In this article, I want to share with you the process I follow to produce my weekly service design newsletter.

Small burns writing

It's often easier to work on things a little bit every day with a tiny effort than to block big chunks of times where you have to work hard. Tiago Forte calls this idea working in small burns. Here's how I apply this for my newsletter.

Before you can even apply this idea you need to have a system where to put all these small burn pieces of work. I do that in my Newsletter notion database.

The overview of my newsletter database in Notion. The first column has all the newsletter ideas. In the center is the newsletter I'm working on for this week. On the right are the archives of the newsletters I've sent, with a link to the backstage blog where I archive the final text I've sent.

1. Add notes every day: Each time I create or update a piece of content, for example, a question I answer about service design or a new service design principle, I add its title in a bullet point list to keep track of it.

2. Have it as a favourite: in the sidebar of my notion app, I've pinned the newsletter of the week as a favourite page. So it takes just a second to get to that page.

3. Explore first in a webinar: In the service design webinar 005, I explored the first ideas of newsletter stories with a little presentation. I then used the transcript of the webinar as a first draft I could improve for the newsletter and cut it into different editions.

Using templates

I use the template feature of the Notion app to reuse the same structure for my newsletter every week. So whenever I start, I never start with a blank page.

When I create a new newsletter in my notion database, it automatically uses two templates:

1. Template for the changelog: with the titles and descriptions of the main categories of service design content I work on, I can then add bullet points with links to the content that has been created or updated.

2. Template for the story: with the Five Light Bulbs Messaging Framework that helps me to write a story that is compelling to people when I struggle to write a good story.

An example of the Five Lightbulb messaging framework turned into a template in my notion newsletter database.

An example of bullet points part of the changelog template in my weekly service design newsletter

Creating a chain of beliefs

Before someone can benefit or even start using my service design content, they have to agree on a few premises. We can consider these premises like a chain of beliefs that you have to build to onboard people. 

For example, in my case, people have to believe that "Service Design is something that can be useful for me" or that "Service Design can be simple" before they get value from my work. Because if they think: "This stuff needs years to master, and you can learn it only from academic books", they'll hate my writing style.

This is something I learned from the newsletter of Billy Broas, the creator of The Five Lightbulbs.

Here are a few examples of such stories that make these core beliefs tangible:

1. Good enough service design: there are small things that you can do and which already have a big enough impact on the people you serve

2. We all serve others: designing experiences and services is something that all of us do. If you throw a party, you have designed an experience.

3. The power of rules of thumb: rules of thumb, stories and concrete examples are stronger for learning than academic stuff. It also makes something really niche, like service design, more accessible to a wider audience.

4. The Service Design Curse: learning service design changes how you look at the world around you. It's both a curse and a blessing. 

Later I plan on turning these core belief newsletters into an automated onboarding email sequence that people will get once they register for my newsletter. 

Where I publish my newsletter

My little service design newsletter is shared through various channels and formats.

1. Academy website: that's the main location where I send the newsletter.

2. Backstage blog: I keep an archive of every newsletter I send since I'm running it weekly in the backstage blog.

3. Linkedin: People can now register for the newsletter via my Linkedin Profile. Without much effort or publicity, 1000+ subscribed there. 

4. Service Design Magazine: my legacy blog on Medium, where 860 people are registered.

The tools I use to run my newsletter

For the curious nerds, here is a little overview of the apps and tools I use to write, prepare and illustrate my newsletter.

1. Notion: to capture notes and write the first draft of the newsletter

2. Podia: To edit and send the newsletter.

3. Grammarly: To proofread the newsletter content and make my foreign English sound less weird

4. Undraw: to illustrate the newsletter with a branded colour.

Join the newsletter

If you haven't yet, I recommend you try my weekly Service Design Newsletter. Each week I share in it a changelog of all the service design content I create and one key story.

Written on December 17th by Daniele Catalanotto