Just came across a very cool app that helps small teams keep track of who is doing what on individual tasks that make up a project. The beauty is that it ties into your email threads and does not require anyone to become a slave to a new piece of software or database or website. Check out: www.issueburner.com

Sometimes service design can be hard to explain because it should be so damned simple and obvious, right?

So here’s a link to a great article from The Toronto Star newspaper that ran in December of 2009, which I just saw today (thanks Twitter!) The article explains how Israel handles their airport security and compares it to the process in the U.S. (And airport security is even a bigger mess now than it was 11 months ago.)

In reading this article, I realized that this is a near perfect example of great service design and terrible service design. And yet, the phrase “service design” is never used once in the entire article.

Airport security is a service, paid for by our taxes and our airline fares. It is about people interacting with people and process and technlogy. Airport security is something that we’ve all experienced. So read the article and see how:
- One is logical and effective. The other is not.
- One balances what the customers need with what the service provider needs. The other does not.
- One combines the best of technology and people. The other relies almost exclusively on technology.
- One is quick and efficient with both time and money. The other is not.

This is service design!

Two guys come up with product idea – a “kickstand” for the iPhone than can be used to add value to the product. But to manufacture the “Glif“  they need to raise $10,000 to make the plastic injection moldings. So they turn to a fundraising website, Kickstarter to “pre-sell” the product, hoping to get 500 people to pledge $20 to buy one. (If they don’t raise the $10,000 commitment, then people who pledged don’t have to pay their $20.) Their fundraising period just ended; they raised $137,417 from 5,273 people. The Economist has just published a great story about this experience.

Our three takeaways from this story:
1 – The iPhone is a whole economic eco-system until itself.
2 – Anything can always be made better thru good design.
3 – Create value and money will follow.

Kickstarter – as a web service – is a great example of service design facilitating product design.

How much time and effort does it take to go out and talk to your customers? I’m not talking about calling them on the phone. I’m talking about going out to where they work, live or play to engage in a meaningful conversation with them. To observe their surroundings; to see what they see and to feel what they feel.

Here’s a better question: what does it cost if you don’t talk with your customers?

In the case of the U.S. government and the Homeland Security Administration, one recent failed project has cost the U.S. taxpayers over $2 billion USD. Why? Because in the rush to get the project done, no one ever thought to go ask the people on the ground – the ultimate end-user or REAL customer – what they wanted or needed. No one put on their boots and suntan lotion to actually go out into the desert to see what people actually needed to do their job more effectively. Amazingly, this happens every day in business – from small projects to large, from new brand launches to roll-outs of massive software systems. Watch the brief video excerpt from 60 Minutes below to learn more…
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Wawa is a very successful chain of convenience stores located in the Philadelphia area which has expanded into a number of states in the Mid-Atlantic region. Wawa has a great partnership with PNC Bank, wherein PNC runs the ATM network inside all Wawa stores. For years they’ve had “no charge” ATM fees for Wawa customers, so regardless of who your bank is, there is no charge for using the ATM. (Of course, this helps drive traffic to the store – get some cash, and while you’re there, grab a hoagie.)

There’s a great user interface feature on the PNC ATMs that I’ve never seen on any other network. Once you do a transaction, the ATM will ask you if you’d like them to remember this as your preference for the future. What PNC has realized is that when most people go to the ATM, they get the same amount of money every time. Whether that’s $40, $100, $150, chances are that you’re plugging in those same numbers each time.

To speed the process, they simply ask you: “We notice that you just plugged in $100; would you like this to be your default amount for future transactions“? If you say yes, then it’s all set up. Right now. I basically slide my card in, put in my pin number, and it comes up and prompts me: “default amount” or “other”? I press one button and am done. And by the way, that also includes language preference. Most ATM machines now prompt for multiple languages but again, why confirm your language preference for every ATM transaction?

Small steps, yet so simple and so brilliantly executed that you have to wonder why every ATM doesn’t do it. Kudos to PNC!

Think about this today: What steps or requirements or hoops are you putting your customers through that are unnecessary?

An article in today’s Wall Street Journal discusses how hospitals are using the consumer version of the online virtual reality game, “Second Life,” to train nurses, doctors and administrators in dealing with “what if” scenarios. If, as in other news out today, the U.S. actually does face a shortage of 150,000 doctors in the coming years, then watch for this type of training to become pervasive. A two minute video overview of the simulation is here (along with a 15 second obligatory commercial):

On my recent trip to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, my eye caught the logo of company exhibiting in a small booth. There were about four people there, with stacks of small boxes all around the booth. How could I not stop and ask what a company called “Quirky” did?

Turns out, they have a very innovative business model for product design and development. On their website, they have created a community for designers/thinkers/makers who collaborate with the stated goal of creating a brand new consumer product every WEEK. Everyone who participates gets a piece of the revenue of the launched product, with the inventor or idea catalyst getting the lion’s share, while others who provide feedback, comments, etc. get a relative portion, based on their feedback.

Once everything is locked down on the design side, the product goes on pre-sale on the website to assure that tooling costs are covered. Once a certain threshold of sales is hit, then the product actually goes into production and revenues start to get distributed. Since launching last summer, the site has 6 products that have cleared the threshold with another 17 in line waiting. A very clever idea indeed, creating a collaborative space for inventors who up to now, usually labor/suffer as individuals.

Could this idea be applied to service design as well? Sure (and probably is in various forms on the Web) but it’s much more difficult, since service ideas and concepts are much more “portable” and easy to launch than the logistics involved in actually creating manufacturing molds, tools, packaging, shipping, etc. Still, a great model of innovative thinking. Here’s a quick video…

Should companies protect consumers from themselves? That’s the question raised in the recent case of the teenager in California who, once added to his Dad’s Verizon Wireless account, ran up a bill of $22,000 by downloading over 1.4 gigabytes of data on his cell phone. Dad did not have a data plan, so…. as the meter ran (and ran and ran) Verizon was charging Dad by the byte.

In this particular case, Verizon agreed to waive the fee after the story got a ton of press. But typically, on an “oops I made a mistake” case like this, Verizon will split the charge with the customer. (So, Dad would still be on the hook for $11,000!)

The website The Consumerist raises the question: why not create a fail-safe system that would alert a customer if there was an unusual spike in their usage? Credit card companies have done this for years, mostly related to preventing fraud. But is it the job of a corporation to prevent customers from spending too much money on their goods or services? How about sellers of luxury goods or automobiles or casinos? Should companies become their “brother’s keeper?”

Actually, we would suggest a middle ground. When signing up new customers, Verizon should provide the account owner with the option of being notified in case of a spike in usage or fees. They could even offer levels of 100, 200 or 500 percent over normal. These are (or should be) simple variables that can be plugged into their management systems that in turn, would add a great deal of value to customers, if they chose to participate.

(And no, Verizon – you shouldn’t charge for the alert service. Use it as a point of differentiation!)

The Wall Street Journal pointed out an interesting trend this week, in which many of the best known names in corporate America are reversing a long-standing trend and now going vertical with their business models. Using the recent acquisition of Sun Computers by Oracle Software, CEO Larry Ellison plans to transform Oracle into a maker of software, computers, and computer components, and a services arm which will look more like the large computer conglomerates of the 1960s.

According to the Journal, vertical integration is “a 100-year-old strategy in which a company controls materials, manufacturing and distribution. Others moving recently in this direction include ArcelorMittal, PepsiCo Inc., General Motors Co. and Boeing Co.”

What’s causing this trend? Volatile commodity prices, financial pressures at suppliers and quests for new revenue, all of which have become more acute due to the recession. Ultimately, these companies want more control over their destinys and their customers. From our vantage point in the area of service design, one point not mentioned in the article was the role of the Internet on these changes. Since the Internet has made almost everything much more transparent and immediate, large companies can better control the vertical “stack.”

But in the end, time will tell if this trend stays or goes. As Mr. Ellison summed up: “We’re really brilliant, or we’re idiots.”

But then again, Ellison didn’t get to be one of the most successful CEOs (and the 4th wealthiest man in the world after Gates, Buffet and Helu) by being an idiot. Watch this trend.

We just added four new PDF case studies to our website, which can be found on our client list page. These include case studies about:

- ColorQuick, a software company developing game-changing technology in the printing industry. Our ethnographic research turned up new and compelling benefits for their target market.

- BlackGold BioFuels, an energy technology company that has a patented system for converting waste products into high quality bio-diesel fuel. We helped them design new services that support the technology product, as well as innovative new business models for rolling out their products and services.

- A major hotel chain and our work with them on designing new service revenue opportunities related to rapid developments in the Connected-TV space.

- A major luxury retailer and a series of card sort exercises we did for them related to a new product design initiative.

Also, after a number of requests from our business partners, we created a one-page executive summary about Frontier Service Design that can be downloaded here.

Read, learn and enjoy!