▶️ Can a service designer survive a recession?
▶️ Can a service designer survive a recession?
Service Design Questions and Answers
Basics of Service Design
Basics of Service Design
Examples of good Service Design
Examples of good Service Design
Learning Service Design
Learning Service Design
Service Design and others fields
Service Design and others fields
Service Design tools, apps and methods
Service Design tools, apps and methods
Service Blueprints and Journey Maps
Service Blueprints and Journey Maps
Service Design as a career
Service Design as a career
Hiring service designers
Hiring service designers
Coaching and Service Design
Coaching and Service Design
Service Design portfolio
Service Design portfolio
Service Design workshops and facilitation
Service Design workshops and facilitation
Service Design and Ideation
Service Design and Ideation
Service Design and research
Service Design and research
Service Design and Presentations
Service Design and Presentations
Service Design Principles
Service Design Principles
Service Design projects
Service Design projects
Service Design Books
Service Design Books
Accessibility and Service Design
Accessibility and Service Design
Sustainability and Service Design
Sustainability and Service Design
Service Design in government
Service Design in government
Service Design Philosophy and Mindset
Service Design Philosophy and Mindset
Service Design in Switzerland
Service Design in Switzerland
My two cents
In summary
Yes, if you can also provide a lean and low-hanging fruit approach that is focused on the present
No, if you are "only" focused on long-term strategic work
The service designers who struggle during recessions
Let's first explore the no answer.
When the economic situation is hard, people tend to stop looking at the future and are just focused on the now.
So they stop making big plans for the five and ten next years.
And instead, they want to find places where they can save money and make more with less to go through the tough times.
So in tough economic times, like a recession, we stop thinking strategically and go into tactical mode.
So for service designers in very strategic positions, working on very strategic projects, a recession might be an alarm signal.
The service designers who thrive during recessions
But obviously, not all services are the same or do the same type of job. There are service designers who are pretty much focused on improving services as they already are today.
These are the service designers who look at the backstage of a service to find places where we can do more with less.
These service designers take out the pain points of employees so that they can be more productive.
Skills needed during a recession
So what skills can help a service designer go through a recession?
Skill 1: Low-hanging fruit
A get-the-shit-done approach, where you are focused on the good enough and very practical stuff. If you can find the simple things that you can change that have a big impact on the finances or the processes of the company. Then you are someone your organisation will want to keep.
Skill 2: Business understanding
A good understanding of organisational design and business design can help you when the time of restructurations will come.
You might be in the team of people redesigning and reorganising the workplace.
Skill 3: Lean approaches to design
In tough economic times, a lean approach is something that is especially loved. Therefore get curious about lean research, lean Service Design, and all the approaches where we do more with less, like Jugaad innovation.
Going further
If you want to go further on this topic, I'd recommend watching the Service Design Show episode 179 with Patrick Quattlebaum from the Service Design agency harmonic.
In this episode, Patrick reflects on the evolution of Service Design, the tough times of COVID and recessions in the US.
More Service Design questions and answers like this one
Check out all the questions about Service Design as a career.