ServDes 2016

1. Service Design in Mind
Embedding Design Capabilities in Mental Health
Services
Paola Pierri
Laura Warwick
Jake Garber
ServDes Conference
Copenhagen
May 2016

2. Embedding Service Design
in Mind
• Introducing Mind and ‘Service Design in Mind’
• The impact of using Service Design
• Our reflection on the journey: what we have learned
• Questions

3. We’re Mind,
the mental
health
charity

4. We won’t give up until
everyone experiencing a
mental health problem gets
both support and respect

6. • 140 local Minds
• Combined annual income of circa £102.55M
• More than 1/3million people supported annually
by local mind
• It provides a wealth of 963 services
• People living with mental health problems are
involved in the running of all local Minds
6
Local Minds are just that: local

7. Our Impact in Numbers

8. Source: Goldberg and Huxley (1992),
Common mental disorders, Routledge
1 in 4 people will
experience a mental
health problem in
any one year.

9. Invitation to tender (Summer 2013)
We teamed up with our partner Innovation Unit to
create an approach to service design that draws
on national and international practice.
9
Embedding Service Design in Mind

10. Why Service Design?

11. • The need to provide new responses to the new
challenges for the Local Minds Network
• A vision for more collaborative and innovative
Mind Network drawing on the “existing design
capabilities”
Design when Everybody Designs, Manzini 2015
11
Why Service Design?
A need
A vision

12. 12
Why ‘embedding’ Service design?

13. © Innovation Unit 2015
Why not hire a bunch of designers?
A designer-centred model of innovation in
organisations limits the transformative potential of
design.
ORGANISATIONAL
PURPOSE +
STRATEGY

14. © Innovation Unit 2015
Why not hire a bunch of designers?
A number of critical barriers exist that limits a
designer’s influence and agency
ORGANISATIONAL
PURPOSE +
STRATEGY

15. © Innovation Unit 2015
Why not just get some training or some tools?
By training a range of individuals across the
organisation to deliver design process, can expand
this influence and agency
ORGANISATIONAL
PURPOSE +
STRATEGY

16. © Innovation Unit 2015
Why not just get some training or some tools?
However, a number of barriers may still exist to
limit the potential of design’s impact
ORGANISATIONAL
PURPOSE +
STRATEGY

17. © Innovation Unit 2015
So what do you mean by drawing on existing
design capabilities?
This is about actively fostering design values and attitude
across the whole organisation…
ORGANISATIONAL
PURPOSE +
STRATEGY

18. © Innovation Unit 2015
ORGANISATIONAL
PURPOSE +
STRATEGY
Affording a wider range of people from across the
organisation (and beyond) to actively participate in
collaborative design activity…

19. © Innovation Unit 2015
And affording the opportunity for design’s transformative
potential.
Not fidgeting with the edges but
changing the deep system
ORGANISATIONAL
PURPOSE +
STRATEGY

20. Designing
‘Service Design in
Mind’

21. Local Minds and national Mind teams helped shape and
design a prototype set of resources.
Methodology Design Session, Jan 2014
21
Building on the existing design expertise:
Designed for local Minds, by local Minds

22. 22
We tested the approach with 5 local
Minds

23. 23
Bespoke Methodology

24. The Impact of
Service Design in
Mind

25. 25
Clear service and organisational impacts
“Running this process i
like nothing I have ever
been part of before!”
Bedfordshire, Luton
& Milton Keynes Mind “Our ‘Wow’ would be
seeing service design
integrated into
everything we do as
an organisation”
Scarborough, Whitby
& Ryedale Mind
Hillingdon Mind
“It really empowers
service users to make decisions
about the service… it's incredibly
powerful”

26. 26
Our offer
- Resources
- Service Design sprints
- Tailored support
- Grants +

27. 27
Service Design
in Mind resources
Helps to plan and structure
each phase
A service design method
deck to help quickly
explore and organise key
methods
Gives you key tools and
processes to apply
Details the roles and
resources required
Case studies and hints & tips

28. - Timely
- No resource requirement
- Local impact
“One thing that was really good about the requirement to use
service design tools and methods was that it encouraged us not
to cut corners. For “old lags” like Jean and I – because we are
very experienced – there is sometimes a temptation to do that.
But this process forces you to be rigorous and I do think that as
a result of this, the output was much better.”
- CEO
Local, Independent
Pros:

29. - Quality control
- Understanding/knowledge is based on
interpretation
“One criticism that I have of the toolkit is that it is not very
user-friendly and includes a lot of jargon – titles like
‘Prototype Planner’ can be off-putting. I understand the
ideas behind them but if you are running a young
person’s focus group you can’t really use tools like that –
I mean you certainly can’t just photocopy them. Although
I’m familiar with service design, I’m not familiar with that
kind of language.”
- CEO
Local, Independent
Cons:

30. - Set clear project direction
- Allows them to set timeline
“I think it provides you with a really strong evidence base
and a platform and confidence to persuade people of the
importance of your work. It also ensures a level of quality
and consistency. The value of coproduction speaks for
itself – it’s just common sense really, isn’t it?”
- CEO
Local, Introduced
Pros:

31. - Only a brief introduction
- Unable to address gaps in knowledge
“For me personally – and I’m obviously not speaking for
everyone here, as I was actually the only ‘Expert by
Experience’ on the team – since I had my mental breakdown
I’ve had trouble taking in and remembering large amounts of
information. So for me that workshop [Introduction to Service
Design workshop] was really intimating and I struggled to retain
the learning.”
- Researcher
Local, Introduced
Cons:

32. - Structured, intensive support
- Resource to dedicate time
- Requirement to complete
“Paola worked with me quite a lot on framing the
questions based on what we’d found out in the
service user interviews. We asked different
questions to different experts, which I hadn’t thought
of, so it was a lot more insightful.”
- Service Manager
Local, Funded
Pros:

33. - Different relationship/power dynamic
- Have to tie it to Mind’s strategic aims
“It was a real struggle [to convince people to use ethnography].
Because I wasn’t an expert to convince them of the benefits of
doing it that way, by the time I suggested it, it probably wasn’t
as strong an argument than it would have been if we’d had an
expert explain it.”
- Service Manager
Local, Funded
Cons:

34. - In-depth, tailored support
- Strategic impact
“The toolkit is very well-used and is starting to
disintegrate – that must be a good sign!”
- CEO
Local, Supported
Pros:

35. - Time and resource-intensive
- Can stagnate over time
““I think the programme is great, but I have the sense that
there’s more stuff out there and more that we could be
doing and learning about service design. I feel like we’ve
just scratched the surface. Is there a whole plethora out
there…for when we get bored?! What’s missing from our
knowledge?”
- Programme Manager
Local, Supported
Cons:

36. - Working with the
right people
- Truly exploring
opportunities
National, Supported
Pros:

37. - Have to build evidence
- Lack of immediate action
National, Supported
Cons:

38. Our work in numbers
57
9
8
Service Blueprints
to map national
services
25
LM receiving
intense coaching
support
£50K
‘Grant +’ to deliv
er service design
projects

39. 39
Value to Service Users
Source: Service Users Experience Survey - Researchabilty
“I felt really great; it was
thoroughly enjoyable,
whole thing was really
stimulating.”
“What was important
for me was that I felt
we were heard.”
“You get a bit of a
confidence boost and a
good feeling about it,
definitely.”

40. 40
PHASE 1: LEARN PHASE 2: PERFORM PHASE 3: EMBED
Examine capabilities
Explore model
We are
here!
Position capabilities
Refine model
Our Road Map
Build for capabilities
Perform model

41. • Tie the work directly to
existing projects
• Improve our facilitation /
coaching offer
• Deliver our ‘Service
Design Sprint’ internally
and with the Network
• Link our Service design
offer with our
Engagement work and
expertise
Our future plans

42. Our reflection on
the journey: what
we have learned

43. • At the organisational level
• At people level
• (Operational level)
What have we learned so far?

44. Embedding a design culture within
the organisational reality

45. Advocate
Existing
practices to
change

46. Advocate
Existing
practices to
change
Advance a New
Approach
to how we do
things

47. Developing
together a
Future
Practice
Advocate
Existing
practices to
change
Advance a New
Approach
to how we do
things

48. TRANSFORMATIVE
REINFORCIVE
The core challenge to embedding
design culture within the
organisational reality

49. The value of a blended model
De-centered
Designer

50. Build multidisciplinary teams
Other communi2es of
prac2ce
Design prac2ce

51. Nurturing the people and rocking
the boat

52. Luke Williams, Disruptive Thinking, 2012
When you “think what no
one else is thinking, and do
what no one else is doing” it
doesn’t make for the most
comfortable experience

53. So what are the risks to the
experience of being a
disrupter within an
organisational context?

54. Disruptive can become
destructive…
Revolutionaries VS
‘tempered-radicals’*
* From Debra Meyerson

55. Nurturing the conditions for
transformative practice
• Build engagement from a basis of personal
values, not organisational obligations
• Find and foster your fellow “disrupters”
• Be tactical - Develop a stepped and paced
theory of change to best direct and appraise
your impact

56. Our challenges ahead
Organisationally:
• Can you introduce design next to other project
management approaches?
• How to expose the whole organisation to the
value of service design – Not just fidgeting with the
edges
• How to meet the demand to show impact on
traditional KPIs?
• How to avoid design to be misused and
misinterpreted – Growing excellent service design

57. Operationally
• Often the SD Team is not the initiator – Quality
control?
• Make a clear offer for ‘progression’ and
excellent service design and build the support
needed
• How to ensure commissioners provide space
for design
57
Our challenges ahead

58. People:
• How to manage the expectations for how much
time it takes to really embed new capabilities
• Where to find the right skills-set?
• Service designers with the right motivation,
generosity and patience to work towards
system change
“It is a long term game”
Our challenges ahead

59. Questions

60. Thank you
Paola Pierri - Mind
Service Design Manager
P.Pierri@mind.org.uk
@paolapierri
Laura Warwick - Mind
Service Designer
L.Warwick@mind.org.uk
@lauraewarwick
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