Service Innovation & Design

  • Gaps with cultural twist

    The gaps model The gaps model of service quality was developed by Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry in 1990. It is a useful framework for understanding service quality in an organization. The gap model consists of 5 gaps (one customer gap and four provider gaps). The most critical service quality gap is the customer gap –…

  • A Library Paradigm Shift

    Someone says “library service design”, so obviously, I am interested. And what a fascinating project it was, as part of the Service Design Achievements: the turning of a university library into a learning center – for real, not just in name. The recently formed, but with old roots, Aalto University Library, is really re-inventing itself.…

  • To me sound of SID is like a sound of music

    To me sound of SID is like a sound of music

    How I found my inner spark of Services Innovation and Design Thinking? I was one of the lucky ones who got in to Services Innovation and Design (SID) Programme at Laurea University of Applied Sciences. We newcomers met for the first time during our 3-day kick-off session in September 2014. I had high expectations for the class but I also kept…

  • Need for Service Design up in the Air?

    Have you ever read the story about the funniest customer feedback in the world? It is the one directed to Sir Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group. It was sent by a passenger who flew from Mumbai to Heathrow with Virgin Airlines and who wasn’t too happy about the food catering or the inflight…

  • Four tips to prevent innovator’s block

    How to get the ideas flow? What if the others think our idea is lame? What if we fail? These are some of the reasons why people struggle with innovation and I have also find myself pondering these same questions. “Ideas stand in the corner and laugh while we fight over them.” -Marty Rubin I…

  • There is no way round play

    There is no way round play

    How playing is a big part of change by design

  • How do we get a great idea?

    Well, finding the answer to that question is probably worth a fortune, but after our first course – design thinking- of the SID Laurea programme I have a much better picture of how to facilitate and enhance idea creation. In a few days a group of strangers became not merely acquainted with principles of innovation…

  • Turning to Design Thinking for New Ways to Create Innovation and Growth

    Participating in a two-day master class on Design Thinking (DT), taught by Innovation Consultant Gijs van Wulfen and Design Professor Katja Tschimmel, marked the starting point of my studies in the 2014 SID MBA group at Laurea UAS and also served as a great reminder of why earlier this year, I felt the need to…

  • Designing is about doing, not talking!

    “Design is all about action, and business too often gets stuck at the talking stage. Uncertainty comes with the territory when business objective is growth. But that doesn’t mean that you are powerless to do anything about it. You can’t make it go away, but you can manage it rather than allow it to manage…

  • Designers: Think BIG! … but also BEYOND and GLOCAL

    Designers: Think BIG! … but also BEYOND and GLOCAL

    Tim Brown, in his book Change by Design (100% recommended), urges a global change by what he calls Design Thinking. Tim proposes to the world a new way to face the upcoming challenges, the small but also the big ones. A new way of redesigning the world. He offers a tool usable for every person…