Why Empathy Isn't Enough in Service Design / Lara Salinas / Episode #264

Empathy is treated like the ultimate superpower in service design, yet well-meaning teams still build services that fail people in the real world. In this episode, service design researcher and educator Lara Salinas reveals what actually comes after empathy and how to get meaningful work done inside slow-moving organizations.

Every job post, design brief, and conference talk puts empathy on a pedestal. We imagine a user's life for a brief moment, check the box, and go right back to our project timelines. As Lara shares from her own lived experience with type 1 diabetes, understanding someone's struggle means very little if the system you design still gives them a 15-minute lunch break when taking insulin takes 10.

Currently working with Camden Council in London to make good design practice visible across UK local government, Lara knows firsthand how public and private systems get stuck. Together, we unpack why the obsession with efficiency only makes services cheaper instead of better. Instead of another flashy framework, Lara introduces a concept almost nobody has the courage to say out loud in a stakeholder meeting. If you want to bring your whole self to work, create genuine impact, and still hit your deadlines, this conversation is for you.

🎧 In This Episode

• The Empathy Trap: Why imagining a user's experience is no substitute for changing the rules and structures around them.

• What Comes After Empathy: The unexpected principle that turns good intentions into real-world action, even in rigid stakeholder meetings.

• The Efficiency Illusion: Why optimizing for speed and lower costs keeps making modern services worse for the people who rely on them.

• Navigating Slow Organizations: How Lara champions good service design practice inside UK local government without burning out.

• Picking Your Battles: How to recognize when to stop pushing against organizational walls and simply go around them.

When was the last time a service went the extra mile for you? Not just someone saying "we understand," but actually doing the small, practical thing that made your day. Drop your story in the comments below!

Enjoy the episode and keep making a positive impact!

Be well,

~ Marc

--- [ 1. GUIDE ] ---

00:00 Intro

03:30 Welcome

04:00 Efficiency

05:45 Fine Arts

07:45 Community Garden

09:15 Gardening Mindset

10:45 Rules

12:15 Forgiveness

14:30 Co-Design Leadership

18:15 Coffee Analogy

21:00 Social Prescribing

22:45 Designer Burnout

24:15 Compromises

26:15 Optimism

31:45 Beyond Empathy

37:15 Impact Stories

41:45 Scaling Out

47:15 Reflection

51:30 Happiness

55:15 Final Question

57:00 Closing Reflections

--- [ 2. LINKS ] ---

* LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-lara-salinas-frsa-0973a82a

--- [ 3. CIRCLE ] ---

Join our private community for in-house service design professionals.

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---[4. FIND THE SHOW ON] ---

• Youtube ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/264-youtube

• Spotify ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/264-spotify

• Apple ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/264-apple

• Snipd ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/264-snipd