Beccy’s squiggly career line to service design

Beccy Hazell’s career journey

In this series of Q&As, we’re exploring the fascinating journeys that people take into service design, and how a varied career can help make for a better service designer.

Beccy Hazell is a Senior Service Designer at the BBC, working on integrating experiences to help people discover the BBC’s online content. 

Q: What has been your career journey and how did you first encounter service design?

A: Leaving school, I didn’t really have a clear idea of what I wanted to do as a career and my 10-15 year journey into service design was definitely somewhat accidental. I started off by opening a gift shop and selling online – my dad takes credit for my career, since he bought me an ‘eBay for Dummies’ book at the time!

It certainly sparked an interest in all things online and a few years later I got a job as a trainee web developer with my local council. That was a great opportunity because the training budget allowed me to go back into education and take an Open University course in user experience (UX) design. 

I worked in a few different UX roles, including user research and as an interaction designer in central government (Companies House), and always found myself wondering about the stages that come before and after what I was doing. I was really craving something a bit more ‘zoomed out’, where I was involved in the end-to-end process.

I first heard about service design when I saw a job description for a service designer for the Cabinet Office and I thought ‘Yes! That sounds right up my street.’  

Q: Our theory is that a squiggly line career makes for a better service designer. How is this true for you?

A: I definitely feel like service design is where I’m meant to be after all the squiggles. Service design involves asking lots of questions and, by nature, I’m quite nosy, so I love it!

More than that, though, service design really feels like a team sport. It involves interacting with many different people in varied roles, so having broad experience in having done many of those roles in the past is helpful. It means I have a better understanding of how things fit together and appreciate what people in different roles need and can contribute to a project.  

Q: How did you go about learning about service design?

A: It was fortunate that I was working in central government when I first became aware of service design. There were lots of internal programmes and learning opportunities I could tap into, from courses, webinars and events to documented frameworks that helped me understand the language of service design.

There were also UX groups that I was involved in, and I’d take the opportunity to go along to any events tagged ‘service design’ so I could speak to people and learn more about different approaches.

And I’m still learning, of course. One of the exciting things about service design is that every project is different and, as a discipline, it’s constantly evolving, so there’s always more to learn. 

Q: What service design work are you most proud to have been involved in? And why?

A: One of the most interesting and challenging projects was for central government during the Covid-19 pandemic. Lots of different projects were being spun up quite quickly and staff were being moved around between different departments to meet requirements. We wanted to ease the transition for staff moving from, for example, the Department for Work and Pensions into the Cabinet Office or another government department.

There were many different tools and variations to consider, including pensions and annual leave. From a user research point of view, it was really interesting to speak to many different people, gather requirements, and implement improvements.

Q: What have you found most challenging about practising service design in a government/public sector context?

A: One of the challenges of service design, more generally, is the people aspect. A big part of the job is learning about each of the stakeholders, what their pain points are and how you can best get everyone involved and bought into a project (a legitimate part of the job is having cups of tea with people).

That’s not specific to government and public sector organisations, but their size makes it more challenging. In central government, in particular, the landscape is vast. Penetrating all the different corners and understanding the various ways of working in different departments is a big task.   

Q: What advice would you give anyone just starting out or looking to develop a career in service design?

A: Take any opportunity you can to talk to people working in the space and see if you can gain some experience in the key aspects of the role. That could include asking if you could shadow them, offering to help do some research for a project, or helping out with planning and delivering any kind of workshop-type event. There are also some great short courses out there, including with the Open University and, of course, ServiceWorks: Introduction to Service Design.

Although we talked about the challenges in government and public sector, they also have great opportunities in service design. There’s an appreciation of the value it can bring. So, even if you take a related role in the sector, for example, as a business analyst, there are many opportunities to take relevant courses and join projects that would widen your experience and may open up opportunities. 

Q: Can you recommend something to read, watch or listen to that might interest someone interested in embarking on a career in service design? 

A: Top of the list would be Good Services: How to Design Services That Work, by Lou Downe. I keep a copy nearby and re-read it often. I also have a poster with the 15 Principles of Good Service Design (taken from the book) in my home office. 

I’ve recently finished reading The Service Organization, by Kate Tarling. Other service designer friends recommended it and I have borrowed/been inspired by many lines and paragraphs in the book.  

I know it can be like marmite, but I'm a big fan of a PowerPoint presentation. A friend recommended this book and I really liked it for its funny and useful advice – Everything I Know about Life I Learned from PowerPoint.

Finally, I also keep an eye on the NN/g website. They have some great articles and videos that I can read or watch with a cuppa.

Find out more

If you’re starting out in service design, whatever your career journey to date, our Introduction to Service Design course is the perfect way to build your understanding of the fundamentals. Three 2.5-hour sessions introduce service design to people working in public and nonprofit organisations. Learn more

And look out for more in this series of squiggly line career stories!