In short: In Service Design we often have to move from front stage to backstage and back, from the ecosystem to the details of the touchpoint and back. The fact that we never settle for long in one mode, that this is a dance, and always have to think about what are the repercussions for the other side can make it at times awkward. But knowing it in advance makes it easier to do it.

If you see me in one of my Service Design classes these days, you often see me doing physically a little dance. From hands high in the sky, to hands on the floor, From my body advancing, to my body going back. That's my little Service Design dance.

I tell the learners that this move from high level (ecosystem view) to down to earth (touchpoint) and from what the people we serv

e feel (front stage) and what the people who do the work feel (backstage) is the dance that we often end up doing in Service Design.

When you're working on the big vision and are very strategic, suddenly it's needed that you get your hands dirty and try a detail out. When you try out how it feels for the customer, you then need to see what are the implications for the staff who has to make this happen.

This back and forth is one of the biggest strength and akwaredness of Service Design. Because as soon as you feel comfortable in one part, the job requests that you get out of your comfort zone and explore the other side.

I use this dance as a way to contextualize why as a Service Design coach, when people are in one part of the job, I push them then to go in the other part of the job.

A little bit, like the Design Squiggle, can help people feel okay in the uncomfortable mess that the design process is, because someone said it's normal if it feels like that, the dance does the same for the repeating change of perspective that is requested in Service Design.