This is a copy of the Service Design Newsletter I sent on September 23d 2023. You can join the Service Design newsletter here to get future updates directly in your inbox.

Hi, lovely human 👋

This week, I've worked on this new Service Design content that I'd love to share with you:

• A little story about the idea of writing a promise to yourself 🤞

• An invitation to a demo of the TheyDo app and a Q&A about journey management 👈

• A new free course on design methods 🎁

• 4 new answers to Service Design Questions (about Design Sprints ⚡️ Design Books 📚 AI labels 🦾 and research 🔎 ).

• 1 backstage blog article 👀 about technical mistakes I've made in the webinars I've hosted

Greetings from Switzlerland,

Daniele 🧔🏻‍♂️
p.s. As always, you'll find all below for when you have the time to read this newsletter.

Write a promise to yourself

Often at the end of a course I give, be it physical or online, I give time to people to write a little letter to their future self.

Why writing a letter to yourself makes sense

In this letter, people can write for example:

• The key thing that they've learned and want to revisit

• The key thing that they want to change in their life or work, and check in with their future self to see if it's done

It's a simple technic that can be a good reflection exercice in the moment, but that can also be useful for the future.

Make it easier with a tiny tool

To make it easy, I often recommend to use the website futureme.org. This website allows you to send yourself an email in the future.

Make it easier with a template

The one thing I've done to make this process easier for people is to offer a template message people can use as a starting point.

Because, yes, it's kind of hard to know how to write to yourself in the future, it's not something we're used to doing. So a little help might be welcome.

An example of a template

For example, in my next book, I propose an exercise at the end for people to do exactly this by sharing with the reader a template message they can use:

’Hey, [Your name],
It’s been a month since you read the book “Service Design Principles 301–400”. I just wanted to check in. Did you implement any of the principles you highlighted?

If yes, congrats mate! You’re awesome!
If not, no worries. Life can be difficult sometimes.

But you can take two minutes right now to review the principles you highlighted in the book and pick only one. Do it now! Did you do it? Great, now block one hour in the next week in your calendar to start working on this. Sounds reasonable, right?

I wish you a great time making the lives of others lovely,

[Your name] of the past
P.S. You look fantastic today.’

What I like about this template

When we make promises to ourselves, sure putting them in writing enhances the chances that we keep the promise.

In fact there is research about that stuff:

"Our findings show that participants kept their word outside the laboratory while pursuing everyday activities even when there were no foreseeable negative consequences for breaking them, demonstrating that promises are effective levers for behavioral change" — Source

"people who very vividly describe or picture their goals are anywhere from 1.2 to 1.4 times more likely to successfully accomplish their goals" — Source

But still, let's be honest:

• Sometimes, we forget about promises

• Sometimes shit happens, and we can't keep a promise

So it was important to me that when people recieve an email from their past self with a reminder of a promise that they might have broken, that this message doesn't bring people down thinking:

• Shit, I forgot about that!

• One more super hard thing to do today!

• I hate myself

Instead, I wanted people to feel that it's okay if the plan changes, but still they can honour their intention by thinking strategically: what's the tiniest thing I can do to make a step towards the idea I had?

So maybe try it out today:

What's a promise you want to share with your future self?

This Tuesday: Webinar, Product Demo and Journey Management Q&A with TheyDo's co-founder Jochem van der Veer

​​This webinar is made for those interested in Journey Management, Service Blueprints and customer journey mapping.

With this event that I host for the Swiss Service Design Network, I'm trying a new format: A demo of an app that can help service designers followed by a Q&A.

As always: yes there will be a recording, so join to get it in your inbox even if you can't attend live.

Save your seat for free

New course: An Introduction to Design Methods

I'm teaching a new class called "Design Methods Refresher" in the Spatial Design Bachelor of the Lucerne School of Art and Design. For that class I've created a companion online course that you can also access.

In it, I share:

• My favourite design methods

• A short reflection on "just enough research"

• A short reflection on how to keep the design process fun

• A list of 10+ methods libraries

Get the course for free

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. Can a Design Sprint work for any problem?

2. How can I use AI responsibly in my Service Design work?

3. How can I turn open questions into numbered data?

4. How can I read quality design books on a budget?

Backstage blog articles

I love to explain how I'm building educational content. I'm trying to be as transparent as possible so that it might motivate others to create such content, too. These are the latest blog posts I've written:

1. A few mistakes and lessons learned when running webinars