Surveys feel like solid evidence.

Too often they hand you confident-looking numbers that don't reflect reality - and big decisions get made on the back of them.

Here's why your survey might be lying to you, and what to do instead.

FREE DOWNLOAD: This service design worksheet helps teams map service users, frontline staff and other connected groups so they can prioritise who to involve in user research and early engagement.

FREE DOWNLOAD: This service design worksheet helps teams build a shared understanding of the challenge, align around purpose, and define what good looks like before moving into delivery.

Two organisations took the same Introduction to Service Design course and walked away with completely different actions.

The difference wasn’t the training - it was their design maturity, and it changed everything they noticed next.

FREE DOWNLOAD: This worksheet helps teams surface risky assumptions early, strengthen planning and identify what they need to learn before moving ahead.

How do you know whether a service design trainer actually knows their stuff?

One answer: look at whether they've had their practice independently assessed by the world's leading service design body. I've just done exactly that - for the third time.

Find out why.

Most service design training leaves people inspired and then stuck. They go back to work, face the same pressures, and the learning fades. I built Service Design in Practice specifically to solve that problem. This is what six years of iteration looks like.

Who actually shows up to service design training? The answer paints a clear picture of how public services are evolving.

From policy makers to neighbourhood services, business analysts to UXers, this post breaks down the roles now learning about service design and what that means for organisations trying to work differently.

After completing Service Design in Practice, Sophie Jones went on to become an SDN-Accredited Service Design Practitioner. In this interview, she talks about the process – from preparing her case study to taking the final exam – and shares practical tips for anyone considering accreditation.

In this series of Q&As, we’re exploring the fascinating journeys that people take into service design, and how a varied career can help make for a better service designer. Sadaf Uddin went from furniture designer to service design consultant for Opencast, a B Corp consultancy.

FREE DOWNLOAD: A service design worksheet pack to help you design learning that is more relevant, relational and reflective, so your workshops and training are more likely to stick.

Use my discount code to book your place at this key event for anyone involved in designing and commissioning public services. This year, I’m also running a workshop alongside the brilliant Katie Driver on how to train like a service designer.

Too many people who could bring insight and energy into public service design face barriers to getting started. Whether it’s financial pressure, lack of networks, systemic bias, or simply not being in the right place at the right time – the train often leaves without them.

Tick-box consultation is out.

This blog explores how Welsh housing providers can use service design to meet regulation and legal requirements and improve tenant experience.

We’ve just renewed our SDN Organisational Accreditation through to 2028. What does that mean for our learners - and what did the accreditation panel have to say about our impact on the public sector?

We can’t expect to fill people’s heads with knowledge and expect them to change their practice. We explore five key principles to designing effective learning experiences that really stick.

In this series of Q&As, we’re exploring the fascinating journeys that people take into service design, and how a varied career can help make for a better service designer. Charmaine Smikle is a Service Designer at Social Care Wales.

Why did a chatbot project fail to deliver for one public sector organisation - and what can we all learn from it? In this candid, anonymous interview, we uncover how a shiny digital tool became a costly distraction from real service transformation.

In this series of Q&As, we’re exploring the fascinating journeys that people take into service design, and how a varied career can help make for a better service designer. Will Mead is a Service Designer at the Welsh Revenue Authority.

In this series of Q&As, we’re exploring the fascinating journeys that people take into service design, and how a varied career can help make for a better service designer. Sarah Hill is a Senior Service Designer at Education Scotland.