After spending 10 years working in service design with government and not-for-profit organisations, I’m now sharing my top ten critical learnings from the past decade.

This treasure trove of insights – includes some things learned the hard way, and others kindly passed on to me by seasoned veterans.

Now, I'm eager to share these ten nuggets of wisdom with you, the kind I wish someone had whispered in my ear as I set off on day one!

Have you ever tried to use land owned by Natural Resources Wales? Between navigating unclear guidance and juggling too much information, many were left scratching their heads. Discover how Lucinda, Laura, and Sam are transforming this service using a user-centred approach. All on a tight budget.

Dive into their journey, the challenges they faced, and the innovative, cost-effective solutions they brought to the table. Plus, discover their 9 Top Tips for embracing similar challenges. Uncover the full story and watch the video!

To succeed in reshaping services from end to end, front to back and across channels, applying a user-centred approach to public service design requires unwavering resilience, stamina, and persistence.

I returned from the Service Design in Government Conference 2023 with 14 top tips to retain your individual resilience and make change happen in government.

Tara Rhoseyn and Owen Burgess from Sport Wales share how they developed digital and service design principles and are beginning to embed them in their organisation.

Tara explains how they took inspiration from existing digital service standards from Welsh Government’s Centre for Digital Public Services, UK Government and the United Nations and other organisations e.g., the University of Bath.

Owen shares how they’re embedding them within the culture at Sport Wales.

Learn the crucial elements for building a successful service design team and achieving results. Explore the importance of involving the right people early, having clarity on objectives, and creating a psychologically safe environment for learning and experimentation.

Most training gets stuck in the training room. Even when the training is inspirational and truly motivates us, the experience can get lost in the gap between the training room and the day-to-day work demands.

We know that organisations need to offer quality opportunities for personal development if they’re going to attract new and retain existing staff.

Jo and Ffion will share what they’ve learned about how to create learning experiences that result in real growth.

Most training gets stuck in the training room. How do we design training that results in real growth and development? We share our top six tips for designing learning that sticks, makes a difference in the way people work, and results in service design practitioner accreditation.

These free-to-use worksheets help novices understand and experience user-centred design. The mini design cycle challenge asks participants to design a better lunch experience for their partners. They are guided through user research, defining user needs, idea generation, prototyping and iteration. And it’s fun!

Service design has the potential to radically innovate public services and systems, but are we missing the point by focusing on easy wins and incremental improvements, particularly focused in the digital world?

Are we fiddling with the deckchairs on the Titanic?

We can’t go on designing and delivering public services in the same way we always have done. With many services on the brink of collapse, the time to act is now.

ServiceWorks is awarded Organisational Accreditation from the Service Design Network. This important validation means participants in our courses receive SDN certificates and Service Design in Practice is now a pathway to Practitioner Accreditation.

Let’s be honest, who doesn’t want high performing, happier teams and better outcomes? Well, the answer might well be out there in the form of psychological safety. The virtues of building fear-free teams are quoted as too irresistible to be ignored and only the foolish would consider themselves above building it into their leadership practice.

So, is psychological safety a game-changer that can transform your team, organisation and life or is it just another buzzword? And what on earth has it got to do with service design? I’m among many who believe that psychological safety is one of the most powerful collaboration tools you can employ. Why is that?

How to say no more often and take control of your workday. Valuable tips and tricks to be more productive and do the work you value most.

In March 2021, Flick Devey from Sport Wales began a journey into the world of service design. Little did she know what was to come.

How organisations in the public sector confuse digital transformation with adding a digital layer to a badly designed service - and putting tech before people.

This story of chatbot frustration is from an anonymous source who describes it as putting lipstick on a pig - if the website isn’t up to scratch in the first place.

We then explore what you can do differently to avoid this trap.

Building service design skills and capability requires more than learning a few tools and methods in a workshop. It takes a shift in mindset. We reflect on how we achieve this on Service Design in Practice and some of the key takeaways participants leave with.

We’re delighted to announce that Leah Lockhart has joined our partners team.

Leah is highly skilled in digital engagement, online workshop design and facilitation, and user research. She will be a great asset to our growing partner network and we’re really excited to welcome her on board.

This year has so far marked some big changes around digital in government organisations in Wales, which may have slipped under your radar with all the talk of the c-word.

Covid may be occupying everyone’s minds at the moment. So here’s a quick overview of the exciting developments that we’re taking as a nation towards a more digital Wales.

When I set up the new Service Works website and brand in March, I was keen to get on with setting things up and just getting on with some client work - and dealing with the fall out from a pandemic.

When I looked around, I saw lots of other similar organisations using the blogging platform, Medium. I just went with the crowd. I’ve since learned that self hosting might have offered a better choice. Here’s why…