As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the shutting down of basically everything (and, of course, a desire to keep everyone safe and healthy), we had to cancel the STLX event we had scheduled as part of Global Service Jam. And as many of us have seen, our work has become suddenly remote, with no real idea of when this may end.
Remote work, especially in the experience and service design fields, presents some unique challenges, so we pulled together a “Remote Worker’s Workshop” to share insights and experience, as well as some ideas for how to best thrive in what looks to be a new normal (at least for a little while. In three sessions presented by STLX members (thank you everyone who put something together for this!), we talked about the various aspects of successful remote XD work.
Remote work – the basics
When it comes down to it, the work you need to do is basically the same whether you are in the office or remote. But, as the saying goes, context matters and your physical environment plays a big part in the context of your daily activities. In this session we will share tips for creating your own personal work context and take your questions and suggestions based on your own experience. Featured Speakers: Ken Moire of Spry Digital and G. Brett Miller of DSA, Inc.
Communicating and sharing while Remote
The key to successful remote and distributed work is the concept of working out loud, also known as observable work. Depending on how “out loud” your company works at the office, the transition from in-person to remote work may require anything from a radical change (if you rely on a lot of face to face communication and share files on local network drives) or not much of a change (if you are already working out loud by using digital tools for your communication and sharing). Either way, this session will help you make sure that you and your team(s) have the capabilities you need to work out loud and be successful while working remotely. Speakers: Martha Valenta of 1904 labs & Brian Schwartz of Centric Consulting
Stay organized and think visually
The first two sessions provided insight into the where and the how of successful remote work. This final session gets to the heart of remote work, namely the work itself. In this session we will look at how you can keep your team(s) organized and on task and discuss some of the tools you can use in support of your design & research work. Speakers: Nathan Lucy of Booz Allen Hamilton and Holly Schroeder of STLX
We hope these sessions are helpful for you in the coming weeks (months? years?) as we all figure out how to make this all work.
Sustainable Design Thinking inspired by the Ikigai Source : complexus.fr and @maga-lik
That being said, I’m here to argue that without integrating the needs of our ecological and social fabric, design thinking is obsolete. Not only does it generate less value, it also directly contradicts the “human-centered approach” that IDEO claims since its beginnings in 1978. I will go as far as saying that Tim Brown himself, consciously or not, knows it.
Since it began operations in 2010, Uber has grown to the point where it now collects over $45 billion in gross passenger revenue, and it has seized a major share of the urban car service market. But the widespread belief that it is a highly innovative and successful company has no basis in economic reality.
Service design is no longer new or unknown. The practice is maturing as service design firms gain experience and organisations start to bring service design in house. Journey maps are all the rage, and everyone is talking about designing for the end to end customer experience. So what does it take to be a great service designer? How is it different from other design disciplines? What is the craft of service design? How might you build service design into your team? This talk will tackle these question and provide a foundation for exploring service design further.
Product development isn’t just designers working alone – we need engineers, product managers and marketers to help us realize our plans and connect people to our creations. Using service design helps us be better collaborators and cultivate these all-important relationships with others.
In other words, wicked problems are real world problems that acknowledge the complex interdependence of diverse factors and stakeholders, rather than simplistic, linear cause and effect abstractions that isolate the product of design from its context.