Show notes

S03E07 (#335). Lou Downe, author of Good Services and former director of design for the UK government joins us in this episode. We sat down with Lou and asked—Where is service design going wrong, and are we even doing service design?

Among the topics we discussed were: The complexity of modern services and the complete reliance on infrastructure, as well as the importance of service literacy for leaders.

“Sometimes it’s the first time that [managers] have seen or experienced the service that they’re providing. It’s a bit like a chef basically cooking a meal having never tasted it.” – Lou Downe

(Listening time: 41 minutes)

References:

• Full transcript for this episode (coming soon)
• Lou Downe
  • Website: https://loudowne.com/
  • Company: https://good.services/
  • Book: Good services – How to design services that work
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lou-downe-757a83b/
• Bad services: Why services fail and what we can do to make them work (Lou’s talk at FBTB 2024)
• Why we need service literacy now (blog post by Lou)
• We need to rewild the internet
• Recommended listening
  • Episode 193: Designing democracy with Dana Chisnell
• From Business To Buttons
• Covert art image credit: AFRY Experience Studios
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