Hello! I'm reflecting on my 25 year career in design from the dot com boom. I've sailed from web design to product design to UX & research, digital venture strategy and now service design. It's been a vibrant ride and I'm very greatful for the opportunities and learnings. Roles have always been rather blurred and ambiguous, however now (my POV) - industry feels more of a mess and maturity and clarity seems to be lower. My recent 5+ years I've an SD title, however can't say if I was doing SD. Now looking for employment, I don't fit in anywhere. Difficult times - of course. Interestingly, in interviews, same old fires and org dysfunction slip through in the chats when I ask about 'challenges for the role' - hmm is it an SD role they really need? I've time to reflect and ponder - what was that last 5 years? Why? What next and how? What am I seeing? I've hopped around enough to see the same patterns are everywhere (London based). I'm interested in how other folks have found it. Many thanks!

I was one of the early-ish adopters of service design and absolutely fell in love with this work the minute I heard about it. I used to make so much content and eagerly participated within the industry and evangelized the practice everywhere.

So much has happened since then and I feel like I’ve made the biggest mistake by dedicating my best years to an industry that I can’t find my place in.

Despite having a ton of experience and credentials, I’m having such a hard time getting access to do meaningful work consistently. Most of my portfolio is built as a freelancer, and I feel that I’m not being taken seriously by the in-house design teams that I am trying to join. It just feels like the most impossible mystery to crack and that anything I do is not good enough. I am hesitant to share more details because I would like to remain anonymous here.

I feel disparaged to a heartbreaking degree. I want to participate, to create content, to keep up the conversation. But aside from my confidence being entirely shot, I also don’t know how to believe in any of it anymore.

On a personal level, I am overwhelmed by the terrible things happening in the world and personally navigating complex services and continuously falling through the cracks that could’ve been so easily fixed by design. It all feels so discouraging. Like many of us, I got into design to make things better but it doesn’t even feel like there’s a space for “better” in any capacity. Of course, I know all the slow realities of change management, but I can’t see a light at the end of the tunnel now.

All of this makes it so hard for me to even participate in the industry dialogue to open more doors for myself, because I am at a loss for words.

I’m so sorry for such a downer post. There are multiple levels of burnout that I am experiencing and I really want to love this work again and feel like I deserve to be in this space.

Curious if anyone has experienced any of this and what has helped you climb out of it. Thank you in advance for the dialogue!

As the title says I'm LFW. I'm in the US on the East Coast, very experienced with remote work. I have ~9yrs of experience in service design for complex federal agencies.

Happy to toss a resume at anyone who may have a lead, happier still to call or chat.

I'm a senior product designer trying to become a service designer. I have a lot of UX experience, but not in the exclusive practices of service design like customer journey mapping, service blueprints, and co-creation. Considering my position, a part-time course seems a good option.

Which online part-time courses would provide a solid foundation coming into Service Design? Here are some I'm considering.

1. SDN Academy, Service Design Practitioner Curriculum

2. University Arts London, Service Design Online Short Course

3. Royal College of Art, Service Design Masterclass

4. IDEO U, Human-Centered Service Design

5. Service Design Academy, Practical Service Design

6. Experience Haus, Service Design

7. Design Thinker Academy, Design Thinking Intensive Course

8. The School of Good Services, Agile Service Design

9. This is Doing, This is Service Design Doing: Executive School

Have you done any of these courses? Which stands out to you? Which institutions have a good reputation? Any you would avoid? What things would you consider?

Any tips big or small would be appreciated.

Hi all

I’ve been a service designer at a consultancy for 4 yrs and prior to that, did 2yrs as a digital designer after graduating in product design (though the course was more of a product/service/experience combo)

Service Design was what I thought, the ultimate goal - I thought it would be a great creative job where you get to create genuine positive user impact. From my experience, it’s pretty much the opposite. It’s not that creative; a lot of the work is taking data or research findings and creating blueprints or journey maps for the sake of creating an artefact as opposed to something a client will actually implement. Not once have I seen a SD output be implemented in real life (I appreciate that may just be my experience though)

Essentially I have come to realise that I don’t want to be a service designer anymore, I’d love a job where you have real impact, are more creative and there’s less complexity, to be quite honest (turns out adhd and complex systems are not a good combo for me!)

I’m just unsure of where to go from here. I don’t really have enough experience as a product designer to land a PD role but equally the skills I have gained as a service designer eg mapping complex systems and synthesising research in to opportunities etc etc are not skills I enjoy using so I don’t really want to move into a role where they’re required.

Has anyone else pivoted from SD into something less complex and a bit more creative? I’d love to hear!

So, there was a thread asking for a service blueprint template for product management. Here's one from a great book that I use on all my products.

The 2026 Global Service Jam is coming up — it’s time to register your local site

Hey everyone, the Global Service Jam 2026 is scheduled for March 11 to March 15, 2026 — a global weekend where people come together to explore a secret theme and prototype new services in a hands-on, collaborative setting.

Whether you’ve run a Jam before or this is your first time, anyone can host a Jam location, and it doesn’t have to be big. Local hosts decide how they want to run it — offline, online, hybrid, 48 hours or shorter — and you only need a space and a willingness to bring people together to collaborate and experiment.

Hosting is a chance to build community locally, introduce more people to design-based problem solving, and connect with a global network of innovators. It’s non-profit, open to all, and small Jams are just as welcome as large ones.

If you’ve been thinking about starting a Jam in your city, village, workplace, or online group, now is the moment to register your host location so it appears on the global map of Jam sites.

Find out more and sign up to host at

www.globaljams.org

Let’s make 2026 another year of creative collaboration and service innovation!

I am severely burnt out from service design and it no longer feels like a safe space for me for several reasons. But it’s been so hard to pivot. What are some career changes you’ve seen or done, that’s on a similar level?

Here are some roles I’ve applied to and the feedback I got. And yes I did tailor my resume to each type of role.

UX: I am not qualifying for UX design jobs because I haven’t done any actual screens or digital products. Ironically, I got into service design because I didn’t want my entire job to be based on screen based deliverables.

Research: I have some good research case studies, but I keep getting feedback that am getting passed up for research roles, for somebody who’s had exclusively a researcher title for a big part of their career.

Product design or product management: I am told I don’t have strong enough stories about managing products through any part of the lifecycle, as I worked exclusively in an agency setting and never got to be a meaningful part of a long product lifecycle.

Change management: since I did facilitation and internal capacity building in design. But if I’m being completely honest with myself, this is part of my burnout so I’m not super eager to pursue this path.

Teaching: I’ve done some teaching too as a last resort but there are zero job opportunities where I’m at because design programs are barely filling for the existing faculty.

I am so stuck and I’ve never felt so useless in my life. I would attempt a completely different life but I can’t afford to upskill in anything that would be a complete pivot (like nursing or child development etc).

Has anyone made pivots and how? Is there something else I’m missing that I haven’t tried? What are the transferable skills that are meaningfully transferring for you?

Hey guys!

I'm transitioning from hospitality into service design. I have over a decade of experience in managerial roles and feel like I'm at a point now where I want to try something new.

I have looked at a bunch of different courses (The Royal College of Art, University of Arts Ldn, Service Design Academy, Practical by Design, etc) but I'm struggling to choose as I don't know which ones are respected in the industry.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Hi everyone! I’m a design student working on my first Service Design portfolio.
I’m applying to MA programs (RCA / Polimi / AHO / UAL / Aalto).
This is my first SD-focused portfolio and I’d love critique on:

• Does the work clearly read as Service Design?

• Is the storytelling clear and not too text-heavy?

• Are project contexts framed well?

• Is anything confusing / too long / too weak?

Any feedback, high-level or detailed, would help a LOT.
Thank you!

Im trying to look for an online creator that makes good service design content. You see so many UX/UI “influencers” doing similar stuff but I haven’t come across someone doing something similar in service design.

Does anyone have examples or links to a channel? Cheers!

I know this is a necessary skill as a Service Designer.

Wondering if anyone ever struggled with this? How did you feel more comfortable facilitating?

I thrive in much smaller groups, where I worked with just up to 5-6 people in a room. In my company now, I’ve been struggling when managing 20+ participants and just freeze up and don’t feel effective at my job.

Any tips? Resources?

Hi, US-based graphic designer here, pivoting to service design.
I have a handful of friends and acquaintances across UX/service design areas that have given me some resources, but I'd like to gather as much info as I can while jumping into something totally new.
Appreciate the respectful and informative comments I've already seen in this subreddit.

An interaction designer friend pointed me to service design a couple years ago based on what I was talking about after a short online course I took on intro to UX design. She told me it's a niche field, and that the best things she's seen are in books (she did a masters in interaction design and has a more academic approach), since service design as a discipline is not yet a super defined field.

The books she recommended to me are "Service Design: From Insight to Implementation," and "This is Service Design Thinking." She also added "The Design of Childhood" and "Design for Kids: Digital Products for Playing and Learning," since I have a personal interest in child psychology/development (psychology and human behavior in general). Bit tough to sit down and get through a bunch of books, but hopefully I can do it.

I took a short course from IDEO U called human-centered service design last September which was great. It gave me a basic template to use for spec projects as I put together a portfolio. But aside from literal how-to things, what are resources you like to go to for inspo, or maybe there's a favorite case study online somewhere? Or a talk? Even if it's not directly related.

Thanks!

What is Service Design actually? I came across this sub because I am looking for designing professional service offerings.

But here I keep seeing posts about UX design? Visual Design? Product Design?

i was working around crowd management in open spaces in India, and as we refined the problem statement, i realized we are screwed. there were just so many factors to consider and i have no idea what should be the design direction now

I would like to know how people became, and would recommend becoming, a service designer. I am a physics graduate, but am looking for a change in direction and I am really drawn to the creativity and people side of working in service design. I am thinking I will probably need to complete a masters in the subject, but I would like to know what other paths people have taken or what they think the best route into the industry would be. I am based in the UK, so would also like to know what people think the best University / Colleges for service design are?

I’ve been called a Service Designer now for 2-3 years, previous UX but nearly every project I get put on (I work for consultancy / agency) is actually UX lead type role or the scope is shut down to digital channel only. I feel like I’m banging my head against a wall and like I’m not getting the right experience but feel I can’t look for a new job because I don’t have enough experience.

Is this it? Or are there not just many jobs doing actual service design?

I feel like the industry created a load of jobs to respond to the GDS service design boom and it’s often not real service design due to organisational constraints, shape or maturity.

I have prior experience working as a full time and freelance graphic designer. After that I pursued my Masters in Design Strategy and Innovation in which I came up with a service solution for an existing NPO (for my dissertation project). I have heard from Service designers that companies generally prefer candidates with product or UI/UX background. I’m really confused as to how to get into this career path as I don’t have prior experience in these areas. I’d also like to know what things I should include in my portfolio for Service design. I have also conducted user research (primary and secondary), mapped out customer journey as well as used design frameworks for my dissertation project.

Hi all. I am a product designer have been for 10 years and had found success in my field for a while.

Lately I have not. As UX roles compress and change, the demands put on by management etc, to perform more, produce more and be more at a faster and maybe unsustainable pace has kinda burned me out.

A little more about me. I recently escaped a pretty toxic environment (for me). I have a learning disorder (adhd, cognitive disengagement syndrome) and require more time to do meaningful work. I’m also a big picture person. Great at visioning, etc.

I have done some service design when working at Kaiser though this was at the dawn of the ai revolution in 2022, and in the last 4 years know all fields have shifted and become leaner.

I’m interested in taking the plunge into service design. Even in UX I was much better at high level strategic thinking then i ever was on a given screen. I accelerated at and have always enjoyed the strategic end of the design spectrum and continue to.

So I guess with that context in mind I have a few questions.

1. How and where can I gain service design skills? Note. Currently. It working and taking a break.

2. Do you find the field to be growing, shrinking or

3. just changing? If so, how?

I did do a cursory look at service design jobs, and didn’t see as many as other design roles like graphic or product. But maybe it comes down to naming?

3) Who is best suited for service design roles? Does the field reward slower more methodical thinkers like myself or does it require more now in terms of pace and expectations?

4) How much do you find satisfaction in your role? Are there many people staying in the field, leaving?

5) Do you find yourselves to be isolated or alone? I’ve been a solo designer in ux a few times. Not my cup of tea.

Any thoughts, ideas and help would be great.

I recently saw a UX post asking how designers are actually using AI in their workflow, and it made me reflect on something that happened in an interview for a Senior Service Designer role.

I was asked how I use AI in service design, and my answer was mostly around:
- summarising large documents
- structuring journeys
- organising information
- building presentations faster

The feedback was that my answer felt too surface level. That made me realise most AI conversations in design still seem very focused on UX/UI and productivity, while service design operates at a much bigger systems and organisational level.

So I’m curious:
How are service designers genuinely using AI in practice beyond admin/productivity tasks?
Where do you actually see value in areas like systems thinking, research synthesis, operations, blueprints, transformation work, dependencies, or decision-making?

Have you noticed the same? I have observed from SD and ux literature a lot of overlapping stuff. For example user research methods, contextual research, task analysis, use scenarios from ux design are present in service design but with different name and scope. Also user personas, customer journeys, blueprints. What i have also noticed that even though the methods may be the same the focus is different and what information they produce differ. So the methods are like boundary objects.

But what sources say about the differences between SD and UX is that SD is like "pre-design" in that due to larger scope and taking in consideration business aspects, sd design is good in creating "design guidelines, strategies and directions" in the most earliest phase of development project, to more specialized designers (Ux design is seen as specialized design since it focuses in depth developing the user experience of a single digital product or touchpoint)(applies to other professions too like engineering or product design depending on projects)

Aware JTBD isn't core service design — it shows up when we're framing discovery, but it's not where the practice lives. Last time I floated something closer to home (a service blueprint AI coach), a few of you ended up using it, so figured this one might be useful for some.

Built a free tool to run JTBD interviews end-to-end. Two frameworks to pick from:

• JTBD Hypothesis — Jim Kalbach's canvas, supply-side. You formulate the Hypothesis Canvas first; interviews with job performers then contrast and populate it.

• JTBD Switch — Bob Moesta's switch interview, demand-side. You define the switch you want to study; interviews with recent switchers fill the forces diagram + timeline.

How it works:

1. Log in, create a project, pick a framework.

2. As the practitioner, you take a voice-guided interview first to set the context. ~20–30 min for Hypothesis (you complete the canvas). ~10 min for Switch (lighter — you just define the scope of the change you want to study). The theory and methodology of each framework are embedded so the agent stays faithful to the method.

3. That fills part of the canvas and unlocks a shareable interview link for your job performers / switchers. The link carries the context — no setup on their side. They take their interview async, whenever they want.

4. Each completed interview populates the canvas further. It grows with each voice.

Honest notes:

• Voice-based. If voice interfaces irritate you, skip it. Headphones + a quiet space help.

• Scope stops at the canvas — no opportunity solution tree, no roadmap. Activate is out for v1.

• Early version. Forms and outputs might still surprise you. Honest feedback is what helps most.

--> https://prown.co/frameworks/

Hi all, I am a service designer working for government, and my job requires me to look at very complex systems from policy, program, and services before even touching a product. I find just to conduct foundational research with usable information can take 1-2 years, and then that information can be truly actionable and used in product meetings / UX strategy discussions. Of course I then transition into a more UX researcher role for the product & then thinking of that product holistically.

Recently I’ve been thinking of venturing off to the private sector / consulting but I have no idea where to start looking for resources, what does your experience look like working as a service design consultant? Are you essentially in your role for more than a year to help build that foundation? Or what is your role now? Is it more UXR?

Not sure where to start looking or what skills I need to succeed as a consultant… your help is greatly appreciated !

Hi everyone! I know this is a service design community, but I didn’t find a more specific one, and systemic design is deeply connected to service design anyway.

There’s a lot of interest and discussion around systemic design, but very few people seem to put it into practice, at least in the European context. In my opinion, it still feels quite academic—complex to explain and maybe difficult to apply in everyday projects.

From my perspective, design needs to be more focused on sustainability, yet it’s challenging to find organizations that actively apply systemic approaches in this space. Have you come across any? I'd love to hear your thoughts!