How to meaningfully evaluate the impact of service design / Joyce Yee / Episode #125

Here's a question that makes every service designer cringe... Can you show (prove) the impact of your work? So what makes this such a tough question? Well the value created through design is emergent and appears in shapes and forms that you didn't expect upfront. It's often hard to capture the benefits and outcomes using traditional ways of measuring successes (excel sheets). Nevertheless it's not smart to ignore this question. When you can't show the impact of your work, you will eventually become irrelevant. It's as simple as that. Next to that I believe we should hold ourselves much more accountable for the results of our work as a community. But how!? In this week's episode of the Show you're going to learn about a framework for evaluating social impact. The great thing is that this framework is also very applicable to service design. If you've been struggling to communicate the value of your work in ways that non-designers understand then this is an episode you really don't want to miss. --- [ GUIDE ] -— 00:00 Welcome to episode 125 01:30 Who is Joyce 03:00 60 second rapid fire 07:00 Finding a way to measure social impact 11:45 Evaluating versus measuring 14:00 The current limitations 19:00 What's standing the way 28:30 Smarter reflection 33:30 Celebrating succes 35:30 The burden of evaluation 40:00 How do you know it works 44:00 The excel sheet person 47:00 Create your own tune 52:30 Stay true to design 55:30 The limits of data 57:30 Final thoughts --- [ LINKS ] --- * Designing Social Innovation in Asia-Pacific Network (DESIAP) - https://desiap.org/ * A practical guide to Developmental Evaluation - https://go.servicedesignshow.com/agwpz * A developmental evaluation primer - https://go.servicedesignshow.com/81m6h * Better Evaluation Resource Website - https://go.servicedesignshow.com/w196r * Different approaches to evaluation - https://go.servicedesignshow.com/116om Books * Design Transitions - https://amzn.to/3eEpShm * Transformations: 7 Roles to Drive Change by Design - https://amzn.to/3aMzGVf * The Walker's Guide to Outdoor Clues and Signs - https://amzn.to/3dYE7hH --- [ HOW TO EXPLAIN SERVICE DESIGN ] --- Learn what it takes to get your clients, colleagues, managers, CEOs and even grandmas as excited about service design as you are. https://servicedesignshow.com/free-course