We help clients learn about service design and design research in different ways, depending on the needs and context of the learners. These range from senior-level courses focusing on strategic managerial roles to trainings that prepare participants to take on new roles or tasks within their organisations at an intermediate or junior level. We adapt the level, intensity and duration of educational activities to the course objectives and learners, using suitable combinations of theory and application.
Toolkits
There is no standard recipe for innovation, but certain ingredients can make your activities more effective. A toolkit is a collection of instruments that capture the experience, insights and methods of practitioners, in a form that makes them practically applicable in the context of use. This can be education, business development, or another field. STBY has developed several publicly available, and best-selling, toolkits. We have also developed a range of bespoke toolkits for in-house use by our clients.
Courses and trainings
We offer training in various forms, including extensive post-graduate courses in universities, in-house courses at companies, and individual modules focused on service design and design research. University courses often involve real-life clients and projects. In this way learners acquire maximum insight into the rationale of service design and the ways it pans out in practice.
REACH School
The Reach School, founded by STBY and some of the core partners of the REACH Network, teaches sustainable design-driven innovation using a model based on People, Process and Practice. We use a blended learning approach that combines thinking and doing, with a tight focus on tackling the real-world challenges faced by participants (often involving their own projects as case studies). Sustainable change requires time and consistent guidance, so the teaching and coaching usually continues over a period long enough for participants to accumulate experience and build a craft. The REACH school draws on years of experience in design innovation from our highly skilled REACH partners around the world.
Cases
Local understanding and global design
In collaboration with eBay’s Design Research and Strategy team, we created a practice-oriented approach that enables in-house design teams and researchers to filter out the most important insights about cultural differences, and apply these early on to their designs. This approach, consolidated in a Global Design Playbook and a set of Local Lens Cards, was delivered to eBay’s design team in Palo Alto in a full day training program.
Supporting Inclusive Business in Base of Pyramid Markets
This work for IBA Acellerator was focused on supporting local SMEs and public sector organisations, who want to further expand their inclusive business and/or inclusive innovation activities. In this partnership we have so far developed two bespoke toolkits: the first one aimed at expanding inclusive business, and the second aimed at innovating inclusive business. Both toolkits have been developed and tested with local partners in Vietnam, Mozambique, and Uganda.
Design Driven Business Innovation
STBY has co-developed a multi-session training and coaching course on Design Driven Business Innovation together with Dr. Wietze van der Aa from the Amsterdam Business School (University of Amsterdam). This program has been offered to master students as an annual 8-week elective course. It has also been ran with mid-career executives looking enhance their professional development, and as a customised program for in-house Innovation training to NN.
Publications
Initiated by Nesta and made possible by The Rockefeller Foundation, STBY and Quicksand have edited and designed the DIY Toolkit. DIY stands for ’Development Impact and You’. The toolkit is primarily meant for practitioners in international development, but can be used by anyone who feels they can benefit from it. It contains a set of 30 best in class and proven tools that aim to trigger and support social innovation. Since its launch the toolkit is being used extensively around the world, and has been translated in 8 different languages.
This is Service Design Thinking
STBY was asked to compile and edit the tools section of this first comprehensive book on the practice of Service Design. The initiators of the book, Marc Stickdorn and Jakob Schneider, did a great job in involving many pioneers from the early Service Design community in contributing ideas and generally supporting this massive project. This book and its toolkit have been a bestseller since its publication, and still count as one of the key reference points in the field of service design.
Getting Started with Policy Co-design is the result of, and a reflection upon, a specific policy co-design process with the department for Culture in Jalisco, Mexico that took place across 2020-2021. The aim of the project was to define and shape cultural policy recommendations using a co-design approach. In this Playbook, we translate theory to practice using very specific examples derived from hands-on experience with employing this overall approach.
