Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015

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Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015 by Leah Buley December 1, 2015

Why Read This Report

Key Takeaways

The service design provider landscape has changed dramatically in a short time. Just two years ago, it was a sea of smaller firms concentrated in Europe. Today, a more varied profile emerges, with full-service design agencies and management consultancies claiming service design among their offerings. This report examines today’s provider landscape and offers guidance to help customer experience (CX) professionals assess the right service design partner for their goals.

Service Design In 2015 Is In Flux The service design field has grown organically and through mergers and acquisitions in recent years. Today, it reflects a mashup of five different approaches: fuzzy front-end innovation, physical and face-to-face experience design, digital experience design, organizational change management, and business process consulting. The Field Is Moving From A Lineup Of Small Boutiques To A Full-Service Provider Model Among service design agencies, some continue to specialize in targeted offerings like physical service design and organizational change. But full-service digital and business systems providers have joined the game and bring new capabilities like quantitative analysis and business analytics to the field. Is That A Good Thing? It All Depends On Your CX Goals When shopping for a service design partner, CX professionals should ask a lot of questions -some obvious and some not so obvious -- to find the right fit.

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Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015 by Leah Buley with John Dalton, Anajali Yakkundi, Sarah Sikowitz, Kelly Price, and Kara Hartig December 1, 2015

Table Of Contents 2 Service Design In 2015: Mergers And MashUps 5 Agencies That Offer Service Design Vary Widely Most Agencies Practice Two Or Three Flavors Of Service Design Specialized Firms Are Small And Focused On Social Services

Notes & Resources We used data from Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey in the writing of this report.

Related Research Documents Service Design Agency Overview, 2013 The State Of Service Design, 2013

Agencies With Breadth Also Bring A More Traditional Business Approach And A Small Crop Of Atypical Agencies Foreshadow Coming Trends Recommendations

24 To Assess Potential Partners, Ask Some Personal Questions 25 Supplemental Material

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Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015

Service Design In 2015: Mergers And Mash-Ups 2013: Accenture acquires service design agency Fjord. 2014: EPAM acquires service design agency Great Fridays. 2015: Wipro acquires service design agency Designit. Notice a pattern? More traditional agencies are jumping into the service design game with both feet. As a result, a wider range of players than ever now talk the talk of service design.1 But how can CX professionals be sure that an agency also walks the walk? To find out, in Q3 2015, Forrester surveyed service design agencies from across the globe. We applied exploratory factor analysis to the self-reported survey results to see if subtle differences separate one type of service design provider from another.2 The result? Rather than one homogenous discipline, based on reported capabilities and channels, we found five flavors of service design that agencies mash up in different ways (see Figure 1 and see Figure 2): ›› Fuzzy front-end innovators. This group emerged from a pattern of respondents that all reported qualitative customer research, brand strategy, experience strategy, conceptual design, detailed design, and employee experience design among their capabilities. It’s not surprising to see these activities together; as a sequence, this looks a lot like the customer-centered innovation process, with its emphasis on what customers need, what the brand stands for, what the big idea is, and how it all pays off in delightful details. About half of the agencies that responded to our survey fall into this group. ›› Physical and face-to-face experience designers. These are firms that report that they design for face-to-face interactions, the physical environment, printed materials, and the contact center. This is canonical service design — with its emphasis on a human-centered approach to planning and organizing back-office and front-office associate-to-customer interactions. And yet just 37% of the agencies that responded to our survey exhibited this pattern. ›› Digital experience designers. Service design as a discipline is channel-agnostic, but a strong theme around digital experience design emerged among these service design providers. These are firms that couple business strategy with specific design for Web, mobile, and tablets. The 69% of firms that fell into this group have entered that gray area between service design, digital customer experience strategy, and digital technology. In fact, a few firms in our recent overview of digital experience service providers appear in this report as well.3 Expect to see more of this crossover. As digital permeates an increasingly wide swath of your customers’ experiences, service designers will find themselves thinking in increasingly digital terms. ›› Organizational change partners. This category reflects the hard truth that to improve how customers experience an organization’s services, it is often necessary to take on the messy business of change management, training, and organizational design. This will come as no surprise to many customer experience professionals, but it is significant to see that service design firms also recognize the necessity of this and fold it into their offerings. Half of the firms that responded to the survey claimed these capabilities.

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Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015

›› Business systems consultants. Firms that combine capabilities in quantitative customer research, business analytics, and technology development fall into this group. These companies were also more likely to design for software and software-as-a-service (SaaS) than those outside of this group. These are firms that help organizations design and deploy business-facing systems. Surprised to see firms like this on a list of service design agencies? Don’t be. These firms are leading some of the most noteworthy mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the service design space. This was the smallest pattern to emerge from our analysis: It applies to only about a quarter of our survey respondents. But it encompasses the largest, most globally dispersed, and most widely recognized consultancies on our list.

FIGURE 1 Factor Analysis Found Patterns In Service Designers Based On Capabilities And Channels

Physical and faceto-face experience Digital experience designers designers

Fuzzy front-end innovators • Qualitative customer research capabilities • Conceptual design capabilities • Experience strategy capabilities • Brand strategy capabilities • Detailed design and specifications capabilities • Employee experience design capabilities

• Face-to-face channel • Physical environment channel • Printed materials channel • Contact center channel

• Business strategy capabilities • Web channel • Mobile/tablet channels

Organizational change partners

Business systems consultants

• Change management capabilities • Organizational design capabilities • Training capabilities

• Quantitative customer research capabilities • Business analytics capabilities • Tech development capabilities • Installed software/ SaaS channel

Base: 70 global service design agencies Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey

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Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015

FIGURE 2 Patterns Among Service Design Providers By Self-Reported Capabilities And Channel Strengths

Physical and faceto-face experience Digital experience designers designers

Organizational change partners • Brand Manual • AKQA • Catalyst Innovation • Comrade Partners • brightspot strategy • continuum • Brand Manual innovation • Cnote • Catalyst Innovation • Catalyst Innovation Partners • Designit • Comotion Partners • Cnote • Doberman • Comrade • Changeful • Comotion • Engine Service • continuum • Cnote Design innovation • Comrade • Comrade • Experientia • Criativia • Criativia • continuum • Fjord, a part of • Deloitte innovation • Deloitte Accenture • Designit • Daytona • Engine Service Interactive Design • Doberman • Deloitte • frog • EPAM • Edenspiekermann • Hellon • Designit • FCV • Engine Service • Doberman • Holon Design • Fjord, a part of • Edenspiekermann • Huge Accenture • EPAM • Engine Service Interactive • Idea Couture • Experientia Design • Hellon • Livework Studio • FCV • Experientia • Holon • McKinsey Digital • Fjord, a part of • FCV Labs • Huge Accenture • Fjord, a part of • minds & makers Interactive • Interbrand Accenture • MU/DAI • frog • Intersezioni Interactive • Palmu Group • gravitytank • Kristina Tool • frog Studio • Red Privet • Hello Future • Hello Future • Made by Many • Rocca Creative • Hellon • Hellon Thinking • McKinsey Digital • Holon • Holon Labs • SapientNitro • Huge • Huge • minds & makers • Service Science • Idea Couture • Idea Couture Factory • Palmu Group • Interbrand • strategybuilders.eu • Interbrand • Razorfish Global • Kristina Tool • Livework Studio • We Question Our • SAP Studio • Macquarium Project • SapientNitro • Macquarium • Made by Many • WorkPlay• Service Science • Made by Many Experience • MAYA Design Factory • McKinsey Digital • Ziba Design • minds & makers • STBY Labs • Zilver Innovation • McKinsey Digital • strategybuilders.eu • MU/DAI Labs • Transformator • Razorfish Global • MRM//McCann Design • Red Privet • Nile • User Studio • Rocca Creative • Nurun • Via Design Thinking

Fuzzy front-end innovators

Business systems consultants • AKQA • Deloitte • Designit • EPAM • Fjord, a part of Accenture Interactive • frog • Huge • Idea Couture • Macquarium • McKinsey Digital Labs • MRM//McCann • Nurun • Palmu Group • Razorfish Global • Red Privet • SAP • SapientNitro

Base: 70 global service design agencies Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey

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Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015

FIGURE 2 Patterns Among Service Design Providers By Self-Reported Capabilities And Channel Strengths (Cont.)

Fuzzy front-end innovators • SapientNitro • User Studio • We Are Snook • WorkPlayExperience • Ziba Design

Physical and faceto-face experience Digital experience designers designers • Ocean Observations • Palmu Group • Red Privet • Razorfish Global • SAP • SapientNitro • Service Science Factory • Smith • strategybuilders.eu • Transformator Design • Usability Matters • User Studio • We Are Snook • Zeewaardig • Ziba Design • Zilver Innovation

Organizational change partners

Business systems consultants

• We Are Snook • WorkPlayExperience • Zeewaardig • Zilver Innovation

Base: 70 global service design agencies Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey

Agencies That Offer Service Design Vary Widely What do these patterns tell us? It’s not just a simple sorting exercise, because these patterns are not mutually exclusive across agencies. Many agencies exhibit two or three patterns simultaneously, a handful of them show all of the patterns, and others display none. Knowing which patterns an agency exhibits — and how many — gives CX professionals valuable clues as to whether a particular agency is better suited to help with a focused CX challenge or a longer-term partnership for a broader CX program. Most Agencies Practice Two Or Three Flavors Of Service Design If the promise of service design is holistic end-to-end experience design for the front and back of the house, about half of the agencies that responded to our survey deliver on multiple parts of that promise — but not all of it. Forty-seven percent of the 70 agencies in our survey matched two or three of the five patterns (see Figure 3, see Figure 4, see Figure 5, and see Figure 6). For these firms:

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Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015

›› Factor patterns vary by firm. Digital design, fuzzy front-end innovation, and organizational change are the three most common patterns in this group: 79% of firms in this list matched the digital design pattern, and 61% matched fuzzy front-end innovation and organizational change. Some firms lined up exactly on these three patterns. However, 55% of the agencies in this group combined one or two of those patterns with the physical and face-to-face design or the business systems consulting patterns. ›› Capabilities center on experience strategy. When we asked these agencies about their top capabilities, they cited experience strategy most frequently, with 73% in this group listing it among their top offerings. Conceptual design and qualitative research were common as well, with 39% and 42% claiming them as a top capability, respectively. About a quarter of the agencies in this group also cited business strategy and technology development among top capabilities. ›› Web and mobile beat out physical and face-to-face channels. Web and mobile are the top channels here. Seventy-six percent of the respondents in this group cited the Web as a top channel, and 67% cited mobile/tablet. About a third of the firms in this group also report that they regularly design for the face-to-face channel. ›› Financial services tops the list of clients. A whopping 85% of the firms on this list report that they have done work for clients in financial services in the past two years. Consumer products, government, retail, and healthcare are also top employers; about 60% of the agencies in this group have done work in these areas in the past two years. ›› Sizes range from one person to teams of 500-plus people. A majority of the firms in this group are relatively small — 67% have 10 or fewer service design employees. But 18% of the firms on this list swing the other direction, with 51 or more service design employees. Given the size of the field at this point, it’s doubtful that those employees are practicing service design exclusively. They’re more likely to be consultants who do service design as one part of a more broad-based consulting practice. ›› Headquarters cluster in North America, Benelux, and Great Britain. Europe maintains the lion’s share of these agencies, with 64% of this group. However, the country with the largest single number of agencies is the US, which represents 27% of these firms. Eighteen percent of these firms hail from Benelux countries, especially The Netherlands, which represents 15% of this list. Firms headquartered in Great Britain represent another 15%. Just one firm in this group is headquartered outside of Europe and North America.

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Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015

AKQA Brand Manual Catalyst Innovation Partners Cnote Comotion continuum innovation Criativia Doberman

16 or more 6-10

US

6-10

2-5

The Netherlands UK US Brazil Sweden Germany/ The Netherlands US Italy Canada Sweden US Italy UK US UK Germany US US Canada UK Germany The Netherlands Luxembourg Sweden France Scotland Germany The Netherlands US The Netherlands

2-5 2-5 51-100 2-5 11-25

6-10 2-5 11-15 2-5 6-10

Edenspiekermann

2-5

6-10

EPAM Experientia FCV Hello Future Interbrand Kristina Tool Studio Livework Studio Macquarium Made by Many minds & makers MRM//McCann MU/DAI Nurun Rocca Creative Thinking SAP Service Science Factory strategybuilders.eu Transformator Design User Studio We Are Snook WorkPlayExperience Zeewaardig Ziba Design Zilver Innovation

101-500 26-50 6-10 6-10 2-5 1 11-25 2-5 11-25 6-10 500 or more 2-5 51-100 2-5 101-500 2-5 1 26-50 6-10 6-10 2-5 2-5 6-10 6-10

6-10 11-15 2-5 2-5 1 or less 6-10 11-15 6-10 6-10 6-10 16 or more 1 or less 2-5 2-5 6-10 6-10 11-15 16 or more 6-10 6-10 6-10 2-5 6-10 6-10

Business systems consultants

101-500 6-10

Org change partners

US Estonia

Digital designers

Years of experience

Agency name Headquarters

Physical and face-to-face designers

Service design employees

Fuzzy front-end innovators

FIGURE 3 Service Design Agencies That Match Two Or Three Patterns By Size, Experience, And Targets

Base: 70 global service design agencies Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey

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Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015

Primary

Other

Organizational design Change management Employee experience design

Training

Detailed design/ specifications Technology development

Conceptual design

Experience strategy

Business strategy

Business analytics

Brand strategy

Agency name AKQA Brand Manual Catalyst Innovation Partners Cnote Comotion continuum innovation Criativia Doberman Edenspiekermann EPAM Experientia FCV Hello Future Interbrand Kristina Tool Studio Livework Studio Macquarium Made by Many minds & makers MRM//McCann MU/DAI Nurun Rocca Creative Thinking SAP Service Science Factory strategybuilders.eu Transformator Design User Studio We Are Snook WorkPlayExperience Zeewaardig Ziba Design Zilver Innovation

Quantitative customer research Qualitative customer research

FIGURE 4 Service Design Agencies That Match Two Or Three Patterns By Top Capabilities

Secondary Base: 70 global service design agencies

Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey

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Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015

FIGURE 5 Service Design Agencies That Match Two Or Three Patterns By Top Channel Experience Installed Physical Printed Contact Face software/ Mobile/ Physical Agency name center to face SaaS tablet environment products materials Web Other AKQA Brand Manual Catalyst Innovation Partners Cnote Comotion continuum innovation Criativia Doberman Edenspiekermann EPAM Experientia FCV Hello Future Interbrand Kristina Tool Studio Livework Studio Macquarium Made by Many minds & makers MRM//McCann MU/DAI Nurun Rocca Creative Thinking SAP Service Science Factory strategybuilders.eu Transformator Design User Studio We Are Snook WorkPlayExperience Zeewaardig Ziba Design Zilver Innovation Primary

Secondary

Base: 70 global service design agencies Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey

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Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015

Other

Utilities

Travel

Transportation

Technology

Retail

Nonprofit

Media

Manufacturing

Healthcare

Government

Financial services

Entertainment

Energy

Education

Consumer products

Agency name

Automotive

FIGURE 6 Service Design Agencies That Match Two Or Three Patterns By Industry Experience

AKQA Brand Manual Catalyst Innovation Partners Cnote Comotion continuum innovation Criativia Doberman Edenspiekermann EPAM Experientia FCV Hello Future Interbrand Kristina Tool Studio Livework Studio Macquarium Made by Many minds & makers MRM//McCann MU/DAI Nurun Rocca Creative Thinking SAP Service Science Factory strategybuilders.eu Transformator Design User Studio We Are Snook WorkPlayExperience Zeewaardig Ziba Design Zilver Innovation Base: 70 global service design agencies Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey

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Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015

Specialized Firms Are Small And Focused On Social Services Thirteen agencies exhibited one pattern only, indicating that their service design activities are narrower and more specialized (see Figure 7, see Figure 8, see Figure 9, and see Figure 10). These agencies report that they are: ›› Purveyors of qualitative research and experience strategy. Nearly all of the firms in this category list qualitative research among their top capabilities — 85% altogether. Experience strategy comes close behind, with 69% reporting it as a top capability. Forty-six percent report that training is a top priority, and 31% say that conceptual design is. ›› In industries that provide social services. Education, healthcare, and government are key clients for this group of agencies. Nearly all of the 13 said that they have done projects in the education field in the past two years — just two did not. Healthcare comes second, with 62% of agencies doing work in this area. A further 46% report doing projects for government clients. The only outlier to the trend is retail, for which Service design is end-to-end 54% of respondents have done projects in experience design for the the past two years.

front and back of the house. About half of agencies deliver on multiple parts of that promise — but not all of it.

›› Relatively small. Fifty-four percent of the agencies in this group have 10 or fewer service design employees on staff. Thirtyone percent have 11 to 25 service design employees, and another 15% have 26 to 50 such employees. But none on this list have the hundreds of service design employees that other firms report, making these single-pattern agencies relatively small, compared with those that show multiple patterns. ›› Varied in experience. Forty-six percent of firms have two to five years of experience in service design. Another 38% report having 11 to 15 years of experience. Just two of these firms say that they have six to 10 years of experience in service design, suggesting a reverse bell curve, with agencies clustering at the junior or senior end of the spectrum and relatively few landing in the middle. ›› Concentrated in Northern Europe. Out of 13 agencies, 62% have headquarters in Europe. The remaining agencies are found exclusively in North America, with 31% headquartered in the US.

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US UK Sweden US Italy US Scotland Sweden US UK/The Netherlands Usability Matters Canada Via Design Denmark We Question Spain Our Project

brightspot strategy Changeful Daytona gravitytank Intersezioni MAYA Design Nile Ocean Observations Smith STBY

6-10 1 11-25 26-50 1 11-25 11-25 11-25 26-50 6-10

2-5 2-5 2-5 11-15 6-10 11-15 2-5 6-10 11-15 11-15

2-5 2-5

2-5 11-15

2-5

2-5

Business systems consultants

Org change partners

Digital designers

Physical and face-to-face designers

Agency name Headquarters

Service design Years of employees experience

Fuzzy front-end innovators

FIGURE 7 Service Design Agencies That Match Only One Pattern By Size, Experience, And Targets

Base: 70 global service design agencies Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey

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Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015

Other

Employee experience design

Change management

Organizational design

Training

Technology development

Detailed design/specifications

Conceptual design

Experience strategy

Business strategy

Business analytics

Brand strategy

Qualitative customer research

Agency name

Quantitative customer research

FIGURE 8 Service Design Agencies That Match Only One Pattern By Top Capabilities

brightspot strategy Changeful Daytona gravitytank Intersezioni MAYA Design Nile Ocean Observations Smith STBY Usability Matters Via Design We Question Our Project Primary

Secondary Base: 70 global service design agencies

Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey

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FIGURE 9 Service Design Agencies That Match Only One Pattern By Top Channel Experience

Installed Contact Face to software/ Mobile/ Physical Physical Printed face SaaS tablet environment products materials Web Other Agency name center brightspot strategy Changeful Daytona gravitytank Intersezioni MAYA Design Nile Ocean Observations Smith STBY Usability Matters Via Design We Question Our Project Primary

Secondary Base: 70 global service design agencies

Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey

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Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015

Other

Utilities

Travel

Transportation

Technology

Retail

Nonprofit

Media

Manufacturing

Healthcare

Government

Financial services

Entertainment

Energy

Education

Consumer products

Agency name

Automotive

FIGURE 10 Service Design Agencies That Match Only One Pattern By Industry Experience

brightspot strategy Changeful Daytona gravitytank Intersezioni MAYA Design Nile Ocean Observations Smith STBY Usability Matters Via Design We Question Our Project Base: 70 global service design agencies Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey

Agencies With Breadth Also Bring A More Traditional Business Approach Fifteen of the 70 agencies that responded to our survey matched four or all five of the patterns, indicating that their approach to service design encompasses innovation activities, physical and digital experience design, organization change, and even help with business systems (see Figure 11, see Figure 12, see Figure 13, and see Figure 14). These agencies are: ›› Inclined toward business strategy. Experience strategy and conceptual design are top capabilities here, just as they are for firms exhibiting two to three patterns. But unlike the other groups in this report, these agencies also lean toward business strategy. Forty-seven percent of this group reported that business strategy is a top capability, significantly more than the 27% of two- to three-factor firms that said that it was. ›› More likely to incorporate a business systems approach. Twenty-seven percent of the agencies in this group show all five patterns, and the remaining 73% match four patterns each. Business systems consulting is one of the least-matched patterns, but with 73% of these agencies matching the pattern, it’s still significantly more prevalent in this group than in any other.

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›› Large and experienced. Fifty-three percent of agencies here report that they have more than 100 service design employees, and 47% of them have 11 or more years of experience with service design. But it’s worth asking, how are these firms defining a service design employee? It’s doubtful that any company in the world has more than 100 fully dedicated service designers — the industry is still just too small for that. They are most likely experience strategy or design consultants who do service design as part of their work. ›› Concentrated in North America. This is the only group that flips the trend on European-based service design agencies. Sixty percent of agencies in this category have headquarters in North America — with 53% in the US alone. The rest of this list trends toward Europe.

UK

11-25

Global

500 or more 16 or more

US Finland Spain US Canada

500 or more 11-25 2-5 101-500 51-100

16 or more 2-5 2-5 11-15 6-10

US

101-500

2-5

Finland US US US

51-100 500 or more 11-25 500 or more

6-10 16 or more 6-10 11-15

Business systems consultants

Org change partners

Digital designers

Physical and face-to-face designers

Agency name Comrade Deloitte Designit Engine Service Design Fjord, part of Accenture Interactive frog Hellon Holon Huge Idea Couture McKinsey Digital Labs Palmu Group Razorfish Global Red Privet SapientNitro

Service design Years of Headquarters employees experience US 11-25 2-5 US 500 or more 6-10 Denmark 11-15 101-500

Fuzzy front-end innovators

FIGURE 11 Service Design Agencies That Match Four Or Five Patterns By Size, Experience, And Targets

16 or more

Base: 70 global service design agencies Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey © 2015 Forrester Research, Inc. Unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law. [email protected] or +1 866-367-7378

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Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015

Primary

Other

Employee experience design

Change management

Organizational design

Training

Technology development

Detailed design/specifications

Conceptual design

Experience strategy

Business strategy

Business analytics

Brand strategy

Qualitative customer research

Agency name Comrade Deloitte Designit Engine Service Design Fjord, part of Accenture Interactive frog Hellon Holon Huge Idea Couture McKinsey Digital Labs Palmu Group Razorfish Global Red Privet SapientNitro

Quantitative customer research

FIGURE 12 Service Design Agencies That Match Four Or Five Patterns By Top Capabilities

Secondary Base: 70 global service design agencies

Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey

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FIGURE 13 Service Design Agencies That Match Four Or Five Patterns By Top Channel Experience

Installed Contact Face to software/ Mobile/ Physical Physical Printed SaaS tablet environment products materials Web Agency name center face Comrade Deloitte Designit Engine Service Design Fjord, part of Accenture Interactive frog Hellon Holon Huge Idea Couture McKinsey Digital Labs Palmu Group Razorfish Global Red Privet SapientNitro Primary

Other

Secondary Base: 70 global service design agencies

Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey

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Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015

Other

Utilities

Travel

Transportation

Technology

Retail

Nonprofit

Media

Manufacturing

Healthcare

Government

Financial services

Entertainment

Energy

Education

Consumer products

Agency name Comrade Deloitte Designit Engine Service Design Fjord, part of Accenture Interactive frog Hellon Holon Huge Idea Couture McKinsey Digital Labs Palmu Group Razorfish Global Red Privet SapientNitro

Automotive

FIGURE 14 Service Design Agencies That Match Four Or Five Patterns By Industry Experience

Base: 70 global service design agencies Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey

And A Small Crop Of Atypical Agencies Foreshadow Coming Trends Nine agencies in our survey matched none of the patterns, so we examined their offerings in more detail to understand what makes them unique. Like many of the agencies above, these firms do qualitative research and experience strategy, often for healthcare and government clients (see Figure 15, see Figure 16, see Figure 17, and see Figure 18). But as a group, they also have some unique characteristics that offer signals for where the service design field may be heading. These agencies blend standard service design activities with: ›› New engagement models. Several of the agencies on this list offer novel engagement models that challenge the classic slow-burn, single-client, project-based model. Claro Partners does global foresight research that multiple companies sponsor together in an offering that it calls open innovation research. And tiny LinksRechts Service Design advertises more modular service design

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Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015

offerings, like an accelerated and inexpensive cocreation phase that can be done with two weeks of lead time that it refers to as a “User Circle QuickScan.” It suggests this as a quick way to ensure that the start of any project is linked to users’ real needs. ›› Tools and training. A quarter of the agencies on this list not only practice service design but also teach and enable it. Some, like Good Innovation and NEA OG, offer training as a complement to their core service design practice. ExperienceFellow focuses exclusively on training and developing tools to support service design research and journey mapping. ›› Futures and trends. Three of the agencies in this small group offer services in foresight and trend analysis. Firms like Dowayo Foresight and Claro Partners mix service design methods with research into customers’ emerging behavior, technology change, and societal trends to explore longer-range considerations and opportunities for their clients.

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FIGURE 15 Service Design Agencies That Match No Patterns By Size, Experience, And Targets

Headquarters/ service design employees/ Agency name years of experience Claro Partners Headquarters: Spain 6-10 service design employees 2-5 years of experience

Description Claro Partners’ approach to service design is focused on disruptive shifts to society. In addition to client work, it conducts open innovation projects that are partially sponsored by multiple clients at once.

Dowayo Foresight Headquarters: Spain 2-5 service design employees 2-5 years of experience

Dowayo Foresight describes its work as a blend of experience strategy and strategic foresight.

ExperienceFellow Headquarters: Austria 6-10 service design employees 6-10 years of experience

ExperienceFellow provides training and tools for service design, including a SaaS product to collect and organize service design research data and create journey maps.

Good Innovation Headquarters: UK 6-10 service design employees 2-5 years of experience Halogen AS Headquarters: Norway 11-25 service design employees 2-5 years of experience Koos Headquarters: The Netherlands 11-25 service design employees 6-10 years of experience LinksRechts Headquarters: The Netherlands Service Design 2-5 service design employees 2-5 years of experience

Good Innovation has expertise in charity-related innovation and service design and provides training in how to create an innovation culture. Halogen’s service design offerings include the usual suspects, web and mobile, as well as systems for business safety and process improvements. Koos blends classic service design offerings like journey mapping and service blueprints with novel approaches like its “Proposition Generator” — an accelerated prototyping offering. LinksRechts Service Design is a small firm with a focus on social design. LinksRechts also offers training and an accelerated cocreation phase that can be done with two weeks of lead time.

NEA OG Headquarters: Austria 2-5 service design employees 2-5 years of experience

NEA OG is a branding and service design agency that also offers training in service design, preferably in conjunction with a practical case.

Pinpoint Headquarters: US 2-5 service design employees 6-10 years of experience

Pinpoint emphasizes that it uses a range of research methods (primarily qualitative) to help organizations understand new markets and growth opportunities.

Base: 70 global service design agencies Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey

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Other

Employee experience design

Change management

Organizational design

Training

Technology development

Detailed design/specifications

Conceptual design

Experience strategy

Business strategy

Business analytics

Brand strategy

Qualitative customer research

Agency name

Quantitative customer research

FIGURE 16 Service Design Agencies That Match No Patterns By Top Capabilities

Claro Partners Dowayo Foresight ExperienceFellow Good Innovation Halogen AS Koos LinksRechts Service Design NEA OG Pinpoint Primary

Secondary Base: 70 global service design agencies

Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey

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Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015

FIGURE 17 Service Design Agencies That Match No Patterns By Top Channel Experience

Installed Physical Physical Printed Contact Face to software/ Mobile/ SaaS tablet environment products materials Web Other Agency name center face Claro Partners Dowayo Foresight ExperienceFellow Good Innovation Halogen AS Koos LinksRechts Service Design NEA OG Pinpoint Primary

Secondary Base: 70 global service design agencies

Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey

Other

Utilities

Travel

Transportation

Technology

Retail

Nonprofit

Media

Manufacturing

Healthcare

Government

Financial services

Entertainment

Energy

Education

Consumer products

Agency name

Automotive

FIGURE 18 Service Design Agencies That Match No Patterns By Industry Experience

Claro Partners Dowayo Foresight ExperienceFellow Good Innovation Halogen AS Koos LinksRechts Service Design NEA OG Pinpoint Base: 70 global service design agencies Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey

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Recommendations

To Assess Potential Partners, Ask Some Personal Questions Customer experience professionals who are looking to assess potential service design partners have some basic homework to do, as they’d have with any other consulting project. They need to clarify their firm’s goals, ask candidates about industry and channel experience, and request examples of capabilities. But CX pros: The complicated nature of the service design provider landscape today also requires you to ask some deeper questions of your firms and your potential partners: ›› Ask about the vibe. Does the agency see itself as a Spock or a Kirk (i.e., is its approach primarily analytical or emotional)? Be aware that you can’t have it both ways. The difference between a specialized firm that places qualitative research at the core of its process and a full-service partner with strength in business systems consulting is more than just size. They may use the same words, but they often don’t speak the same language. The meaning of an insight, an opportunity, a strategy, and a touchpoint — fundamental ideas to service design — may take on very different forms depending on the partner you choose. Consider carefully: Do you need a service design partner that will seek and probe for the deeper human meaning or a partner that can talk about service design, and by extension customer experience, in more business-focused terms? Neither is right; it’s just a matter of what’s right for you. ›› Ask, “Do we know the answer already?” It’s likely that you’ll have a sense of what channels you aim to address in a particular brief with a partner. But if your goals lie more in the realm of innovation, you should find a partner that has the potential to come back with new insights that challenge your thinking about the use of specific channels and touchpoints. In that case, look for an agency with fuzzy front-end innovator characteristics and at least a few other specialties — one that exhibits two to three patterns at a minimum. On the other hand, if you know that you have a more focused issue within a discrete area of customer experience such as a core customer-toagent interaction, a critical physical environment, or an organizational issue to address, then onepattern firms will suit you just fine. ›› And when in doubt, ask to meet the team. The best shortcut for all of the above is to ask to meet members of the team with whom you’ll work. Ask them to talk about what service design is and what benefits they deliver through it. How they describe their process, the work they’re most proud of, what type of tangible benefits they key in on, and where their eyes light up — that’s all of the information that you really need.

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Supplemental Material Survey Methodology Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey was fielded to 71 service design agencies. For quality assurance, we screened respondents to ensure that they actively participate in the service design community through either agency-level membership in the Service Design Network professional association or explicit service design content on their websites. Forrester fielded the survey from August 13, 2015, to September 23, 2015. Respondent incentives included a copy of the resulting reports. Exact sample sizes are provided in this report on a questionby-question basis. This survey used a self-selected group of respondents and is therefore not random. This data is not guaranteed to be representative of the population, and unless otherwise noted, statistical data is to be used for descriptive and not inferential purposes. While nonrandom, the survey is still a valuable tool for understanding where service design agencies are today and the industry is headed. We determined classification of our survey respondents by factor-analyzing agencies’ self-reported service design capabilities and channels. We performed the exploratory factor analysis using polychoric correlations, a principal-axis-factors extraction method, and a direct oblimin rotation. We chose a five-factor model due to the absence of factor cross-loadings and the logic of the organizational patterns that it revealed. © 2015 Forrester Research, Inc. Unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law. [email protected] or +1 866-367-7378

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Endnotes Service design is a human-centered design approach that seeks to design end-to-end experiences and the underlying business systems that support them. Agencies that practice service design talk in terms of the “front of the house” and the “back of the house.” The “front of the house” is everything that the customer sees — the sequence of tangible and intangible interactions that a customer collectively experiences as a service. The “back of house” is all of the internal interactions and systems that must be properly orchestrated for a positive customer experience to ensue.

1

Agencies that practice service design have a wide range of deliverables. They conduct research to understand how customers experience the front of the house and what’s really going on in the back of the house to create that experience. They redesign instantiations of the service at specific touchpoints, which can range from creating a new digital interface to producing a new physical tool or product and scripting how an agent-to-customer interaction should unfold. And they make recommendations for improvements to back-of-house operations. Service design practitioners were the first to develop and use tools like journey maps and service blueprints — tools that have been adapted for wider use by the customer experience community today. For more information, see the “Service Design Creates Breakthrough Customer Experiences” Forrester report. Factor analysis is a statistical method that reveals underlying relationships between measured variables. Here, we used this methodology to uncover latent structures in the data to meaningfully organize survey respondents. Note that the survey data is self-reported, so when doing deeper research into a particular agency, customer experience professionals should ask to see examples of capabilities from past client work to vet agency claims.

2

For more information on agencies providing digital experience services, see the “Market Overview: Digital Experience Service Providers” Forrester report.

3

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