This document discusses embedding creativity techniques into service design processes. It presents examples of how creativity workshops were used in requirements projects for systems like airport departure managers and air traffic control planning. The workshops brought together stakeholders to generate novel ideas through techniques like storyboarding. The document also discusses how design artifacts can be combined with creativity techniques principled ways. It provides the example of using a desktop walkthrough model together with creativity triggers to help redesign a town center in a more innovative way. Overall, the document advocates integrating established creativity models and techniques into requirements and design processes to help generate more novel and unexpected ideas.

1. 1
Embedding Creativity Techniques and
Tools into Service Design Processes
Neil Maiden
Professor of Systems Engineering
Centre for Creativity in
Professional Practice
What’s in the Talk
1. Creative requirements processes
– Challenging the role of requirements
elicitation
– Creative experiences in
requirements projects
2. Creativity workshops
– Processes underpinned with
creativity models
3. Creativity in service design
– Coupling design artefacts and
creativity techniques
4. Let’s work together
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2. 2
The Reality about Requirements
Understand that
– Elicited requirements limited by perceptions of
what is possible
– Customers are frequently rear-view mirrors
– People don’t separate requirements from design
Requirements encapsulate creative thought
– Stakeholders already thinking about future
Denys Lasdun
– “Our job is to give the client, on time and on cost,
not what he wants, but what he never dreamed
he wanted; and when he gets it, he recognizes it
as something he wanted all the time”
Centre for Creativity in
Professional Practice
A Real-World Example
Removed key constraint: weather variability
Centre for Creativity in
Professional Practice
Steam catapults; glided approaches; weather-
adapted approach routes
.. not what they wanted, but what they never dreamed they wanted..

3. 3
A Second Real-World Example
Specifying concept
for new conflict
resolution support
– Indian textile
expert encouraged
incubation about
requirements on
patterns
– French ATCos
highlighted need
for aesthetics in
generated
resolutions
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Professional Practice
...not what they wanted, but what they never dreamed they wanted..
Rich storyboards to describe
concept of operation for
multi-sector planning
– Complete system view
– Film screenplay techniques
– Constructed 2 large
storyboards for whole
system over 4 hours period
– Participants invented
semantics of storyboard
– Tactile and flexible
– Ownership important
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A Third Real-World Example
.. not what they wanted, but what they never dreamed they wanted..

4. 4
A Prototypical Definition of Creativity
Sternberg and Lubart (1999) define creativity as
– “the ability to produce work that is both novel (i.e.
original, unexpected) and appropriate (i.e. useful,
adapted to task constraints)”
Novel with respect to
– H-Creativity: historically creative – new to person-kind
(Boden 1990)
– P-Creativity: psychological creative – new to the person,
but not to person-kind or others (Boden 1990)
– S-Creativity: situated creativity – a designer or reasoner
had an idea for a specific task novel in that particular
situation or domain (Suwa et al. 2000)
Engenders surprise
– Deviation in patterns of outcomes (Maher et al. 2013)
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Creativity Workshops in Requirements
Projects
A space for creating and inventing ideas
Invent ideas with which to write specifications
Creativity
workshop
Understanding of
current situation
Possible technical
solutions
Outline use case
model
Overview of future
system
Storyboards for key
use cases
Centre for Creativity in
Professional Practice

5. 5
Creativity Workshops
Pin boards
structured
by use case
System
models
available
to all
U-shaped
table for talks
and report
backs
Games to
encourage
playfulness
Colour-
coded snow
cards for
ideas
Facilitated
guidance at
all times
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Professional Practice
Creativity Workshop Structure
Design informed by existing creativity models
Integrate with established requirements methods
Workshop
period
Diverge
Preparation
Incubation
Illumination
Verification
Diverge
Workshop
period
Converge
Preparation
Incubation
Illumination
Verification
Daupert
2002
Poincare
1982
time
Two-day
workshops
Encourage
exploratory,
combinatorial or
transformational
creativity
Encourage
exploratory,
combinatorial or
transformational
creativity
Boden
1990
Model
Revised Model
Revised Model
Shared input/
output
models
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Professional Practice

6. 6
Eurocontrol’s DMAN System [DIS’2004]
Departure manager for major European airports
– Sponsored by Eurocontrol
– Applied RESCUE over 12-month period
– Joint project involving UK and French national bodies
– Applications including Heathrow & Charles de Gaulle
– 16-20 key stakeholders participated for two days
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Eurocontrol’s MSP System [RE’05]
Multi-Sector Planning (MSP)
– Gate-to-gate scheduling of aircraft across European
national boundaries
– Manage controller complexity levels
– Redesign controller work
– Co-ordinate existing systems
16-20 key stakeholders participated
for two days
Operational Concept of Use
Centre for Creativity in
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7. 7
Service Design Thinking
Design Thinking (Lockwood 2010)
– Observation, collaboration, fast learning, visualization
of ideas, rapid prototyping and concurrent business
analysis
5 Principles [Stickdorn & Schneider 2010]
1. User-centred: services should be experienced
through customer’s eyes
2. Co-creative: all stakeholders should be included in
design process
3. Sequencing: service should be visualized as a
sequence of interrelated actions
4. Evidencing: intangible services should be visualized
in terms of physical artefacts
5. Holistic: entire environment should be considered
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Coupling – Hinging – Design Artifacts
with Creativity Techniques
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Combine
– Evidencing, sequence and co-creation with
– Explicit creative thinking techniques
In principled manner
– Creative thinking as complex search problem
– Information search, idea discovery (Kerne et al. 2008)
– Pairwise combination of artifact and technique

8. 8
Desktop Walkthrough, Creativity Triggers
Desktop walkthrough
– Small-scale 3D model of
service environment
– Build environment out of
props, toys and objects
– Explore emerging
interactions
Creativity triggers
– Guidelines to converge
on ideas with qualities
associated with
innovative outcomes
– Connection, information
and choice, convenience
Centre for Creativity in
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Redesigning
North Finchley
Town Team
Destktop walkthrough
of different uses of
town centre
Creative stimulation of
design ideas, not just
problems and needs
Centre for Creativity in
Professional Practice

9. 9
Making Your Work More Creative
Opportunities for collaboration
– Redesign your current
requirements and service
design processes
– Facilitate your creativity
workshops
– Train you to use more
creativity techniques
– Guide you to use our
technologies for creative
requirements work
Contact
– N.A.M.Maiden@city.ac.uk
– @NeilMaiden
Centre for Creativity in
Professional Practice