Product and service design

What is a product?
Is something tangible that a company makes
that will solve some problem experienced by a
customer.
Think Kreepy Krawly. Solves the issue of dirty
pools.
Relatively obvious.
 What is a service?
A service is an experience provided by a
company that solves a problem experienced by
the customer.
Think hair cut.
Can companies provide both products and
services?
Yes!
Think Apple iphone(product) and Apple music
(subscription service)

Many companies will provide both products and

services.
 Product design
When designing a product there are many methodologies
to use, however they all converge on this set of steps.
• Defining the product vision
• Product research
• User analysis
• Ideation
• Design specification
• Testing and validation
• Launch
 Defining the product vision
• It is important to ensure that all people on the
team are of one mind as to the direction the
project is going. At this stage the team will
have some idea about a problem that is being
faced and that there is a possibility of a
financial payoff if the problem is solved.
• A useful tool here is to define the criteria of
success. This will create goalposts to aim for.
 Product research
• In this step designers will start fully mapping
the needs of the customer. This will be done
via market research. Tools such as in person
interviews will be conducted along with online
surveys.
• A competitor analysis needs to be done to
determine whether there are any direct or
indirect competitors in the space.
 User analysis
• Based on data collected during market
research, inferences can be made about the
target market.
• Often a tool called personas are used.
– A generalised average consumer of the product
will be created in order to ensure that the product
created will satisfy their needs.
 Ideation
• During this phase the design team will create
many possible solutions. The idea here is to be
as creative as possible.
• Once there are many possibilities the weak
ideas can be weeded out
• Story boards can be used to put the designers
in the shoes of the users and see who the
products would solve the problems identified.
 Design specification
In this phase the detailed technical design
occurs.
This is mostly not a linear process and there will
be looping and learning done in the process.
Unfortunately gaps in knowledge will be
discovered here that may force the designers
back to ideation.
Prototyping will be an important tool to use.
 Testing and validation
• Before the product is released to a batch of
testers, use the design team as test subjects.
Its likely that the design team will pick up
flaws.
• Once this is done, allow the testers that are
external to the design process to test the
design. Unfortunately the product may end
up failing and the ideation section will need to
be revisited.
 Launch
• Once all testing is done and the design team is
confident that the product will be well
accepted, the product can be opened up to
the market.
 Service design
There are three main components of service
design
• People- anyone involved or affected by the
service
• Props – any physical/digital items that
interface with the customer.
• Processes – Workflows or procedures invoved
in delivering the service
Frontstage/backstage
• It is important that both the client facing as
well as the background processes are working
synergistically. You cannot have a good
customet experiece without having the
background processes working seamlessly.
• Special attention needs to be paid to user
experience. Refinement is key.
 Employee focus
• It is important to ensure that the process
design also ensures a good working
environment for employees.

Happy employees = Happy customers