Service Innovation & Design

  • Free Design Thinking Models to Help You in Your Project

    Free Design Thinking Models to Help You in Your Project

    by Miikka Paakkinen Design in a business context looks to answer two questions: what problems are your customers facing, and how might we solve those problems while providing the best possible experience? Design thinking models can help you in your quest for the answers. Along the way, they might also assist you in asking better…

  • A beginner’s guide to Design Thinking

    by Jenny Kurjenniemi Simply put, Design Thinking is a process for creative problem-solving. This means solving any kind of problem, from how to secure clean water supply in developing countries, to how to create the kind of service that people will be interested in and gain financial value for the innovation. It’s good to understand…

  • Design Thinking – Be creative and fail fast

    “What if I´m not creative?” – Of course you are, we all are – otherwise we don´t survive in this world. Prof. Katja Tschimmel This is how our lecturer, Prof. Katja Tschimmel, answered the question when our two-day Design Thinking module started at Laurea. An interesting journey started for all the new Laurea MBA Service…

  • Should design thinking really be human-centred?

    While reading Tim Brown’s “Change by Design”, I was touched by the story of the ORAL B toothbrush found among the rubbish deposited on the beach. Through this story Tim Brown asked himself and us about the responsibility of designers and design thinkers when designing. That resonates with me. We’re responsible for creating sustainable, eco-friendly…

  • Utopia or Dystopia? How is the Future Looking like in Service Design?

    Utopia or Dystopia? How is the Future Looking like in Service Design?

    By Salla Kuuluvainen I recently attended two events which made me think about futures thinking and it’s relation to service design and innovation. Innovation, by definition, is an act that reaches towards the future, and and engages the innovator in creating a future that may be something they wish for.. or not. How can we…

  • We Should All Be Interested in Ethical Questions Related to AI

    We Should All Be Interested in Ethical Questions Related to AI

    by Miikka Paakkinen This post is the second of a two-part blog series on design topics related to artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. Click here to read part one on trust. Note: I will not go deeper in to explaining the concepts of AI and robotics in this post. For a summary on the technologies…

  • What makes design thinking so appealing?

    by Piia Hanhirova Inspiration, encouragement and empowerment. In my opinion, those are the most important values and aspects, which design thinking offers, and the reason why it appeals to so many people regardless the field they work in or are busy with. Design thinking underlines the deep understanding of people – their needs, wishes and…

  • Show, don’t tell! – How prototyping influences the design process

    Post-its, Legos, markers and posters in the hands of over 20 overly-excited students can be the makings of a chaos. But with an experienced teacher or a facilitator it can actually turn into many nice service ideas or concepts. As part of the study unit of ‘Design Thinking’ we got to learn that a lot…

  • Nokia at Helsinki Design Week: Innovation in an enterprise

    As part of Helsinki Design Week this year, Nokia spoke about the role innovation plays in Nokia’s present and future. It was exciting to learn how Design Thinking can have a big impact on the whole organisation. In this blog post, I share my favourite takeaways from the talk.   A small design team can…

  • Palmu Society: 10+10 – The Future of Service Design

    Event: Palmu Society: 10+10 Time: 20.9.2018 klo 8.30-13 Place: Tennispalatsi, Helsinki The service design agency Palmu, now part of Solita, celebrated their 10th anniversary with an inspiring event that brought Palmu’s talented professionals on stage to discuss the next 10 years of service design and related topics from various angles. Designing things is natural for…