This is Service Design Thinking by Marc Stickdorn and Jakob Schneider Summary

This Is Service Design Thinking provides a comprehensive guide to designing customer-centric services through five core principles: user-centered focus, co-creation, sequencing interactions, evidencing value, and holistic perspective. It blends theory with actionable tools like customer journey maps and service blueprints, supported by real-world case studies. Ideal for innovators, it bridges disciplines like design and management to enhance user experiences.

Entrepreneurs, UX/UI designers, product managers, and organizational leaders seeking to improve customer experiences will benefit most. The book offers practical methods for breaking down silos, reducing development costs, and fostering collaboration across teams. It’s also valuable for academics studying service design’s interdisciplinary approach.

Yes—it’s an award-winning resource praised for its actionable frameworks, including 25 service design tools and global case studies. Marc Stickdorn’s expertise as a service design strategist and co-founder of Smaply adds real-world credibility. Readers gain strategies to visualize intangible services and align stakeholder efforts.

1. User-centered: Prioritize customer needs at every stage.
2. Co-creative: Involve all stakeholders in design processes.
3. Sequencing: Map interactions as a structured journey.
4. Evidencing: Make intangible services visible through artifacts.
5. Holistic: Consider emotional, physical, and environmental touchpoints.

The book provides tools like personas, stakeholder maps, and prototyping techniques to align teams and reduce redundant workflows. For example, Smaply—software co-developed by Stickdorn—helps visualize customer journeys, enabling organizations to identify pain points and improve service delivery.

• “Services should be experienced through the customer’s eyes”: Emphasizes empathy and user perspective.
• “Make the intangible tangible”: Encourages using visuals like blueprints to clarify service processes.
• “Everyone can be creative!”: Advocates for inclusive, cross-functional collaboration.

Unlike product-focused design, service design addresses dynamic interactions between users, employees, and systems. It treats services as evolving processes (e.g., a bus route’s efficiency depends on rider input) rather than static outputs. The approach integrates continuous feedback loops and interdisciplinary methods.

Examples include public transportation optimization and digital service redesigns. These illustrate how sequencing touchpoints and co-creating with users lead to improved efficiency and satisfaction. One case highlights using mobile ethnography to gather real-time customer data.

• Customer journey maps: Visualize user interactions across touchpoints.
• Personas: Represent target users’ needs and behaviors.
• Service blueprints: Align backend processes with user-facing actions.
• Prototyping: Test service concepts quickly with low-fidelity models.

It advocates for “co-creation” workshops where stakeholders from diverse roles (e.g., marketers, engineers) jointly ideate solutions. This breaks departmental silos and ensures services align with both user needs and technical feasibility.

Some note the book’s academic tone may overwhelm beginners. Others suggest it focuses more on theory than step-by-step implementation. However, its companion volume, This Is Service Design Doing, addresses these gaps with hands-on guidance.

With digital transformation accelerating, its human-centered principles apply to AI-driven services, remote user testing, and omnichannel experiences. The rise of tools like ExperienceFellow (for mobile ethnography) further validates its emphasis on real-time customer insights.