Carol Massa — a Portuguese Brazilian designer — shares her lessons about doing service design in the US
A bit of context before we get started
For those who land for the first time in this publication, Lusofonia, mention that it is one of the initiatives that the Portugal Chapter at the Service Design Network is putting together to make 2020 the year of the community.
Lusofonia is an open door for all the Portuguese-Speaking Service Designers in the diaspora willing to connect with the Service Design community in Portugal to share their ideas, projects, lessons learned on how it is to work with a different culture. Plus, and more importantly, an opportunity to learn from and with peers.
Today we are excited to introduce you to Carol Massa, she will share with you her journey into Service Design.
Hi, malta!
My name is Carol Massa and I’m a Portuguese Brazilian service designer living in Atlanta, GA, US. I currently work at a design consultancy firm called Harmonic Design where I’ve been doing service design work in full! Let me start by sharing with you what I’ve learned so far…
What I’ve learned from being a service designer in the US
There is still a lot that I don’t know about business in general — and honestly, it is impossible to know everything — but, I want to share with you some of the patterns that I’ve seen here in the US while conducting service design work with organizations:
Avoid using the design language that only makes sense to designers:
- Understand that people outside of the design community don’t know or have little to no exposure to our process. We usually fall into the trap of using terms such as service blueprinting, service storming, service-dominant logic. Business people don’t know what those are, all they want to know is how these tools/methods can help them and the company reach their milestones. Instead of saying “let’s do a service blueprinting session’’, you could say something like: “Let’s organize a cross-functional session to brainstorm ways we can improve our customers/consumers/users relationship with the backstage side of our organization.” Which brings me to my second point…
Organizations have their own way of saying things:
- Mastering different types of business acronyms is a life-long goal. To ease up this constraint, take into account that each organization has a particular set of values, structure, and norms. As you work with them (as a consultant/full-time/contractor), find out what drives their business, what they value the most, who they want to be in five, ten years. Be an active listener and ask smart questions, you will be speaking their language in no time!
Most organizations are not ready to support your design recommendation:
- Keep in mind that design work is grounded in creative thinking, this means that there is always going to be a gap between what you think they should do (concepts) and what they can actually do (implementation). To make your work more meaningful, assess their internal organizational structure. Find out if they have design teams, if they have platforms in place that could support possible changes, what policies they have in place that might get in the way of what you are suggesting, what metrics they use to measure success, use all of that to support your argument as you advocate for your solutions/recommendations.
Promote a design approach that is adaptable and inclusive:
- As designers, we are very protective of our work, I get it. I am too. But when you are working with organizations, your approach should be towards what works for them in their context. Not saying for you to let go on how you create/design solutions, but you should always look for ways to include your client/manager/coworkers into your process. The main reason for that is because they are the experts in the topic, they have a different perspective on how things work and should work, and, they can provide unmeasurable value to your design. Service design work takes a village and you should start/continue to build yours as soon as possible!
Keep yourself up-to-date in the latest service design news
- I firmly believe in the power of community knowledge, throughout my career I’ve come across smart, caring, and thoughtful people that helped me get to where I am today. That is why I’ve joined the Service Design Network Atlanta Chapter. I’m part of this local/global service design community where I’m able to learn every day from amazing people, where I share my knowledge with others who seek guidance in getting into the “service design world” and where I hear from the current challenges of our practice. I highly encourage all designers and non-designers to get involved in their local/global design communities. It is a safe space where you can go to learn, connect, and can be a place where you can find your next career move.
What do you need to know about coming to the US to start/continue a career in SD?
Apart from my learnings as a service design professional in the US market, I think it is important to note that if you want to start a career you will need to consider a couple of things:
- “Business” language and tone: since English is not your native language, you will go through an adaptation curve to learn how to explain things in English as well as the tone you use. In Portuguese, we use more words to describe what we want to say and we are very expressive. In English, I’ve learned to not “beat around the bush”, your design speech should be clear and objective. Also, be mindful of your facial expression, it can leave room for multiple interpretations.
- Tell your story: Be transparent about who you are as a designer and take advantage of having a diverse background, share your journey and what you are looking for with local communities. In the Atlanta Chapter we have members from India, Colombia, UK, Peru, among others and we learn so much from them!
- Service design might have another name: As you start your career in the US, you might come across job positions such as “Experience strategist”, “Digital experiences manager”, “Innovation manager”, etc. Make sure to read the job description and get in touch with them to learn about what they do. Being proactive is a plus, and you will notice that they might do service design work, they just don’t call it that.
- Network, network, network: One of the most important things that I’ve learned here is that, you have to network! Join meetup groups, LinkedIn groups, associate yourself with design-related communities, there is nothing more important to immerse yourself and connect with people. The majority of designers that I know, especially non-natives, got their jobs through their network. I know it is hard, but if you want to thrive in this market you have to show yourself by letting them “see you” and learn about what you can bring to the organization.
My design journey
Interestingly, my journey as a service designer has been based on exploring different types of design and being open to where life takes me. I’ve started my career in fashion design which is a tangible and inspirational type of design, then eventually changed my major to design and went to study in Lisbon at IADE where I’ve learned about color combinations, shapes, and forms. I’ve also worked with communications, web design, branding, and advertising. During this initial design journey, I’ve lived in two different countries (Brazil and Portugal) and met a diverse set of people and cultures. I began to notice this serendipitous pattern in my life where every time I wanted to grow as a designer, a new opportunity would just pop-up for me and I would just go for it! To that point, an opportunity presented itself to me this time in the US, where I went back to school to learn about design strategy. In 2017, I earned my MFA Design Management degree from SCAD and went on to focus on strategic design work.
That is what I’ve been doing lately, I’ve been working with mid to large size organizations mentoring internal teams about service design and its tools and methods.
I work with organizations using design as a medium to create visual assets and strategies that speak to organizations and people’s needs.
What’s Next?
As a designer, your brain never stops questioning. That is why I’m always trying to push myself to figure out ways to challenge our practice. Most recently, I’m working on a point of view about how organizations are living entities and why it is so important to understand the impacts of service design work. You can learn more about this topic watching my latest lecture “The strategic role of service design in organizations” for the SDN Academy here.
Closing Thoughts
I hope these thoughts have inspired you in some shape or form. Thank you Service Design Network — Portugal chapter for this opportunity to share my professional story and personal thoughts with you and your network!
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Thank you so much Carol for sharing your journey with us. We are pretty sure that the Portuguese-speaking community will avidly read this fantastic article!
If you want to connect with Carol you can find her on Linkedin, Medium, or Twitter.
