In April 2014, the PSS 101 research was presented at the Service Design and Innovation conference in Lancaster, UK. It was started as a yearly Nordic conference but has now become a bi-annual event with the primary aim of bringing researchers and practitioners together to discuss, share and evolve the emerging discipline of Service Design and design-related Service Innovation. Together with Bas Raijmakers and Danielle Arets we co-wrote the paper 'Defining Values Through Collaboration' discussing what strategic roles designers can take on in the early phases of an innovation process.
"As the service sector within the global economy is growing at a rapid pace, design is called upon by the economy, society and culture to help address complex problems and build bridges between previously separate disciplines. Large organisations struggle to deliver new services that address complex problems, but do not fit into their organisational models. Designers are therefore asked to expand their traditional roles, and also address complex organisational re-structuring. In order to play these more strategic roles, designers, however, need be involved at the start of an innovation process and not – as is now the often the case – only towards the end. By using a ‘thinking through making’ approach the CRISP PSS 101 project introduces tools that facilitate the alignment of expectations and address the importance of trust and meaning within networks producing Product Service Systems."
This paper will be available here in the proceedings following the conference.