Introduction to Service Design and Management (Spring 2024)

Abstract

The course introduces the student to the processes, basic principles, methods, and tools of service design and service management. The focus is on designing and managing services with digital components applying knowledge across service design and service management disciplines. In lectures, case studies, and hands-on exercises students will explore the characteristics of ‘service’ and ‘service ecosystems’, understanding how they can be designed, managed, and implemented to add value to their consumers and users.

Description

The course educates professionals who can lead and manage complex design processes of digital services in all phases of digital transformation of public, private, and non-profit sectors, as well as in networks of actors. The students learn service thinking, service design methods and tools, and how to apply them in diverse and dynamic service settings. Furthermore, the students learn how to create and facilitate collaborative processes. The course covers subjects related to digitalization of services, including service innovation, value co-creation, service design methods and tools, and specific design management approaches that can be applied in service design projects.

Formal prerequisites

The course builds upon knowledge from the courses of the 1st semester of the DIM and KDDIT programs and students should have completed those courses or obtained similar knowledge elsewhere.

Intended learning outcomes

After the course, the student should be able to:

• Account for and apply basic Service Design and Service Management vocabulary, theories, methods, and tools.
• Recognize and analyze essential characteristics of services and service ecosystems and their stakeholders.
• Identify and apply appropriate service design and management methods and tools to approach and resolve problems in varying service settings and diverse organizations.
• Design and evaluate services using a suitable variety of service design methods and tools.
• Analyse and communicate complex and dynamic service environments and their parts using visuals, e.g., maps and diagrams.
• Develop and facilitate collaborative action in context of a service environment.
• Reflect on the complex and dynamic service environments and their parts considering the presented theories, methods and tools.

Ordinary exam

Exam type:
D: Submission of written work with following oral, External (7-point scale)
Exam variation:
D2G: Submission for groups with following oral exam supplemented by the submission. Shared responsibility for the report.