This is a copy of the Service Design Newsletter I sent on August 6th 2023. You can join the Service Design newsletter here to get future updates directly in your inbox.

Hi lovely human 👋

This week I want to share with you:

• A short story about how I heal my impostor syndrome 💊

• 4 answers to Service Design questions (three about mapping methods 🗺️ and one about how to get unstuck ✅)

Greetings from Switzlerland,

Daniele 🧔🏻

A good medication for the impostor syndrome

I’ve been doing this for years and didn’t know it had a name!

That’s the reaction I had when I discovered that the technic of mapping what you know, think you know and don't know has a name! It's called a CSD Matrix, and it's something that the lovely Luis Alt first named.

It's the same reaction I got when going to the Service Design Global Conference. Listening to the talks, I said to myself:

That's stuff I also do!

Seeing that others use the same technics is reassuring and inspiring.

It's reassuring because, let's be honest, even with years of experience, most of us still have a huge impostor syndrome. So it feels nice to be able to say: the smart guys it that company do it exactly as I do!

It's inspiring because every person who practices a certain craft, like Service Design, has subtle differences in how she practices it. And when people write about these little differences, you can improve your own way of working.

Reading how others in your field work, and going from time to time to a conference can be great medications for impostor syndrome.

These are two medications I take to heal my impostor syndrome. What are yours?

New Service Design Questions

I'm slowly building a library of answers to the most common questions about Service Design. Here are the new ones:

1. How do I get unstuck in a project?

2. How can I describe or map my ideal customer?

3. Which research methods should I use and when?

4. How can I map what I know and don't know before starting a project?

Wednesday could be an impostor syndrome healing moment.

On the 9th of August, I'll interview Marc Fonteijn about "The Future of In-House Service Design". It's a free one-hour webinar organised with the Swiss Service Design Network. Usually during these events we all have such "Oh there is a name for that!" or "Hey! I'm also doing this!" reactions that can help you impostor syndrome (obviously I'm sure you'll also have a few "Oh that's smart!" reactions).