is not understanding the customer,' he added. Market research and a tight set of specifications is essential. These specifications need recording in such a way that they can be referred to. Doing this work up front saves costs later, when failures are avoided.

His team at Westminster are currently researching the use of specifications in the service industry. At present, he’s finding a rate of about 50% for respondents who have seen a specification in the last seven years; and most of these described what they'd seen as poor. 'Service design is still not managed in an organised manner,' he said. 'Providers are not adequately in control of new products.'

His audience challenged his assertion that written specifications were needed, saying they slowed down the process and could be seen as a paper pushing exercise. But 85% of decisions are made and finances committed in the first 15% of a project's life, he warned. Asked what the difference between planning and service design amounted to, he said there was little difference except planning theory usually lagged behind. And he agreed with the person who pointed out that the service design standards should be 'instantly visually stimulating' rather in than the boring, closely printed presentation style that is used now.

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