Repackaging things that exist is one type of simple innovation but there are many other types as well. I’ll quickly go through two practical examples with you. These show that stupidly simple solutions can also have a real impact.

Want a simple solution to lower your cleaning costs by 8%? Do what the Amsterdam Airport did. Just put a silly fly sticker 🚽  in the urinals. Men will stop peeing everywhere and will aim at the fly sticker. Boom! 8% less cleaning costs!

Do you want to have 100% more conversion on your website? Do what Telenor of Norway did. They removed 90% 🗑 of their website content and their conversions went up like crazy.

In my course 100 Service Design principles ⚡️, I have a whole chapter with the complete details on these examples and many more. This chapter is titled “How to Do Service Design Without a Budget for It?”. This chapter covers 20 simple solutions that have a real impact.

Okay, what does all of this mean for service designers. One thing they must do is to put their egos aside.

By doing so, they automatically accept to go ahead with the unsexy, simple solutions ✅, even if they look pretty dumb to everyone else. What matters is that their solutions work. The difficult part here is usually not to come up with a solution that works but to convince people, clients, partners that even if it’s simple, it has a lot of value and potential.