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Make this yours. Duplicate this page into your own Notion workspace using the Duplicate option in the page menu, top right. Then run the five experiments over the next few weeks, in the job you already have.
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This plan sits beside the guide on five things to understand before becoming a service designer. It turns each of the five into one small experiment you can run where you already work, so you can decide from experience and not from job adverts.
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The one rule. Try the work before you change the title. Each experiment should take an hour or two and use a real service. Write down what you did and how it felt while you still remember.
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The service I will use for these experiments
Why I picked it
Who I can ask for help
What I do today
What draws me to service design
The date I will review this plan
One for each of the five things in the guide. Fill in the last two columns as you go.
| Area | The experiment | What to look for | What I did | How it felt: energising, neutral or draining |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scope | Write down every step of one service, including the steps on paper, on the phone and in silence | How many of those steps a designer could have touched | ||
| Systems | Ask an engineer or an operations colleague to draw what happens after someone presses submit | Which constraints are rules and which are habits | ||
| Facilitation | Run one short session where two teams walk through the same case together | Whether the room was looking at the same problem by the end | ||
| Research | Interview one person who operates a step of the service | What they do when the process does not fit the case in front of them | ||
| Working across organisations | List every team and organisation the service depends on | The handovers where nobody is clearly responsible |
One line each time you do something. Short is fine.
| Date | What I did | What I learned about the service | What I learned about myself |
|---|---|---|---|
The experiment I would happily do again
The one I would avoid
What surprised me
What I still need to find out
Who I will talk to next
My next step, and the date
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Judging the job by its diagrams. A blueprint is a small part of the week. The experiments show you the rest of it.
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