Service Design 2011

The four contexts of service design

Darren Menachemson

Before the detailed design of a complex service concept starts, there are four pieces of context that need to be established:

  • The strategic context (why are we doing what we’re doing?)
  • The business context (what are we changing?)
  • The user context (who are we developing the service for?)
  • The capability context (what skills do we need to do it?)

These are critical elements of an intellectual architecture that should ultimately guide the big decisions about how the service will come together.

The four contexts can be captured as a set of highly visual products (Blueprints, Capability Maps, User Pathways) that get created progressively through a series of co-design processes.

In this talk, Darren will guide you through each of these four contexts, describe a very practical process for bringing people together to understand them, and show you how you can create a set of design artefacts that will capture them beautifully.

Audio

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Presentation