Service designers are not the smartest people out there. However, they do have a very practical mindset. So, when they see an interesting technique that was developed in another field, they will quickly steal it and adapt it to suit their own needs.

Example one: Using surveys when they are the best

Instead of criticizing other fields, service designers will copy what they like 👍 and remove anything that’s not working for them.

I often hear some qualitative researchers say that they don’t have any trust in surveys. As a service designer, I look at quantitative research tools like surveys with a different approach. They are awesome to understand general trends as well as yes-or no-answers. I use them a lot in the early stages of my research. But as a service designer, I’m not interested in putting a number on how people rate things. I’m more interested in why they rate it like that. And for this, I’ll never use a survey.

Example two: Using concepts without understanding all the nitty gritty details

Service designers are not afraid to use the findings and research of smarter people as an inspiration 💡, even if they don’t understand every detail.

The same goes for me with behavioral economics. I don’t understand every detail of all the theories. But I find the concept of cognitive biases extremely interesting.

A cognitive bias describes a systematic way in which people make decisions that may seem irrational.

I use the list of cognitive biases as an inspiration to improve the services I work on. Do I completely understand the theory behind all the findings? No. But can I use the findings to make my work less shitty? For sure! This helps me steal elements from behavioral economics. I can use the tendency that people have to give more value to stuff if they were a part of the creation process in order to create better services. That’s what behavioral scientists call the IKEA effect. 

But even today, I don’t understand every word in the research papers about cognitive bias. And that’s absolutely okay.