This occupation is found in the private, public and third sector, local, national, and multinational organisations and employers. Relevant sectors include the health sector, finance sector, business and professional services, retail sector, technology sector, government, public sector, and the charity sector. There has been a growing demand for service design skills to be embedded within culture and governance structures to support future ways of working.
The broad purpose of the occupation is to improve/redesign services currently offered or develop/design new service propositions to meet the needs of the user as well as the business and other stakeholders. Service designers take a user-centred, collaborative and exploratory approach to design the new service, iterating toward implementation.
They work collaboratively with service/product owners and multidisciplinary teams; to (re)design services:
- from end to end (the start of a process to the very end step they take),
- from front to back (both user-facing and back office to create a seamless service) and
- cross-channel (to seamlessly and often interchangeably deliver the service through the various available platforms, which sometimes - but not always - include digital touch points).
In short, the purpose of a services designer is to (re)design services collaboratively and iteratively, taking a user-centred approach.
In their daily work, an employee in this occupation interacts with a wide range of internal stakeholders, from front-line staff to service managers, senior leaders to heads of the organisation. If involved in the research, they also interact with a range of external stakeholders, which may include members of the public and individuals working in other organisations. They may, in large organisations, report to programme boards and to shareholders in private sector organisations. They often work in collaboration with multidisciplinary teams (through formal or informal arrangement) which may include marketing, finance, communications, logistics, project management, HR, digital (developers, systems/solutions architects) and user research.
Service Designers enable services to be (re)designed in a user/customer-centred way and therefore the most important stakeholder is the end user/service beneficiary.
An employee in this occupation will be responsible for guiding and facilitating the (re)design of a service, product, or solution; ensuring the work is user-centred. Increasingly, service designers design with the environment as a key stakeholder, creating services that serve the triple bottom line (profit, people, planet).
Service Designers are responsible for guiding, leading, facilitating and educating those involved in the (re)design, providing adequate challenge to ensure that they are responding to the right problem statement, that the scope of the work is appropriately sized and the limitations (i.e. with technology or the outcome an organisation wants to achieve) are understood to ensure anything (re)designed is viable.
They are responsible for selecting the most useful methodologies, tools, and techniques for use in the service design and continually work between a macro and micro view, ensuring the work has pace/is progressing and that the strategic view is not lost within the work.
Service Designers are expected to understand and contribute to budgets and return on investment considerations. In larger organisations, they may have management oversight of their own budgets.
| Duty | KSBs |
|---|---|
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Duty 1 Question and challenge the design brief in order to lead, influence and guide stakeholders to determine the scope of the service design work, both strategically and operationally. |
K1 K2 K10 K12 K16 K17 K19 K20 K21 |
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Duty 2 Define and conduct research activities including primary/secondary research using both qualitative and quantitative data to fully understand users and their needs as well as the context of a service. |
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Duty 3 Synthesise research to build themes and clusters, find insights, and discover opportunity areas for improving the experience of the user. |
K1 K2 K5 K6 K10 K16 K17 K18 K19 |
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Duty 4 Analyse, interpret and communicate complex information or data sets from the research to build a case and direction for change. |
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Duty 5 Develop multiple potential solutions to the design brief using ideation tools and techniques |
K1 K2 K3 K4 K7 K9 K10 K15 K17 K19 |
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Duty 6 Prototype, test with users and analyse potential solutions, making continuous improvements to designs and selecting ideas that best deliver the desired impact on a user’s experience of a service and the environmental and economic needs of the organisation. |
K1 K2 K3 K4 K8 K9 K10 K12 K13 K14 K17 K19 S1 S3 S4 S5 S7 S8 S9 S11 S12 S13 S14 S15 S16 S17 S20 S21 S22 S24 S25 |
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Duty 7 Direct the transition from prototype into pilot projects through working with the service areas who will take this forward and lead on-going evaluation, including creating clear success metrics for the improved service. |
K1 K2 K8 K9 K10 K11 K12 K13 K14 K16 K17 K19 K20 S1 S4 S5 S8 S9 S11 S13 S14 S15 S16 S17 S18 S19 S21 S23 S25 S26 |
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Duty 8 Lead the design of services through engaging with and influencing stakeholders, colleagues, and service users. |
K1 K3 K10 K11 K12 K17 K18 K19 K20 K21 |
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Duty 9 Develop others with the skills needed to contribute to the work through coaching, mentoring, shadowing, working collaboratively or delivering training. |
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Duty 10 Manage time frames and guide budget decisions, working within organisational project management processes, and manage risks in order to meet business needs. |
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Duty 11 Manage and lead ongoing change and identify individuals and groups who are able to make a case for a service design approach for future change requirements. |
K1: The theory and history of the discipline of service design, including definitions and principles, the different perspectives, approaches, or schools of thought.
Back to Duty
K2: How and when service design practices can be used to design and improve services.
Back to Duty
K3: Other business areas and professions involved in the design of services such as research, UX, technology, policy, and delivery.
Back to Duty
K4: The use of creative processes involved in design such as user-centred design approaches and design thinking methods.
Back to Duty
K5: Approaches to mapping a service and when to use them.
Back to Duty
K6: Methodologies for user research and data collection to understand user needs, pain points, opportunities and areas that should be prioritised.
Back to Duty
K7: Ideation tools and techniques to developing potential solutions.
Back to Duty
K8: Methodologies to evaluate prototypes and ideas.
Back to Duty
K9: Continued improvement of a service, using iterative and agile approaches.
Back to Duty
K10: Methods and tools for working collaboratively with groups, teams, and individuals.
Back to Duty
K11: Project management and agile principles and methods.
Back to Duty
K12: Approaches to change management.
Back to Duty
K13: Tools and techniques for prioritisation.
Back to Duty
K14: Techniques for measuring cost, value, risk, and impact of decisions
Back to Duty
K15: Use of current and emerging technologies to inform the design of services.
Back to Duty
K16: Principles of design and research ethics for service design.
Back to Duty
K17: Equity, justice, diversity, and inclusion and how they impact on outcomes for people and organisations.
Back to Duty
K18: Relevant regulatory and legislative requirements such as data protection, GDPR, confidentiality, for the handling and processing of data and its application during a project.
Back to Duty
K19: How a service designer can contribute to a service becoming more environmentally sustainable.
Back to Duty
K20: How to support the continuous development requirements and training and learning needs of people they work with.
Back to Duty
K21: Organisation structures; business modelling; global and horizon scanning perspectives; governance and accountability; technological and policy implications.
Back to Duty
S1: Champion and advocate the benefits of service design and user centred solutions.
Back to Duty
S2: Interpret, analyse, and challenge a design brief.
Back to Duty
S3: Systematically analyse and apply problem-solving techniques to complex service design challenges.
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S4: Use service design methods to design new propositions, products, and services, and improve existing ones.
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S5: Co-design, workshop, and facilitation of service design activities with stakeholders and users.
Back to Duty
S6: Map the current and future states of a service journey collating information from multiple sources to form a single view of the service.
Back to Duty
S7: Select, formulate and apply qualitative and quantitative user research methods and approaches.
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S8: Analyse and evaluate findings from qualitative and quantitative research methods to understand and prioritise user needs.
Back to Duty
S9: Evaluate arguments, assumptions, abstract concepts, and data to make judgements, and develop questions to achieve a solution to a problem.
Back to Duty
S10: Select and use ideation methods to generate multiple solutions to complex problems.
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S11: Prioritise potential solutions to select which to take forward to further development.
Back to Duty
S12: Prototype concepts and solutions from low to high degrees of fidelity.
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S13: Evaluate prototype solutions, selecting the most appropriate methodology.
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S14: Select, formulate and apply a range of user testing methods to ensure any service changes create the desired impact.
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S15: Apply user-centred design processes to iteratively develop concepts and solutions.
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S16: Evaluate solutions in place to continually improve the service for users and stakeholders.
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S17: Critically analyse, interpret and evaluate complex information and concepts.
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S18: Communicate complex information, concepts and ideas adapting for different audiences.
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S19: Influence, negotiate and challenge stakeholders in the delivery and decision-making process.
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S20: Considers multiple viewpoints including those of the internal stakeholders, service users and service providers.
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S21: Work with multidisciplinary teams.
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S22: Work ethically and sustainably, to ensure research and design activities are carried out to the highest practice in ethical standards.
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S23: Manage project to timescales and budget requirements.
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S24: Identify and apply emerging industry developments to continuously improve service design practice.
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S25: Provide support, specialist advice, and guidance.
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S26: Identify the training requirements for their teams and stakeholders.
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B1: Role models ethical behaviour and practices.
Back to Duty
B2: Considers the “big” picture and the detail together.
Back to Duty
B3: Works flexibly and adapts to circumstances.
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B4: Seeks learning opportunities and continuous professional development.
Back to Duty
B5: Takes responsibility, shows initiative, and is organised.
Back to Duty
B6: Championing the user and putting them at the centre of the design process
Back to Duty
Apprentices without level 2 English and maths will need to achieve this level prior to taking the End-Point Assessment. For those with an education, health and care plan or a legacy statement, the apprenticeship’s English and maths minimum requirement is Entry Level 3. A British Sign Language (BSL) qualification is an alternative to the English qualification for those whose primary language is BSL.
| Version | Change detail | Earliest start date | Latest start date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Approved for delivery | 23/03/2023 | Not set |
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