Perspectivas en Liderazgo y Pensamietno de Diseño en la Industria de Servicios

8/9/2019 Perspectivas en Liderazgo y Pensamietno de Diseo en la Industria de Servicios

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PERSPECTIVES ON DESIGN LEADERSHIP

AND DESIGN THINKING IN THE SERVICE INDUSTRY

Judith Gloppen

Tel: +47 93 08 59 74

Fax: +47 22 99 71 90

[email protected]

Oslo School of Architecture and Design

Pb 6768 St. Olavs plass, 0130 Oslo

Norway

International DMI Education Conference

Design Thinking: New Challenges for Designers, Managers and Organizations

14-15 April 2008, ESSEC Business School, Cergy-Pointoise, France


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INTRODUCTION

Figure 1: The Brand Touchpoint Wheel(Voss & Zomerdijk 2007, adapted from Dunn & Davis).

The rise of service innovation

The EU economies are increasingly becoming service economies. As a growing professional and research

field, Service Innovation is widely seen as necessary for improving growth, competitiveness and welfare in

Europe (Rubalcada 2007)1. In this context, design is recognised as an important contributor to an innovative

organisations performance. This is reflected in different domains of education, literature and publications. In

education, joint programmes between business and design schools are being developed to create design-

minded business leaders for the future. Leading proponents of this approach in education are The Rotman

1Rabalcada (2007).


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School of Management, the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology and Stanfords new

Design School (d.school headed by IDEO founder David Kelly). The centrality of design-inspired

innovation appears in recent research literature (e.g. Utterback et. al 2006) and the Harvard Business Review,

Design Management Review . It is also often aired in a range of popular publications such as theFast

Company Magazine andBusiness Week.

Success in todays markets and future ones depends increasingly upon market leadership via the use of

design. During the years many surveys, conducted by the Design Council in London, among others, support

this view. In Scandinavia, Denmark carried out a survey into the economic benefits of design in 2003.2

This

survey was later followed up by Sweden (2004)3

and Norway (2006).4

Each of these surveys indicated that

business leaders understand the value of design for their organisations and have a positive attitude towards

using design. However, the surveys also indicated that business leaders need to know more about how to use

design. To obtain a full return on investment in design, the role, understanding and enatment of design

leadership and design management is important. Distinguishing differences between design leadership and

design management is also essential to success.

The image with which this chapter (Figure 1) opens points to one means of addressing such connections. It is

drawn from a large service innovation project for the airport express train between Oslo city and the main

national airport Gardermoen, Norway. This project will be presented and discussed as a case later in the

paper.

Main claims & outline

In this paper I look further into the different approaches to design leadership and design management. I relate

this in the latter part of the paper specifically to the service industries and to the emerging needs and

practices of service design concerning design leadership and management. I make two main claims. I support

2Erhvervs- og Boligstyrelsen (2003).

3Stiftelsen Svensk Industridesign (2004).

4Norwegian Design Council (2006).


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these through citation of research, through mention of published trends, access of models that are in

circulation and may be adapted, and by way of reference to one case about a leading public project involving

design leadership, management and service design in Norway. My first claim is that a holistic understanding

of design leadership is needed with respect to the service industries in order to maximise their efficency and

effect. My second claim is that understanding the centrality of the customer is essential to both the fuller

conceptualisation and the operationalisation of service design.

Part 1: Design leadership & design management

Design

The term design is used in a wealth of contexts with many different meanings. Some of the contexts extend

to: product design, graphic design, fashion design, interaction design, craft design, engineering design,

communication design. In this paper all the disciplines of design are relevant; what is important, however,

are the skills of the professional designers and their methods, processes and way of thinking.

John Heskett suggests that the word design is like love which changes its meaning according to who is

using it, in which context and to whom or what it is directed. In the bookToothpicks and LogosHeskett

illustrates the versatile meaning of the term by the following sentence: Design is to design a design to

produce a design5, showing that design is both a verb indicating action or process, and a noun where

the noun can be understood in three different ways: as a concept of a field as a whole, as a concept or a

proposal and as final outcome or product. Often the different meanings are used interchangeably. In this

paper, the term design, depending on the context, can refer to either of the categories suggested by Heskett.

The activity of designing, in this paper, refer to a user-centered, problem-solving process. As a single

satisfactory definition of design is unlikely, Lawson (2006) suggests that perhaps the act of searching is

5Heskett, J. (2002:5)


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probably more important than that of finding.6

The same view may be relevant concerning design leadership

and design management.

From design management to design leadership

The term design management originated in Great Britain in the 1960s (Borja de Mozota (2003: 68). At the

time, the term referred to managing relations between a design agency and its clients. Today the language of

design management is changing and design leadership is the new mantra instead of strategic design

management. Design management is used to describe what we in the past called design project management,

while the term design leadership is used to describe a more strategic level related to the vision for how

design could be used within an organisation to achieve corporate goals.

There is no common agreement about this division. For instance,in the Pratt DM program, design

management is defined as the identification and allocation of creative assets within an organization to create

strategic, sustainable advantage. Design Management is design-minded leadership. It is the bridge between

design and business, according to Mary McBride, the Director of the Pratt Institute Graduate Program in

Design Management.7

For Peter Gorb (1990), Design Management is the effective deployment by line

managers of the design resources available to a company in order to help the company achieve its

objectives.8

The splitting of design leadership and design management into two levels is supported by the design

executive searcher, RitaSue Siegel. While design managers optimise resources to implement programs in the

most effective and profitable way, design leaders are concerned with innovation, design and strategy.

Integrating the design thinking process into the other strategies by which an organisation plans to achieve its

goals will improve its competitive position, according to Siegel.9

6Bryan Lawson (2006:33)

7

In Best (2006:200)8 In Borja de Mozota (2003:70)9

In Best (2006:201)


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In her bookDesign Management, Kathryn Best (2006: 17) uses Mike Crump, Design Manager, British

Airways as a source when stating that managers of design often have to transcend roles and adapt to different

situations. The design leader sets the vision for how design could be used within an organisation, selling the

vision to, and gaining buy-in from, key stakeholders and decision makers. The design manager ensures the

design processes, procedures and internal functions are adding value to the organisation, through a defined

design team or through the internal resourcing of design thinking into and across a range of business units

and projects.

On the question of whether or not there is a real difference between design leadership and design

management, Raymond Turner states that there are significant differences as design management is

essentially reactive while design leadership is essentially pro-active. However, each area of expertise

depends on each other for its relevance to business. Without design leadership, executives do not know

where they are going and without design management executives do not know how to get there, according to

Turner. He states that design leadership is critical to business success for six reasons: 1) It helps to envision

the future. 2) It manifests strategy. 3) It helps direct corporate investment and maximises the return on such

investment. 4) It shapes customer experience and, through that, the reputation of businesses. 5) It is

responsible for creating and sustaining an environment for innovation and 6) It is responsible for organizing

and training for design and innovation within business.10

Bettina von Stamm11

states that design management has several components, not the least the following

three:

Most importantly, the injection of design thinking into organisations; in particular, helpingleaders of organisations understand and appreciate the value and contribution of designers,

design and design thinking.

10Raymond Turners (2002) presentation at the inaugural session of theDesign Leadership Forum organized

by Alto Design Management.11

Best, K. (2006:203)


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Providing a bridge between designers and non-designers as their values and beliefs are oftenvery different; this includes the management of the designers, internal as well as external.

Aiding the creation of a consistent and coherent representation of an organisation.

In this paper, design leadership is not so much about leading the design discipline, but more about leading

the organisation through design thinking as a leadership philosophy. In accordance with the growing

awareness within many organisations that design is a valuable means to achieve strategic goals and

objectives, there is also a growing desire to understand the methods and ways of thinking that the design

process brings.

Design thinking

Building a future for business in the twenty-first century will require organisation, innovation, direction and

the ability to imagine new possibilities. Designers are able to look at a problem and wonder, what if this

was completely blank and I could start over again? That kind if intelligence is now really necessary. It is a

creative intelligence that enjoys problem-solving and can find opportunities in places where other people

have given up. That is way past strategic that is leadership by design, according to Mary McBride at Pratt

Institute12

Currently, there is much discussion of the term Design Thinking on blogs, in academia and in business.

These discussions are about what design thinking is, where it comes from and, not least, what its relevance is

to business and innovation. One of the key promoters of the concept of design thinking is Tim Brown, CEO

of the influential design company IDEO. According to Brown13

, the shift from design, where the emphasis is

only on the output, to design thinking, where the emphasis is also on the act or the process, has been the

catalyst for change for IDEO. Brown states that design thinking let them focus and work on new problems

where their unique approach can create different kinds of results. However, we should not forget that it is the

12Best, K. (2006:200)

13http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/en/Design-Council/Files/Podcast-Transcripts/Tim-Brown-The-

challenges-of-design-thinking/


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craft of design that is essential to the outcome. According to Utterback, IDEO has moved beyond products,

services, and customer experiences to an attempt to help companies such as Proctor & Gamble itself to

design a culture to foster greater innovation. The Head of P&G, A.G. Lafley, is now attempting to put design

into the DNA of the company.14

In this paper, the term design thinking relates to the concept of introduction of design methods and culture

into fields beyond traditional design, such as business innovation. The term design thinking has gained

significance as it is being embraced outside of the normal realm of which design might have traditionally

been applied, such as business innovation. Stanfords new Design School, the d.school, based on joint

programmes between business and design, is one of the places where the notion of design thinking has

emerged.

According to Manu (2007) business needs to learn from design how to manage creativity from the inception

of a concept through iterative stages to its implementation in product, systems, and services that are useful

and desirable for a large group of people. Design needs to learn from business how to rigorously analyze the

risks and rewards of any new creative idea, and the tactics that will see it become beneficial to users.15

Margolin and Buchanan16

argue that although design thinking in the contemporary world must be based on

knowledge gained from many fields and disciplines, the core of design thinking remains the ability to

conceive, plan, and present ideas about products.

As part of her PhD Conscious Design Practice as a Strategic ToolS.A.K. Friis studied four front runners

within strategic design. Her study supports the suggestions that the strategic design work include methods

and skills from other fields to a large degree, for instance the application of psychological tools and

ethnographic methods. However, she also found that there seems to be activities and ways of thinking which

are distinct to a design discipline and can be taught and researched by academic methodologies.17

14Utterback, J. et al (2006:8)

15

Manu, A. (2007:243)16 Margolin and Buchanan (1995:xv)17

Silje Alberthe Kamille Friis (2006) Conscious Design Practice as a Strategic Tool. Thesis.


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In his article Wicked Problems in Design Thinking18

, Buchanan states that the three great expressions of

design thinking in the twentieth century engineering, marketing, and the forms of graphic and industrial

design are distinguished by the modality or qualification of their arguments. Engineers argue from

necessity, marketing experts argue from contingency, and graphic and industrial designers argue from a

vision of possibility.

Design attitude

Boland and Collopy (2004)

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believe that if managers adopted a design attitude, the world of business would

be different and better. Managers would approach problems with a sensibility that swept in the broadest

array of influences to shape inspiring and energizing design for products, services and processes that are both

profitable and humanly satisfying. They refer to design attitude as a unique mind-set and approach to

problemsolving they experienced by working with the world-renowned architect Frank Gehry. A design

attitude views each project as an opportunity for invention that includes a questioning of basic assumptions

and a resolve to leave the world a better place than we found it. In their opinion, what is needed in

management practice and education today is the development of a design attitude, which goes beyond default

solutions in creating new possibilities for the future.

Design thinking is a term being used today to define a way of thinking that produces transformative

innovation. One of the mantras is: think your way to (innovation) strategy the way a designer would. Boland

and Collopy (2004) propose that a design attitude toward problem solving can help put better ideas and

alternatives on the table for analytical business consideration. They refer to a design attitude that strives to

construct a more satisfying solution than what has so far been proposed as opposed to a decision attitude that

choose from among the alternatives already at hand.

18Buchanan, R. in Margolin and Buchanan (editors) (1995:xiv)

19Boland and Collopy (2004)


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Another commonly voiced view is to approach your business strategy as a design challenge use designerly

ways of thinking. As a profession, design is evolving from a product-based practice born of the industrial age

to a process driven practice in the information age. Today it is centered on strategic issues of business

transformation. Connected to this transformation, important skills in design thinking are imagination,

creativity, innovation and value creation.

Chris Matthews20

states there are fundamental differences between imagination and creativity. Imagination is

the ability to form images and ideas in the mind, while creativity is the ability to use these images and ideas

to create original services and things. The challenge lies in identifying the potential effects of imagination

fuelled creativity: innovation. Matthews states that successful innovation and value creation requires wisdom

and steps that are both distinct and causally linked to one another and he introduces a four-step programme:

1) Imagination, 2) Creativity, 3) Innovation, and 4) Progress. Imagination is a necessary precursor to

creativity, which in turn propels innovation, which hopefully qualifies as progress. Progress is in this context

defined as movement toward a goal. Sometimes growth opportunities can come from business model

innovations and shake the very core of a company or industry. Whatever the source, innovation drives this

growth, according to Matthews.

The Cox Review of Creativity in Business was commissioned by the British Government in 2005 to

investigate ways in which creative skills might be exploited more fully. The connections between creativity,

innovation and design in the context of the report, was defined and explained as:

Creativity: is the generation of new ideas - either in new ways of looking at existing problems, or of seeing

new opportunities, perhaps by exploiting emerging technologies or changes in markets.

Innovation: is the successful exploitation of new ideas. It is the process that carries them through to new

products, new services, new ways of running the business or even new ways of doing business.

20Matthews, C. (2007) in Manu, A. (2007:223-229)


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Design: is what links creativity and innovation. It shapes ideas to become practical and attractive

propositions for users or customers. Design may be described as creativity deployed to a specific end.21

Although the Cox report focuses on the things the Government can do to stimulate greater creativity in UK

business, Cox argues in his conclusion that the real messages are for businesses: Competition is going to get

tougher. In the modern world, the only answer is to be more enterprising and more creative, and this has to

come not in response to exhortation but out of enlightened self-interest.22

With reference to the Cox report, it may be comforting to know that according to Nigel Cross, design ability

is possessed by everyone. He states that although professional designers might naturally be expected to have

highly developed design abilities, it is also clear that none-designers also possess at least some aspects, or

lower levels of design ability.23

For Cross (2007), creative thinking is a key aspect of human cognition in the

context of design.24

Boland and Collopys (2004) attitude towards creativity is that creativity is not sufficient for a design attitude

to problem solving, just as it is not sufficient for a decision attitude. In their opinion creativity needs the

guiding energy of a design attitude in order to focus the efforts on results that will be truly innovative and

produce long-lasting organisational improvements. Design is in that sense larger than creativity, according to

Boland and Collopy. Although it may be present to some degree in everyone, design ability seems stronger

in some people than others, and also seems to develop with experience, according to Cross.25

Designers skills

Designers have a particular facility for sketching. Sketching is a practice that, in itself, functions as a

creatively stimulating process and helps designers get into the head of the end user, possibly evoking his or

21Cox, G. (2005:2)

22

Cox, G. (2005:5)23 Cross, N. (2007:38)24

Cross, N. (2007:12)25

Cross, N. (2007:46)


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her creativity, since it serves as an efficient communication tool. Rapidly made sketches may give the

potential end user a concrete image of the future solution that words alone could never convey.26

Although many industrial designers today want to be innovation drivers or vision-makers, industrial

designers can equally well work as brand builders, design managers, co-ordinators, end-user specialists,

user-interface designers, researchers, product development team members or star designers, according to

Anna Valtonen.27

In the bookHow Designers ThinkBryan Lawson advances the idea that design thinking is a skill. He argues

that it is a a very complex and sophisticated skill, but still one which can be analysed, taken apart, developed

and practised.28

Design is a rigorous, cyclical process of enquiry and creativity. Design processes consist of a

series of methods that are put together to suit the nature of each design project or question. Design processes

are not linear as there are many feedback loops built in to allow for the iterative nature of design and to

accommodate the insights gained at each stage of the process.29

Design thinking and design leadership

Alexander Manu (2007) argues that creativity is the use ofimagination. He also states that all invention

depends on imagination. Before one learns to manage the how, the whatneeds to be conceived. The strategic

creator has the capability to reveal the why - joining the how with the what, the means with the meaning

in the organized exploration of possibility. According to Manu a new type of leader emerges in the process

of fitting business to imagination:

A leader who knows how to discover and learn, and how to manage and inspirediscovery and learnings in others.

26

Utterback, J. et. Al (2006:215)27 Valtonen, A. (2007:308)28

Lawson, B. (2006:15)29

Best, K. (2006:112)


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A leader who knows how to identify and validate ideas, and transform them into growthopportunities.

A leader who nourishes and triggers the imagination of individuals in teams, and cantransform the result into strategic capital innovations that benefit business, culture and

society.30

Part 2: Service industry & service design

Services as value creation

The EU economies are increasingly becoming service economies, and Service Innovation is widely seen as

necessary for improving growth, competitiveness and welfare in Europe (Rubalcada 2007)31

Service

activities are essential for value creation both in service and manufacturing industries, and service related

innovation is thereby essential for growth and competitiveness in the whole economy.

Voss and Zomerdijk (2007)32

has examined innovation in experiential services. In their report experiential

services are defined as services where the focus is on the experience of the customer when interacting with

the organisation, rather than just the functional benefits following from the products and services delivered.

Industrial designers role in business

Only a few decades ago industrial design was an activity that was fairly unknown to all but the most

pioneering companies. In the early days it was often used on a very operative level, and industrial designers

30Alexander Manu (2007)

31Rabalcada, L. (2007)

32

Chris Voss and Leonieke Zomerdijk (June 2007) Innovation in Experiential Services An EmpiricalView. The report is based on a continuing research programme on experientail services at London Business

School. In particular it draws on a case-study of eight design agencies and nine successful experiential

service providers.


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constantly had to describe what it was that they did and why their activities would be important for the

company, according to Valtonens33

research into the historical developments in industrial design in Finland.

Figure 2. Different roles for the designer and typical statements on design (Anna Valtonen 2007).

Figure 2, developed by Anna Valtonen, shows the different roles for the designer and typical statements on

design from the 1950s to 2000s. Valtonen found that the first designers that entered industry had previous

success as artists, and hence their role in industry was also that of an artist. By the 90s, designers wanted to

be responsible for designing the entire end-user experience, no longer for only co-ordinating what products

should be produced. In the new millennium, designers want to be innovation drivers, and participate in

creating the corporate vision. They currently participate in the entire process from company vision work to

the market launch of the product.34

Design has developed into a more mature methodology. It is capable of

going beyond the different design diciplines to influence the design of services and experiences.

33Valtonen, A. (2007: 338)

34Valtonen, A. (2007: 307-308)


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Service design and service innovation

Services have existed and been organised in various forms since time immemorial. Consciously designed

services incorporate new business models, are empathic to user needs and attempt to create new socio-

economic value in society. Service design as a practice aim to provide a holistic service to user. Service

design thinking foster new thinking in service innovation.

A growing number of companies recognize the importance of design-inspired innovation, especially those

that aim to strengthen and maintain a high brand value.35

Design and design thinking are key to innovation.

And so are designers because, by their inclination and training they already have an innovative mind set,

according to Bettina von Stamm36

(In Best 2006:203)

Perhaps the most persuasive advocate for design at the front end of innovation is Tom Kelley, general

manager of the design firm IDEO. Kelleys bookThe Ten Faces of Innovation37

, describes the characters that

companies need to employ in order to innovate; the Anthropologist, the Experimenter, the Cross-pollinator,

the Hurdler, the Collaborator, the Director, the Experience architect, the Set designer, the Storyteller and the

Caregiver. The roles of these ten faces of innovation are relevant for the roles of designers too. Studying

innovation in the service industry facilitates wider reflection on the subject of service innovation.

Voss and Zomerdijk (2007) found that with regard to theprocess of innovation in experiential services, the

research revealed that many innovations were driven by detailed insights into customers; customers

behaviour, needs and preferences. Common techniques were traditional market research, empathic research

to understand customers at an emotional level, trend watching and learning from companies in different

industries. This indicates that experiential innovations are typically customer rather than technology driven,

according to Voss and Zomerdijk.

35Utterback J. et Al (2006:163)

36Bettina von Stamm is Founder, the Innovation Leadersip Forum

37Kelley, T. (2005)


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In their research Voss and Zomerdijk (2007) discovered that although bothproductandprocess innovation

were observed, significant innovation came from incrementalprocess innovation. In addition, service

innovation was often associated with innovation in business models. This leads to a typology of service

innovation consisting of three areas: product innovation, process innovation and business model innovation.

Rather than product leading process or vice versa, the research indicated that service innovation in general,

not just in experiential services, is an iterative process where product, process and business model innovation

go hand in hand, as revealed in Voss and Zomerdijks findings.

A recent study that was completed as part of Tekes38

programmes Serve- Innovative Services, conducted by

Peer Insight, is based on 12 exemplars where US companies have successfully developed new service

concepts and service business. The research framework used in the research of service innovation is The Ten

Types of Innovation, developed by Larry Keeley, the President of Chicago based Doblin Inc. (See Fig. 3).

Figure: 3: The Ten Types of Innovation. Source: Tekes (2007), adapted from Larry Keeley, Doblin Inc.

The authors of the Tekes report state that as low innovation success rates prove, innovation is a challenging

business. One of the most fundamental traps is to think of innovation too narrowly, to define it merely as the

thingyour firm offers, according to the researchers.

38Tekes is the main public funding organisation for research and development (R&D) in Finland. More

information of the program is available on www.tekes.fi/serve


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Voss and Zomerdijk (2007) ascertained that innovation takes place in five distinct design areas that directly

or indirectly influence the customer experience: the physical environment, the service employees, the service

delivery process, fellow customers and back office support. Although these areas are relevant to any service,

they generally do not receive the same amount of attention as experiential service designers pay to them, say

Voss and Zomerdijk.

The service journey

The service journey perspective integrates the common distinction between service product innovation and

service process innovation, as a journey has elements of both (Voss and Zomerdijk 2007).Several of the

design agencies and consultancies that specialise in designing customer experiences studied by Voss and

Zomerdijk (2007) used the journey perspective to analyse current experiences and design new ones. Several

firms had developed a technique for mapping customer journeys, among them The Brand Touchpoint

Wheel by Dunn and Davis.

Dunn and Davis39

state that touchpoints can be segmented into three categories that generally represent the

different dimension of a brands relationship with a customer. They are defined as: 1)Pre-purchase

Experience Touchpoints . Typical touchpoints include advertising, word-of-mouth, direct mail and internet.

2)Purchase Experience Touchpoints . Typical touchpoints include direct field sales, physical stores and

customer center contact. 3)Post Purchase Touchpoints. Typical touchpoints include installation, customer

service, customer satisfaction surveys, regular maintenance and reminders of product or service innovations

that are tied to the brand.

Experiential services are often designed from the perspective of the customer journey rather than as a single

product or transaction; the service is seen as a journey that spans a longer period of time and consists of

multiple components and multiple touchpoints (Voss and Zomerdijk 2007). The journey perspective implies

39Dunn, D. and Davis, S. (2005)


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that customer experience is built over an extended period of time, starting before and ending after the actual

sales experience or transaction. During a customer journey, numerous touchpoints occur between the

customer and the organisation or the brand. These touchpoints need to be carefully designed and managed.

The research by Voss and Zomerdijk (2007) showed that innovation takes place at each of these touchpoints

as well as in the overall journey itself.

From a designer perspective and from an innovators perspective, the customer- or service journey provides

a powerful focus for analysing and designing good customer experiences. Reference is now made to one case

about a leading public project involving design leadership, management and service design in Norway (See

Figures 4-8).

The Airport Express Train Flytoget


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Figures 4-8: The Oslo Airport Express Train Flytoget(in order of sequence from top). The Brand

Touchpoint Wheel showing frequent departure every 10 minutes; the fastest way to and from the airport;


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friendly and professional service.; quality control of the functional and emotional experience.; and the

possibility of using a credit card as ticket with the receipt delivered by e-mail.

Flytoget - The Airport Express Train - is a high-speed passenger-train service connecting Oslo the

Gardermoen Airport, launched in 1998. The main target group is airline passengers with 60 % business

travellers and 40% vacation travellers. The Flytoget case illustrates design thinking through holistic design

leadership and design management to create a successful service brand.

The project had the opportunity to completely break association with the railway as being inefficient, old-

fashioned, not to be trusted. And. trustis rather important when you want to be at the airport in time to

catch your plane. Therefore, the Flytoget project required the creation of a new service brand a new way

of thinking in Norwegian railway service. It required a new attitude to transform the business of railway

transportation it required service innovation and it required designerly ways of thinking, as described by

Mary McBride at the Pratt Institute.

Design leadership and design management

On the design leadership level, the vision for the brand Flytoget was to be Norways leading service

company within the transportation industry - the one that airline passengers prefer, and a company both we,

our owners, and the country as a whole can be proud of! The vision was later changed to We shall create

the ultimate airport express train. In Raymond Turners (2002)expression, this is the kind of design

leadership that is needed in order to know where the organisation is going.

The attitude was to use design strategically to communicate the spirit of the vision. The leaders and

managers adopted a design attitude, as referred to by Boland and Collopy (2004) by the injection of design

thinking by the designers working on the project, the top manager and the design project manager. This

injection of design thinking is one of the most important components of design management, according to

Bettina von Stamm (in Best, 2006).


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The brand positioningstatement was: Flytoget offers the most modern transportation alternative and is the

superior most effective and safest way to go to and from the airport. Every aspect of the transport service

needed to be designed to support this brand position. Further, the service design needed to support the goal

of beingperceivedas a natural part of the flight, and as an harmonious travel experience. The identity

should appeal both rationally and emotionally, both towards the intellect and the subconscious.

What would this mean in terms of customer experience and infrastructure design? What too would it demand

in terms of the qualities and characteristics of each option during the development process? The Airport

Express Train project encompassed virtually every aspect of design: terminals, landscapes, hardware,

interiors, uniforms, information systems and services, transport and infrastructure. On the design

management level, as described by, among others, Gorb (1990), the design resources had to be managed to

achieve the vision.

A Design Guide, explaining the vision and the philosophy, acted as an inspiration for the different parties

involved in the process. At the same time, it gave a common understanding of the brand Flytogets identity

and values, so that the different development projects ended up with a coherent identity.

In order to control contacts between the airport express train and the customers, and to accomplish a

consistent and relevant brand experience, it was critical to identify all possible touchpoints. The leadership

and management of all these touch point projects required a holistic way of thinking. The top management

decided to hire a project manager to develop the brand strategy and to manage all the design projects both

on a design leadership level and on a design management level (and project management level).

Everyone in the organisation was introduced to the brand philosophy and was made to understand that the

brand is the responsibility of every employee and to understand their individual role in bringing the brands

promise to life. To make sure the Airport Express Train service was delivered in the right way, the

organisation set up aservice academy for their service personnel. By including brand awareness training as

part of the recruitment and induction process, we were able to give staff a clear understanding of why things

were as they were.


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In the drive to be profitable, most organisations share a common goal to be perceived as different and

better than their competitors. Holistic design leadership and management is one way to obtain this goal in the

service industry by integrating service design thinking as a practice aim to provide a holistic service to the

user. In the Flytoget organisation, design thinking and customer focus is still an innovation and leadership

philosophy. This approach supports Voss and Zomerdijks (2007) findings that experimental innovations are

typically customer rather than technology driven. With regards to The Ten Types of Innovation, developed by

Larry Keeley,Flytoget innovated in three areas; Process area (Innovation Process how they organize to

support innovation in the organization) Offering area (Product/Service Performance by leaving every 10

minutes, on time, easy access, luggage control and Customer Service by high level of training of the

service personnel) and the Delivery area (Brand- expressed through efficiency, friendliness, safety and

keeping the impression of always being up to date by implementing relevant innovations and incremental

visual changes, and always improving the Customer Experience is kept up by, among other things, that all

managers and leaders are obligated to travel by Flytoget several times a year to observe, and develop, the

quality and experience of the service product.

The Airport Express Train project was a large project undertaking. However, I maintain that the way of

thinking Design Thinking that it employed is relevant to both small and medium businesses as well. This

is a question of understanding the contextof design and how design thinking touches the customer

experience. The way of thinking and the guiding perspectives for design leadership and design

management - when establishing the transport service, was very much in line with the thinking behind Dunn

& Davis (2005) The Brand Touchpoint Wheel. And, in the Flytoget organization, innovation still takes

place by looking at the different touchpoints as well as of the overall journey experience, on a regular basis.

Part 3: Conclusion

The focus of the present study has been to relate some perspectives on the terms design leadership, design

management and design thinking in the service industry. Understanding the customer experience, and


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carefully focused design leadership and design effort is essential to manage customer experiences for the

better.

The brand experience recounted in the Flytoget case is delivered by the pre-purchase experience, the

purchase experience and the post purchase experiencethrough the environment, by signage, by frequency of

departure, on time, the train itself and by the people that run the service. The success of the service product

Flytoget , with a customer satisfaction of 93% , a punctuality of 96%, a regularity of 99%, and a result before

taxes of 145 M Norwegian Kronerin 2006, shows that a holistic understanding of design leadership and

design management is needed with respect to the service industries in order to maximize their efficiency and

effect. Flytoget had the worlds highest market share on bringing people to and from an airport in 2006.


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Documents

Perspectivas en Liderazgo y Pensamietno de Diseño en la Industria de Servicios