Making you a service designer in 5 weeks: Trinidad Wiseman's approach to cultivating design skills in Estonia

Design thinking-based service design is nothing but customer/user-oriented planning and organising process. It is a universal methodology that encompasses best practices for analysing customers/users and designing services within the sustainable capacity of a company or organisation. The great value of learning service design lies in the fact that the acquired tools can be successfully used in other projects and situations, not just in service design.

Design thinking (which we base both our design and development projects and training programmes on) is a problem-solving process centred around a human being with their needs, attitudes, and experiences. The process is cyclical and creative, focusing on quickly and painlessly trying out different solutions to avoid unnecessary redoing costs (inevitably associated with services developed without prior validation).

While design thinking is the basis of user-centred design, our trainings focus mainly on design doing. It's guided by specialists with years of experience in various business and systems’ analysis, design, and development projects. Understanding the process from comprehending a client's business needs to delivering a final software solution is fundamental for all our specialists. We choose trainers who have completed a significant number of projects, as this experience allows them to provide participants with practical advice, guidance, recognition, or advice against risks.

At a Trinidad Wiseman training session, you can be sure that the trainers have repeatedly used the methods and tools they introduce, in client projects. We maximise knowledge transfer with examples from completed work. Our specialists also have experience in choosing the right tools for achieving certain objectives. They can also highlight potential pitfalls that may derail the design process and opportunities to try "outside-of the-box" solutions.

One of our major training programmes last year was the "Development of Human-Centred Digital Services" for public sector employees, conducted on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications. During the programme, four groups passed through the training, each consisting of teams from five different authorities.

The target audience for the training were:

The goal of the training programme was to provide participants with necessary knowledge and practical skills to develop human-centred digital services. The training programme consisted of five intensive training days and homework assignments done between training days. Each team came into the programme with a specific problem or idea, which was then developed step by step in the rhythm of service design. The focus was on digital services and their creation or improvement based on user needs.

Over five days, we covered the following topics:

As a result of the training programme, teams acquired fundamental knowledge and practical skills for developing human-centred digital services, enabling them to apply the acquired knowledge in their work. Teams gained practical skills in analysing and describing the digital service delivery process, and in planning and executing service development activities.

The training programme was organised by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications under the European Union's structural support scheme "Enhancing Digital Literacy", funded by the European Social Fund.

Last year, we also conducted our most extensive training programme on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications. Service design trainings were part of the larger "Library as an Advisor in the Digital State" programme, aimed at increasing the digital competence of library workers and preparing them to offer digital advisory services in their communities.

This training programme was an eye-opener for both, participants and trainers. For many library workers who attended the training, service design was a completely new concept. At the same time, it was surprising for the trainers to see how significant a role libraries play in enforcing Estonia's e-state. They are on the front line where the digital state and ordinary citizens (who may not navigate well in this world created with good intentions due to age, occupation, location, or other circumstances), meet.

Library workers should be praised for their resilience and hard work. In addition to adapting to completely new methodologies in the novel digital tool Miro, both participants and trainers faced the challenges of hybrid training. Despite all the nuances, 224 library employees (including some from local governments) received a certificate of completion for the service design training.

The trainings were conducted for nine groups across Estonia and took place in our Tallinn office, in Haapsalu, Pärnu, Võru, Tartu, Narva, and Rakvere.

In this programme, we divided the activities into four training days, which covered the entire service design cycle.

The librarians’ feedback to the trainings was positive, and most importantly, it was found that the knowledge gained could be used to organise better digital advisory services in libraries. Some quotes from the feedback:

The training programme was organised by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications under the European Union's structural support scheme "Enhancing Digital Literacy", funded by the European Social Fund.

One of our major training initiatives this year was dedicated to enhancing the service design competence of Estonian tourism firms, thereby boosting their export and digital capabilities. Initiated by Enterprise Estonia (EAS) and conducted by the Estonian Design Centre. By the end of 2023 , four batches had completed masterclass. Each batch included 12 tourism companies selected through a competition. They underwent a nearly three-month journey with five training days and a heap of homework. Design mentors from both Trinidad Wiseman and other Estonian design agencies, assisted throughout the process.

The training days were structured according to the principles of design thinking, and all participating teams reached the creation of a (new or improved old) service prototype by the end of this journey.

Step by step, the following results were produced in the masterclass:

Our trainers carried out the lion’s share of the interactive training days, introducing participants to customer research methods, persona and customer journey creation techniques, service plan principles, and digital prototype creation applications.

Results of this project convincingly prove once again that the service design method works. Feedback from the participating tourism firms on the training programme was positive, but more importantly, several have acknowledged that participating in the masterclass helped them position themselves better, offer more relevant services to customers, discover new customer segments, and achieve tangible revenue growth.

Service design training is an opportunity to address a challenge, problem, or initiative facing your company or organization and by the end of the training, achieve a functional solution to your challenge or problem and put flesh on the bones of your initiative. Our training experience has shown that it is precisely in design training that employees of many companies and organizations learn to really understand their customers/users. Also, they start to conceptualize their services and products as tools for solving the tasks faced by their customers/users.