Touchpoint Vol. 9 No. 1 - Education and Capacitiy-Building

Applying Service Design in R&D-based Organisations From core technology to Product-Service System development Product-Service Systems (PSS) enable research and development organisations to create new opportunities for their core technologies through servitisation and new resource integration. Because PSS development often requires re-positioning and attracting new supporting partners, applying service design is Chih-Shiang Wu is a service designer at the Industrial Technology Research Institute, a Ph.D. candidate at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, and co-founder of 5% Design Action.

encouraged in R&D organisations. However, the collaborative maturity is the key to the effectiveness of design outcomes. This article aims to explore insights into how to improve the collaboration between service design and R&D teams. The FamiCare case study presents a framework which is based on a four-level collaborative maturity model, ‘Initial’, ‘Formative’, ‘Managing’, and ‘Optimising’, to demonstrate the roles of the two teams, the tools and insights that can improve the outcomes of collaboration.

Tung-Jung (David) Sung as a distinguished professor in the Department of Industrial and Commercial Design at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology is currently the CEO of Taiwan Design Center (TDC).

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Differentiation that is solely reliant on technological innovation is insufficient for R&D organisations. For example, when people choose a smartphone, they do not only consider its technological features (e.g. operational efficiency), but also the services that are embedded in the system. Therefore, PSS development has become a new strategy for technology innovation in R&D organisations. Libaers, Hicks, and Porter (2010) argued that, rather than simply offering the core technologies, PSS

allows R&D organisations to integrate new resources and expand their revenue stream by delivering value through services. According to Morelli (2006), PSS development is a social construction process that requires organisations to attract different stakeholders. In other words, organisations need to consider multiple aspects, such as technology, stakeholders’ needs, and customer journey. Therefore, R&D organisations

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Touchpoint Vol. 9 No. 1 - Education and Capacitiy-Building

Published on Jul 19, 2017

Service Design Network

As service design grows, it faces the challenge of meeting the even greater demand for it. How can the seeds of service design be sown in tomorrow’s designers and business people? How can our techniques be introduced across entire organisations - to be applied by non-designers - to improve their services? And what frameworks can be proposed to categorise (blossoming) service designers according to traits and areas of expertise? Touchpoint is published three times each year by the Service Design Network. It brings together those practicing, learning and teaching service design, and each issue provides in-depth coverage of a specific theme, accompanied by regular sections. Free access to Touchpoint is one of the many benefits of membership to the SDN. To learn more, visit https://www.service-design-network.org/membership.