Geke & Marie speak at the SD Global Conference 2013

Using our two year service design process with the Dutch National train company NS and the rail infrastructure company Prorail (which led to the new real-time information service), our very own Geke and Marie will talk about how a service design approach is used to support clients during their journeys of gradual change.

Service Design projects do not tend to magically transform the service offering and way of working of client organisations in one big push. Often, they involve a long trajectory of ‘small steps’, towards a more substantial transformation. The agencies STBY and Edenspiekermann worked closely with Prorail and NS to accommodate the research and design across a couple of stages.

The service providers were curious to try out what this new approach could bring them. By working in a highly transparent way, and involving the clients in the activities throughout the project, they started embracing the benefits of the more intensive contact with customers and the highly visual and iterative way of working. In the final stages they were very positive and explicit on how this approach catalysed their opportunity to develop and launch the new service, and how it gradually transformed their more traditional way of working.

One of the biggest values service design agencies can offer is to be committed to challenging long term transformation projects. STBY’s service design and agile collaboration approach ensures that we be as empathic with the organisation of the service provider as we are with the end users of the services.

The Service Design conference takes place in Cardiff (Wales) on 18th-20th November.