Hello Friends and New Faces!
As we step into this new year together, I'm filled with gratitude for the vibrant community we've built in just three months. This blog, which began as a small personal project, has blossomed into a space buzzing with ideas, discussions, and a shared passion for design and leadership.
Introducing Myself and This Blog.
For those who've just joined us, I'm Marzia. I’m a service design leader with a PhD in Organisational Studies. With 15 years under my belt working with large organisations—including a decade at Livework, a leading Service Design Studio—I've gathered a few stories and lessons about the power of design in transforming organisations. In this blog, I share these stories and emerging reflections.
This blog is a melting pot of experiences from different corners of the design world, and it is written with three groups of people in mind:
Business Leaders: Don't worry if design isn't your first language. I write about leadership and decision-making in a way that connects with your experiences. The following three posts are made just for you:
How to Organise your Journeys for Effective Decision Making: Introducing the A.V.O.C. framework.
Leadership by Design: Crafting your leadership journey.
Reorienting Your Leadership Style: Understanding your action logic.
Design Leaders: You are shaping the future of design in organisations. I share insights on how to strategically position design in organisations, and how to maximise impact for the benefit of customers, business, operations and the environment. Posts you will find interesting are:
Design Leaders in the Corporate Jungle: Learning to drive design-led change effectively.
Organisational Logics: Learn to navigate your organisation to drive meaningful change.
Forget Selling Design: Here's how you make them buy it!
Design Practitioners: You're the ones bringing ideas to life. For you, I write about how to enhance the effectiveness of the design practice in an organisational context. Interesting posts for you are:
Service Truths: Timeless principles of successful service delivery.
Designers, Your Currency is Your Relationships: Invest in them.
It's About Damn Time: Catalysing the power of the underestimated.
The Year Ahead: Exciting Themes and Conversations
We're not just sticking to the tried and tested this year. Expect topics like feminism in design, sustainable futures, GenAi, and service structures to take center stage. Your thoughts and suggestions in the new chat feature will help steer these discussions.
Last year, we heard from opinionated guest authors like Lourenço Viana and Valeria Adani, who brought fresh angles to our strategic design conversations. This year, I'm excited to welcome a new guest author each month to add more flavours to our blend of ideas. We will start next week by welcoming Daisy O'Neill, writing about Feminism in Design.
Lastly, in a couple of weeks, expect to see a new experiment: a podcast featuring women and non-binary design leaders.
Join the Conversation
This blog isn't just about me broadcasting; it's about us sharing experiences and reflections. I'd love for you to introduce yourself in the comments. Share your journey, your interest in design, or just a simple hello. Your stories are the heartbeat of this community.
I'm thrilled to embark on this year's journey with you all. Your perspectives, stories, and ideas are what make this space special. Let's keep the conversations flowing and continue to inspire each other in the ever-evolving world of design-driven transformation.
Cheers to a year of growth, learning, and connection!
Hi everyone, I am Giovanni, Italian in-house Service Designer based in Germany. I have 15+ years eyperience in the area of services. In my role, I help my organization to deliver strategic innovation by tearing down its silos through a design-driven approach (not always successfully. As Adam Lawrence puts it, no one cannot force thirsty people to drink - all you can do is to point them towards fresh water sources, it's their choice to drink it).
My work starts understanding people's needs, then usually proceeds facilitating the discussions related to how technologies, business and processes have to be interwoven together to deliver desirable products and services that generate value. I approach these tasks with great curiosity and by making everything very visual, in order to clarify how all the parts of complex systems come together as a whole.
In fact I am a very visual person.
As a kid, my dream was to become a professional comic artist. While I am not there yet, I use my drawing and storytelling skills to make innovative ideas more tangible, and to help people to be more confident in their visualisation skills.
I look forward to grow with you.