I always hear people say that a good CEO should have a product approach to thinking. However, service design thinking might be more effective for CEOs. I will be discussing the differences between product thinking and service design thinking with regards to user experience, dimensions and characteristics.

Take a vase design as an example. Product designers create products. Service designers are different in that they create ways to enjoy flowers.

Since ancient times, Chinese people have invented many elegant ways to enjoy the essence of flowers and to achieve the harmony of body and mind.

Poets and writers curated phenomenal experiences with music, wine, incense, guzheng and tea. They can enjoy flowers with opera, drinks, fragrance and even with a cup of tea. Don’t you think it’s awesome that the colour, taste and scents of flowers were enjoyed by ancient people? 

In modern times, we have more novel ways to enjoy flowers with the help of service design. We can enjoy flowers with audio guides to learn stories and even with virtual reality where we can scan them to receive knowledge about a plant including where it has been produced and even the medicinal properties of the herbs.

With wine

with incense

with GuZheng

with tea

This can also be combined with retail companies such as Zara Home and Tmall, who jointly launched a super brand a couple of days ago. Flowers from different places, combined with scents from Zara Home, can enrich the experience of the user through advanced technology. This creates a new customer experience and raises questions such as “What else can modern retail do?” Furthermore, there are couriers that can send flowers to homes and offices. Virtual farming has also allowed me to have many plants in my Alipay application where I can adopt plants under my name, such as a precious rose, in reality.

Therefore, this appreciation for flowers provides many opportunities for service design in the modern context. This is the difference between product design thinking and service design thinking. Product design pays more attention to the way users use the vase, whereas service design focuses on service providers, stakeholders, systems and organizations.

In addition, product designers focus on the dimensions of the vase that they are designing, whereas service designers focus on a “point-line-surface-network” process to integrate many design skills. This approach leads to the creation of a knowledge-based and enjoyable experience. Additionally, the product designer is more focused on the internal characteristics such as form, volume, context and cost, and the service designer is more concerned with the external cycle, say, the process of recovering flowers after one finishes enjoying them. This focuses on a holistic design ecology. Product design also has a sales sequence from production to sales and takes into consideration its competitors, but in service design producing, experiencing and recycling all happen at the same time. For example, the experience of buying a book, booking a trip or hosting a party have various comparisons that constantly change. This is the reason service design thinkers are interdisciplinary, and CEOs should adopt this method of thinking in the future.

 

The opening point is that service design thinking is essential for a good CEO rather than product design thinking. 

The presentation began with the story of a vase design, comparing service design and product design. Product designers design the vase itself whereas service designers concern themselves with the experience of designing flowers.

Then I reviewed how ancient people, especially intellectuals, enjoyed the flowers. I then explained the perception and the realm of sensory experience (five senses). 

Therefore, I ask the question, “In what way can we see flowers today?”

Shanghai, China
President CBi China Bridge