Service design as an iterative process

Iteration – working in a series of repeating, deepening, explorative loops – is absolutely central to the SD process, so practitioners aim for short cycles at the outset, with early user feedback, early prototyping, and quick-and-dirty experiments. As the process continues, the iteration may slow down but it never goes away, as prototypes iterate into pilots and pilots iterate into implementation.

Everyone likes to focus on processes and toolsets because they can see, touch, and use them. But without the service design mindset, people go right back to the same internally focused solutions.