Harmonic Designers Publish Groundbreaking Article on Service Implementation in Touchpoint Journal

We are delighted to announce the publication of a groundbreaking article by Harmonic Design’s service designers, Shreya Dhawan and Kerri McGar, in Touchpoint, the leading journal for service design published by the Service Design Network (SDN).

Titled “From Vision to Reality: Implementation Readiness An Integrated Approach,” the article addresses a crucial challenge service designers face: understanding an organization’s readiness for service implementation. Often, service designers focus on early design phases, making it challenging to transition from vision to reality. The paper provides a comprehensive framework to help service designers become day-one implementation-ready.

McGar and Dhawan highlight the complexity of implementing new solutions, emphasizing the need for foundational organizational capabilities such as whole systems mindset, thinking in services, responsiveness, and collaboration and co-creation across existing organizational practices. They stress the importance of considering service design implementation from the outset, integrating an implementation mindset and practice into the design and development of services.

The article explores three key areas influencing service implementation:

1. Explicitly identifying organizational conditions and capabilities required for effective implementation.
2. Gaining a clear understanding of an organization’s typology, including current context, design legacies, structures, competencies, and cultures.
3. Understanding and acting upon implementation readiness states across leaders, teams, and individuals.

Harmonic Design and the Service Design Network

Harmonic Design is proud of our affiliation with the Service Design Network. Our team members have contributed significantly to the SDN, including starting a service design chapter in Atlanta, delivering keynotes at the global conference, mentoring at the Service Design Jam, and being published in Touchpoint.

The article is part of Touchpoint Vol. 14 No. 3 – Measuring Service Experiences, available for purchase in print and PDF format at https://www.service-design-network.org/touchpoint/touchpoint-vol14-no3-service-design-implementation.