Service Design in Practice
This is an 8-month accredited service design course for people working in public or third sector services.
It’s an intensive deep dive into service design that will challenge the way you think and behave. You’ll gain a new confidence and understanding in service design that will change how you work for good.
This course is the only UK-based service design training specifically created for public sector organisations that provides an optional pathway to SDN Service Design Practitioner Accreditation.
Level: Practitioner
Duration: 8-month course
Location: Hybrid
Cost: From £3,750+VAT pp
Dates: Runs twice a year starting March and Sept
Who’s it for?
This course is for you if you already feel passionate about developing better public services and want to develop the skills, confidence and influence to apply service design approaches in your work.
You are striving to bring real change to your organisation. You might be fed up with services failing to meet your users’ needs. Or see colleagues wasting energy and resources on costly projects that are built on assumptions and fail to make a difference.
Perhaps you’re considering a career change or just want to add another string to your bow. Maybe you've already landed a new job with service design as part of your role.
Whatever your situation, no previous experience in service design is necessary.
Previous participants include customer service managers, business analysts, service managers, and those with roles focused on organisational transformation, user research, content design and service design.
Designed for people working in councils, housing associations, government, charities and other nonprofits, our Service Design in Practice training course will give you the mindset, self-awareness and tools you need to transform your services.
What will you learn?
Led by experts in service design, culture change and behavioural psychology, you’ll learn how to apply new thinking, behaviours and tools to real-world problems – turning service design theory into practice.
You’ll be guided through three service design challenges while developing the confidence and insight needed to influence and support people through complex change.
You’ll learn how to:
frame challenges and question assumptions
research and understand user needs
generate ideas beyond obvious solutions
plan, create and test prototypes cost-effectively
influence sustainable change in your organisation
form effective collaborative teams.
What makes this course special?
Designed specifically for public sector and nonprofit organisations
A chance to apply learning to three design challenges during the course
A focus on the soft skills needed to influence others and create high-performing teams
Provides an optional pathway to achieving SDN Service Design Practitioner Accreditation.
“I can’t speak highly enough about this course not just for understanding service design but for so much more about influencing and enabling change. I’ve come away from each session feeling energised and with practical tools and techniques I’ve been able to use straight away.”
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![Rhian Osborne, from Companies House who attended ServiceWorks' Service Design in Practice certification course.]()
"I've realised it's not just about the standalone skills, but also about the mindset"
"As a user researcher, I wanted to learn more about service design. It’s about adding to the skills I currently have and seeing the whole service – connecting things across different parts of the organisation.
I want to keep learning and applying these skills to make sure that service design becomes embedded in the work of Companies House. This course has been great in teaching me the tools and techniques to make that happen."
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![Nudd Lewis, Welsh Government]()
"Hands down the best training course I've ever been on!"
“This is a very valuable training programme that opens the bonnet on the inner workings of service design - something I had previously found a bit woolly and difficult to pin down. It will give you deep insight into the why, and lots of tools with hands-on practice for the what and how. Hands down the best training course I've ever been on!”
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![Lea Hampton O'Neil, from Guide Dogs who attended ServiceWorks' Service Design in Practice training course UK.]()
"It teaches you about the larger things around service design that are so important for implementation"
“Service Design in Practice is a really good course. It teaches you about service design and lets you practice it, in a way that teaches you about the larger things around service design that are so important for implementation – like facilitation, creating psychological safety in your team, and influencing others.”
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![David Madge, Cwmpas]()
"I'm now an advocate for service design."
“As a marketing professional, I was a bit suspicious of Service Design to begin with.
It's an absolutely brilliant programme. I've learned a hell of a lot from it. I'm now an advocate for service design.
The combination of theory, practice and how to influence others has already helped me in my job."
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![Martin Linforth from Natural Resources Wales who attended ServiceWorks' Service Design in Practice training course in the UK.]()
"It's already proven to be really effective. More from my team will be on the next programme!"
“This course has been a really positive experience. My understanding of the value of discovery has already fed into a piece of work that has the potential to save our organisation well over £1 million. It's already proven to be really effective. More from my team will be on the next programme!”
Martin Linforth, Senior Specialist Advisor, Flood Warning & Informing, Natural Resources Wales
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![Jane Lewis, Welsh Government]()
“The future is looking bright.”
“It's really changed my mindset. I came from another organisation where I knew something was wrong, but didn't know how to fix it or influence people in the right places - to say that users need to be at the heart of service design.
If I had my time again I would now be able to do things differently. Everything I'm learning here I can see how we can put into practice. I'm already having conversations with colleagues - the future is looking bright!”
— Jane Lewis, Senior Childcare Grant Award & Digital Services Manager, Welsh Government
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![Owen Burgess, Sport Wales]()
"The result is a complete change in my thinking."
“It changed my thinking from ‘we’ve got to build a really nice process that works for us’ to ‘don't worry about the process, let’s focus on what our users need and experience. We’ll get to the solution later.’
The result is a complete change in my thinking – I’m now genuinely passionate about understanding the needs of users and making sure we develop and build something that serves customers.”
– Owen Burgess, Service Design and Development Lead, Sport Wales
Course outline
The course is structured around ten core workshops, independent teamwork, plus coaching sessions and reflective practice.
We’ll work through three service design projects.
Design a better lunch experience:
During the intro session we’ll guide you through a mini design cycle, giving you an overview of the design process.New starter experience:
Workshops 1-4 are all about learning and applying service design to create a better new starter experience in your organisation.Real work challenge:
Workshops 5-8 are where you get to apply your learning to a real work challenge, working in teams with your peers.
For each of the design projects, we will cover:
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Get to the root cause of a problem.
You’ll learn the service design basics, the principles, mindsets and core activities, before focusing on discovering more about a service design challenge you’ll work on.
We’ll explore:
discovery - what and why we do it
balancing organisational needs with user needs
challenge framing
different thinking modes for creativity
finding the root cause of a challenge
recognise and question assumptions
develop empathy for service users
influencing stakeholders
setting up service design teams to succeed.
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Discover people’s real needs.
You’ll learn a series of effective methods to engage beyond the surface level with users and understand their behaviour better, including:
stakeholder mapping
using different types of data
observation and interviewing for research
assumption testing
goal driven personas
customer journey and systems mapping
using a coaching style of questioning
influencing leadership.
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Develop ideas to address your challenge
You’ll practise techniques to help you think outside the box, with fresh insights from your own user research. Generate innovative ideas using creative tools and techniques, including how to:
recognise patterns and gather insights from research data
generate user stories
reframe the challenge using "How might we..." questions
how to facilitate rapid idea generation
prioritise the most promising ideas
recognise our privilege as designers
communicate the benefits of service design to others
understand design maturity in organisations
working effectively in multi-disciplinary teams.
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Experiment with ideas, and quickly learn and improve on them
You’ll learn how to test your ideas in a structured way before committing huge resources. Learn the prototyping process from planning to evaluation, including:
what and why we prototype
prototype vs. pilot
prototyping methods
prototype planning, testing and evaluation
business model canvas
how to facilitate effective workshops that include everybody
getting people on board with service design.
“Of all the training I’ve done, this course has changed my mindset the most.”
Case studies
Find out how others have applied their learning
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App development
Applying service design to a new housing association tenant app
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Customer satisfaction
Using service design to improve customer satisfaction
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Employee on-boarding
Improving the ‘new employee’ journey using service design
How it works
The course is delivered over eight months through a combination of workshops (four face-to-face sessions at Tramshed Tech in Cardiff, and six online) and separate online coaching sessions.
Your time commitment
The best learning is experiential, in essence, putting your learning into practice. To make the most of the course, you’ll need to commit to:
Attending sessions:
10 full days equivalent
Attending workshops and coaching sessions virtually and face to face at Tramshed Tech, Cardiff. Evenly spaced over eight months.
Teamwork activity:
1/2 day each week
Working collaboratively online with peers, putting learning into practice, preparing for sessions and doing user research.
Individual work:
1-2 hours each week
Individual self-guided reflection, reading and watching videos.
Meet the facilitators
Jo Carter
Service Design Lead
I’m passionate about service design and the benefits it can bring, especially in government, social housing and charities. As a trained coach, I also love to see others grow and develop, so I feel privileged to have been able to combine these passions through my work. I set up ServiceWorks after 10 years in local government. I’m now an Accredited Service Design Master and an experienced consultant, trainer, facilitator and coach. I live in Cardiff with my husband and teenage girls, and in my spare time you’ll find me playing drums and cycling, though rarely both at once!
Katie Driver
Collaboration Partner
I love helping teams think better together, using their rich experiences and ideas to generate new and better ways to make progress on the work that matters.
Formerly a UK Senior Civil Servant, I’m now an experienced trainer, a qualified coach and Strengths Profile practitioner, and active member of the Time to Think Collegiate.
I'm vice-Chair of Governors of my local FE College in South West London, and mum to two almost grown lads. When not at my desk, I can often be found running or reading.
Hear from course alumni
Marie says if you really want to put customers at the heart of your service, you need this course.
Howard tells us how the course helped him develop in his Business Analyst role.
FAQs
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The course runs twice a year, starting March and September. Book now, or register for early notification of upcoming dates.
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Early Bird: £3,750 + VAT per person (limited availability)
Standard: £4,100 + VAT per person
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5% discount for 2 or more people from one organisation.
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No! Leave your assumptions at the door and come with a curious mind, a readiness to collaborate and an eagerness to learn. That’s all you need.
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ServiceWorks is an Accredited Organisation with the Service Design Network. You'll receive a co-branded certificate of completion.
This course is a pathway to becoming a SDN Accredited Service Design Practitioner.
Participants can choose to go on to apply for accreditation following completion of the course.
Accreditation is not included in the cost of the course.
You will receive a 50% discount code for Practitioner Accreditation at the end of the programme.
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We’ll provide you with a copy of the book This is Service Design Doing.
We use Trello, Mural and WhatsApp to share learning material, communicate and build a community of practice.
You'll need a quiet space and a laptop with internet access to attend online sessions and do your own work.
Face to face sessions are in Cardiff.
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Yes we do.
Get in touch if you’d like to fill a course entirely from your organisation.
Consider Design+Learn Live.
“This was a brilliant programme that really pushed my learning and how I approach the services we deliver. Jo Carter and Ffion Jones are brilliant facilitators, experts, gurus! I can thoroughly recommend!”
Book now
We run this open course twice a year, starting in March and September.
Book for March 2025
Booking is open for our March 2025 course.
Early bird: £3,750 + VAT per person
Standard: £4,100 + VAT per person
Group booking: 5% discount for 2 or more colleagues
When you book, you’ll be given the option to pay by card or request an invoice. Payment by instalments on application.
Questions?
If you’d like to discuss whether the course is right for you first, book a quick chat with Jo.
Join waiting list
You’ll be the first to hear about future dates with early access to the next booking window, plus an exclusive discount code.
We’ll also add you to our mailing list. We’ll never share your details and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Looking to train your entire team?
Consider Design+Learn Live