Service Design During the Later Development Phases: Introducing a Service Design Roadmapping Approach

Abstract

User centricity and user involvement is increasingly emphasized in Norwegian legislations related to service development in the health and public sectors. The service design discipline has emerged as a relevant and popular alternative to accommodate the requirements of user involvement. At the same time, the service design discipline has been criticized for lacking implementation competence. So far, there has been a focus on the earlier phases of service development both in service design practice and academia, while the later phases have received less attention. This chapter focuses upon the later development phases, in other words implementation and the transition from testing and piloting to an operationalized service. In this transition, the focus lies on the handover from service design consultants to the client. The topic of service design handovers is explored through an interview study with Norwegian service designers and civil servants. The interviews point toward a key challenge related to handovers, namely, how the clients can be supported in their further work, after the service design consultants have left, more specifically, how clients can make use of the service design material during implementation. This chapter presents a promising direction for service design handovers, by introducing the concept of roadmapping for service design. By combining findings from the interviews and technology roadmapping (TRM) research, the chapter introduces an approach I call service design roadmapping. Lastly, issues that are important to consider when further exploring service design roadmapping are discussed.