We help clients learn about service design and design research in different ways, depending on the needs and context of the learners. These range from senior-level courses focusing on strategic managerial roles, for companies deploying these disciplines to grow their business, to trainings that prepare participants to take on new roles or tasks within their organizations at an intermediate or junior level.
Sometimes STBY is the key developer of the course, such as for instance for the University of Amsterdam Business School. We developed an eight-week post-graduate course on Design-Driven Business Innovation, in collaboration with professor Wietze van der Aa of the AMSI (Amsterdam Center for Service Innovation). This course has already run successfully for 3 years with students in the final year of their MA, and has now been opened up for professional education as well. Participants practice on real-life cases for partners (e.g. Philips Innovation), or develop an individual project connected to their own work, so they can take these approaches directly into their organization. An eight-week in-house course for Cap Gemini used a similar project-based approach.
At other times STBY’s offer consists of focused modules on service design or design research within existing, more extensive courses. For instance, we teach a service design component as part of one of Yellow Walnut’s professional education course for entrepreneurs, titled Growth Class. The program is entering its third edition this year. In this program, we discuss projects and principles to give insight into the rationale how service design is deployed, and the ways it pans out in practice. As part of an Emerce Service Design course, we give a guest lecture that helps marketing, communication and other professionals at intermediate level understand where design research for service innovation can play a role in their work. At the International Master Course in Hospitality at the Hague Hotel School, we coach students during an 8 to 10-week module in which they work for a real client (e.g. Schiphol Airport and FC Utrecht). They receive a challenge, and create a pitch as their final deliverable.
For all of these courses, we adapt the level, intensity and duration of educational activities to the course objectives, the learners and the context. Different combinations of theory and application are needed for different professional levels and roles.
