Service Innovation & Design

  • Why, why, why Design Thinking? 

    “It’s not ‘us versus them’ or even ‘us on behalf of them.’ For a design thinker it has to be ‘us with them’”.  –Tim Brown  Reflections by Marita Ruotsalainen and Katja Räisänen The workshop days of Design Thinking with engaging pracademic Daniela Marzavan felt like looking at something familiar through a pair of new glasses…

  • Everyone is creative, even you!

    Everyone is creative, even you!

    Written by Tero Kauppinen and Edrish Md Abdul This SID article integrates insights from two workshop days focused on practical Design Thinking and creative thinking, along with the book ‘Creative Confidence’ by Tom & David Kelley (2013), and two articles ‘Design Thinking’ by Tim Brown (2008), and ‘Design Thinking Comes of Age’ by Jon Kolko…

  • Let us unlock new tools with Design Thinking

    Reflections by Tuukka Savinainen & Showmen Rudra The themes of the days became noticeably clear during the teaching, and the understanding of why something grew during the teaching also increased. We went through the entire design thinking process in service design and experienced the power of activating thinking through various exercises.   Design Thinking is a…

  • Design Thinking: from discomfort and failure to intriguingness and success 

    We think that we had inspiring and pragmatic teaching on design thinking during the contact days in Leppävaara campus. As we heard from Marzavan (2024) design thinking is slowly starting to be integrated in major corporations, institutions, organizations and even some governments such as the German government has at least one person with design thinking background…

  • Design Thinking: A Powerful, Yet Imperfect Tool for Innovation

    Design Thinking refers to a human-centered, iterative approach for solving complex problems, often leading to innovation. The process involves empathy, creativity, and experimentation, helping teams come up with solutions that may not emerge from traditional methods. Over a weekend learning experience, we delved into the nuances of Design Thinking, gaining insights into both its potential…

  • Who can be a designer?

    Who can be a designer?

    Reflections on empathy and inclusion in the design field By Rosa Yang and Stinne Vognæs Neither of us are designers, so what does it mean to do a part-time service design degree as an adult? Will we ever be able to claim the “title” or “identity” of a Designer? After our first two-day workshop on…

  • Design Thinking Journey: From Head to Heart to Hand with a Skill Bag

    Reflections by Judyta Kontoniemi and Namrata Sethi Design Thinking. Sounds simple, right? Just follow the classic 6-stage Design Thinking process, reserve a couple of hours, get a room with a whiteboard and brainstorm a solution. Without involving real end users. There is much more to it. Let’s find out what Design Thinking is really about.…

  • Design thinking – There are no one-size-fits-all solutions

    Reflection by Nikhil Agarwal, Heini Hutinen and Sahan Ganegama Design thinking has emerged as a dynamic, multifaceted approach to problem-solving, blending creativity, user-centered insights, and structured methodologies to foster innovation. Reflecting on the literature and discussions surrounding design thinking, several key insights arise, highlighting both the potential and complexities of this approach. A Shift from…

  • CULTIVATING RESILIENCE, A RAY OF HOPE

    Ups & downs… but they remain… resilience is not the result… they were already like that… they discontinue their activity… but they rise again, like the phoenix… result of their true alignment with their mission and values … they can just not help it. Fragility is a constant in small to medium NGOs, that have…

  • From design thinking to design your life: Don’t think, experience!

    Written by Linh Duong and Mira Airola.  Do you know that Finland is in fact the forerunner in the service design field? Finland has the highest proportion of service and business designers, at least until 2016 (Adair, 2018 from LinkedIn Mar 9, 2016). Finland has the highest proportion of service and business designers (Source: Adair,…