Actionable attributes of service design for business

Abstract

The role of service deliverables in the early phases of service development has been studied both in academia and practice. We lack knowledge on the impact of service deliverables for the later phases of the service development process in which service designers are usually not engaged. In this paper, we aim to understand what attributes of service deliverables help business clients to act upon the deliverables on their own after service designers are gone. To elicit actionable attributes of service deliverables, e.g., reports, we conducted semi-structured interviews with five leading and recognizable service design consultants from Poland who lead service design consultancies. We identified three categories of actionable attributes of service deliverables: communication, contextual, and transformative attributes. The attributes might support service designers in empowering their clients to make use of the service deliverables in later phases of service development.