{"id":195,"date":"2016-04-29T10:11:23","date_gmt":"2016-04-29T10:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/expogroup\/2016\/04\/29\/diving-deeper-with-service-design\/"},"modified":"2018-12-09T23:43:23","modified_gmt":"2018-12-09T23:43:23","slug":"diving-deeper-with-service-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/theexpogroup.com\/diving-deeper-with-service-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Diving Deeper With Service Design"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Recently,\u00a0Corey Kelley, The Expo Group’s\u00a0VP of Technology and Process\u00a0traveled to Pittsburgh to participate in the annual Global Service Jam, a 48-hour event that highlights the value of service design.\u00a0 The Exposure sat down with Corey to get his thoughts on the event and find out what he learned.<\/p>\n

THE EXPOSURE: \u00a0First off, what is this Global Service Jam and how did you find out about it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Corey:\u00a0The Global Service Jam is a 3-day event where people from different industries get together at different \u201chost\u201d locations throughout the world to solve a service design challenge.\u00a0\u00a0 I found out about it through MAYA, a human-behavorial design firm based in Pittsburgh that works with\u00a0The Expo Group.\u00a0 Consequently, I attended the GSJ at MAYA in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

NOTE: MAYA worked with The Expo Group on the extraordinary Invisible Exhibitor and Invisible Attendee White Papers<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Corey Kelley and his teammates ready to fill up that white board.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

THE EXPOSURE What was the challenge this year?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Corey:\u00a0\u00a0Ha – part of the challenge was figuring out what the challenge was. \u00a0In the past, the challenge has been more concrete – something of substance. \u00a0This year, the challenge was revealed to us via sound.\u00a0<\/em> Not a word or a problem – \u00a0just a sound . \u00a0The interpretation of the sound was up to your group. \u00a0We interpreted it as the sound of a rock or stone being dropped into a pond. \u00a0 One thing we espoused from the start was that the ability to embrace ambiguity is essential to good service design – don’t go immediately into problem-solving mode. That led to a lot of whitespace and brainstorming to allow each team member to generate ideas and work out areas to try.<\/p>\n

THE EXPOSURE: So it sounds like this was a chance to really embrace the power of brainstorming. Did you learn any techniques?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Corey:\u00a0Sure – since we were all pretty much strangers, we used improv games to break the ice like, \u201cYes and..\u201d where you build upon other people\u2019s ideas with no negativity. \u00a0This was used to get positive vibes flowing and put everyone in a comfort zone in order to bring about collaborative ideas. \u00a0And of course, the white board came in handy – you\u2019ve never seen whiteboards until you\u2019ve been to MAYA – they\u2019re everywhere! \u00a0One of the simple yet useful techniques we used is called Rose-Bud-Thorn – it’s used to highlight the bright spots of an idea (Rose), the pain points (Thorn) and the possibilities on the horizon (Bud). \u00a0 And of course we also created paper prototypes, did field surveys, made props and role-played to really bring ideas to life – all in a \u201cjam\u201d packed weekend.<\/p>\n

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Just two of many white boards filled with ideas.<\/span>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

THE EXPOSURE: What did your team come up with based off just a sound?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Corey: \u00a0The sound clue reminded us of a rock being thrown into a creek or pond. \u00a0That, in turn, reminded us of skipping rocks. \u00a0Skipping rocks took us down a path of times when we connect deeper with friends and family – like when we\u2019re skipping rocks with our family. \u00a0Yes, I know it\u2019s a stretch, but stay with me. \u00a0Ultimately, we decided to create an app that would help to forge deeper relationships with people we choose to have relationships with –\u00a0aka \u201cKerplunk\u201d. \u00a0Kerplunk allows you to dive deeper into relationships by facilitating face-to-face interactions among friends, helping them to get out of superficial online-only interaction – it comes with a relationship health meter and is automated to suggest meet-ups, etc. \u00a0 We thought the app would have been\u00a0great in real life, but in reality, Global Service Jam is more about the journey than the actual solution. Although I really do like that name. Kerplunk.\u00a0Turns out it was a game created in the 60\u2019s?<\/p>\n

THE EXPOSURE: \u00a0I don’t think I’ve played it but that’s a great name.\u00a0\u00a0What is your biggest take-away from this event?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Corey:\u00a0Definitely the\u00a0relationships I was able to form with the amazing MAYA designers and the GSJ attendees – now if I only had\u00a0the Kerplunk app to measure these relationships! \u00a0Aside from that, the opportunity to apply collaborative problem solving techniques with people from different backgrounds and different industries was a lot of fun – everyone brought a completely different\u00a0skill set. \u00a0We utilize a lot of human-centered design techniques here at The Expo Group, whether it\u2019s for our customer journeys or our software designs, so the tools weren’t necessarily new. \u00a0However, doing this with a team of strangers brought about a different approach that definitely translates internally into what I think will be even stronger collaboration efforts. \u00a0With that said, I think another big take-away would have to be the practice of getting ideas out of your head and onto the wall, no matter how ridiculous they might be. \u00a0Along those same lines, \u201cstop talking and start making\u201d – it\u2019s easy to forget this when you\u2019re trying to create a nirvana solution – creating the perfect solution without feedback has a high rate of failure. So having the opportunity to apply rapid prototyping and getting feedback early in the process was a nice takeaway as well. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Corey Kelley is\u00a0The Expo Group’s\u00a0VP of Technology and Process and is looking to buy an original Kerplunk game off Ebay.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

You can find more information about Global Service Jam here.<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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