Designing Services as a Knowledge Creation Process

By Maurício Manhães,

Gregório

Varvakis,

Tarcísio Vanzin

Designing Services as a Knowledge Creation Process Integrating the Double Diamond Process and the SECI Spiral

In Touchpoint

Volume

fundamental

1 No. 3, Tether

questions

about

and Stigliani

the future

of Service

raised Design:

tions in general. This effort is in line with what Tether and Stigliani . write about the need to "substanti-

how to build

legitimacy,

of - a profession entrepreneurs,

how to control

and how to coordinate

practitioners

- or lose control efforts

and academics.

between

They focused on

knowledge.

We tend to agree that "successful

professions

associated

with strong bodies of knowledge".

Perhaps we are

sympathetic Engineering

ate the industry as a whole" (p. 37).

its

are

Service Design can als o be understood as a knowledge-creation processo Design and innovation are both knowledge-creation

process-

to that argument because we are from a Knowledge

es. The similarities can be clearly

and Management

seen. Then, why not create an 'in-

Brazilian Federal University

post-graduate

program

at the

terdisciplinary

of Santa Catarina, UFSC.

bridge' between the

two fields and exchange concepts and theories to the benefit ofboth?

management

The Foundation Knowledge management

and

Service Design have a lot to offer to

has the theoretical

resources needed to clarify and

TheMethod

assist in understanding

The bridge is based mainly on

the processes of service innovation.

as a knowledge-creating

The academic literature

organisations.

contains

innovation process in

two constructs:

(a) the 'double

diamond' design process of discover, define, develop and

countless citations connecting innovation and knowledge creation

Service Design can play a central

deliver proposed by the Design

and innovation and designo

role in the processes of service

Council (UK) and (b) the espiral

innovation and, thus, generate

of knowledge', as one of the

Some researchers

affirm that

value for organisations.

It is clear

elements of the knowledge creating

design is of decisive importance

that Service Design has to pres-

process (Nonaka et al., 2000). Also

for innovation: "Behind every

ent itself through a narrative

known as the SECI Model, the

innovation lies a new design", say

that makes sense to the world of

spiral of knowledge is a widely

Baldwin and Clark (2005, p. 3).

management

Moreover, in the economy of

Likewise, presenting amethod

knowledge, where the continuous

can be understood

iterations between innovation and

managers will facilitate adoption

competition require an unstoppable flow of new designs, knowledge 28

TOUCHPOINT

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THE JOURNAl

OF SERVICE

accepted knowledge management

and organisations. that

and absorbed by

of Service Design practices by its . own practitioners DESIGN

and by organisa-

model. Basically, it states that "an organisation

creates knowledge

through the interactions

between

explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge" (Nonaka et al., 2000).

METHOOS,

These interactions

STRUCTURES

occur within

...

ANO

PROCESSES

Tacit

)

four medes of knowledge

c

.Q ...,

conversion: socialisation (tacit to tacit), externalisation

ro .r::! ro

(tacit to

v

u

explicit), combination (explicit

o

Vl

to explicit), and internalisation (explicit to tacit). As can be seen

I"'"' X

in Figure 1, this sequence of

U

knowledge conversion forms a spiraI.

;::;.

n

Externalization The method proposed in this article is not 'new'. In fact, it

UOllezqeuiaiu I

results from minor adjustments of practices used by many Service Design agencies. In a sense, much of the 'novelty' of this method lies beneath its surface - in establishing an academic rationale for each

(")

step.

o-

o

:3

::l QJ r+

o

In brief, the proposed method

::l

< â&#x20AC;˘.... '

consists of a series of divergent ideageneration

steps folIowed by

Figure 1

convergent idea selection steps (Rietzche et al., 2006). The method also establishes a conceptuallink

Dorst and Cross (2001) note

by a dynamic process, starting

between the design process and

that the design process involves

with socialisation and continuing

"co-evolution of problem/solution

through, externalisation,

and selective retention" process, as

spaces." In that process, combi-

tion and internalisation).

suggested by Simonton (1997).

nations of problem/solution

That is, an alternating

selected and tested. This usualIy re-

As illustrated

divergent steps (blind variation),

quires a heavy cognitive effort from

proposed method is divided into

folIowed by convergent steps

the participants.

three stages: pre-field, Field and post-field work.

the Darwinian

"blind variation

series of

. (selective retention). As Simonton (1997, p. 67) explained, "ln the long

combina-

are

effort can be eased

through the use of multimodal

im-

in Figure 2, the

agery (as in the use of role-playing,

run, creators must lack foresight

pictures, drawings and all kinds of

In the first stage, mapping and

regarding the sociocultural

maps) and the understanding

research of a particular

merits

of the

value

of their ideas. If it were otherwise,

knowledge creation process (know-

network occurs and a focal point is

we would have to consider creators

ing that the creation of knowledge,

determined.

a special class ofprophets."

i.e. innovation" may be facilitated

to the service under investigation, TOUCHPOINT

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That network, related

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SERVICE

DESIGN

29

DESIGNING

SERVICES

AS A KNOWLEDGE

CREATION

PROCESS

By Maurício Manhães, Gregório Varvakis, Tarcísio Vanzin

defines which participants

ee e _e e e eee e

are

going to join the process of socialisation at the beginning of the second stage. This definition is made through the mapping of the customer/provider

relationships.

During fieldwork, multiple multimodal

records are produced

about the experiences expectations

«I»

and

e e ~

V

V

of participants

l

with regard to the service at hand.

These records support the

~

~ V

~

V

e

V

e e -V

N

~ ~ ro

if.

V

J

In~ia~

externalisation

and the

. . .... ......

combination ofknowledge.

• •

ln the end of the second stage, each participant

texto This step

facilitates internalisation

(which

Sub-

•• Group B1

message is sent to

each. That ends the fieldwork stage and the internalisation

c ro

~ ~

N N

"

ro .s:

c,

v

N

J

. ..... ......

This last record, like all the others, the processo A few days later, the

v

:....

..

goes to the next ontologicallevel). is collected by the organisers of

• •

•

l

is the last step before the spiral

self-questioning

•

•

.. ..v: v:....

prepares a reflection

or self-questioning

•

~

M N "O

SubGroup Bn

N N "O C

'"

M

N

••

~ N

M

N

"

mode of

ro o-

s:

knowledge conversion.

..

v

v

v

v

v

v

.

~

v

~~~~e~e~~ __

The fieldwork provides Service designers with sufficient informa-

v

tion and knowledge to start a

v

v

v

v

v

v

v

1111111111111111 y v

process of designing a new value proposition for the service being

v

N

.,j

N "O

c

;;;'" N

~ N

M

studied - the third and final stage

"O C

~ ~ " ro

of the method. This article focuses

M

mainly on the fieldwork stage of the

.s: o-

'"

proposed method. Future research is necessary and will probably reap Figure 2

30

TOUCHPDINT

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SERVICE

• v

aiming at the post-fieldwork stage

DESIGN

;;;

~

METHOOS,

greaterbenefits for the practices of Service Design. Even so, one of the most important contributions of this work was bringing together an interdisciplinary theoretical foundation for this emerging field, answering the call from Tether and Stigliani. We believe that only through a strong body ofknowledge will Service Design be able to stand the challenges of time.

STRUCTURES

ANO

PROCESSES

References: • Baldwin, C. Y.; Clark, K. B: 'Between 'Knowledge' Economy

and 'the

': Notes on the Scientific

Study of Designs', Scientific

Studies of Designs. pp.1-41, 2005.

• Dorst, K., CROSS, N: 'Creativity

Maurício Manhães, MSE,

in the Design Process: Coevolution of Problem-eolution:'

Teacher at the Centre for Applied Social Sciences - UNIVALI

Design Studies, vol. 22, no. 5,

Gregório Varvakis, PhD,

pp. 425-437. doi: 1O.1016/S0142694X(01)00009-6,2001.

Further details about the 'diarnond' and 'spiral' methods can be obtained by contacting the authors. e

• Nonaka, 1., Toyama, R., Konno,

Professor at the Knowledge Engineering and Managemen PostGraduate Program - UFSC

N: 'SECI, Ba and Leadership:

Tarcísio Vanzin, Dr

a Unified Model of Dynamic

Professor at the Knowledge Engineering and Managemen PostGraduate Program - UFSC

Creation,' Long Range

Knowledge

Planning, vol. 33, no. 1,pp. 5-34.

Elsevier. Retrievedfrom

http://

linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/ píí!S0024630199001156,2000.

• Rietschel, E., Nijstad, B.,Stroebe, W: 'Productivity is not enough: A comparison

of interactive

nominal brainstorming on idea generation

and

groups

and selection,'

JournalofExperimental Social Psychology,

vol. 42, no.

2, pp. 244-251. doi: 1O.1016/j. jesp.2005.04.005,2006.

• Simonton,

D. K: 'Creative

Productivity:

a Predictive

and

Explanatory

Model of Career

Trajectories

and Landmarks.'

Psychological

Review, vol. 104,

no.1,pp. 66-89. doi: 10.1037/0033295X.104.1.66,1997.

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