Global Service Design Jam | Los Angeles
About this event series
Join a diverse group of curious and passionate Angelenos for the 6th annual Los Angeles Service Design Jam! In the spirit of experimentation, collaboration, and friendly competition, teams will have one weekend to create completely new services through experiencing an entire human-centered design process.
What’s a service? We experience services every day — buying insurance, taking a flight, filing a tax return, receiving a heart transplant. A service is an exchange of goods or value. A complete service includes designed or planned interactions among people, products, and processes in various places and over time. We often encounter a service (like visiting the DMV or a hair salon) where only some parts of its service touchpoints are designed with clear intention and purpose. In fact, most services we have today kind of just “happen” and aren’t consciously designed even though about 80% of our economy is services! You can read up more on services at Service Design: From Insight to Implementation.
What’s service design? Service design is the process of planning and organizing people, infrastructure, communication and physical components of a service. It’s a collaborative process that brings together researchers, designers, technologists, users and many (many!) other stakeholders and partners who work together to create and deliver a service. Deliberately designing services in this way ensures that people’s experience with the service and the service’s business value service meet the needs of both users and providers. You can read up more the definition of “service design” at the Service Design Network!
What’s a service jam? A jam is an activity where people gather around a theme to create something new. The Service Jam is an annual weekend where curious people — like you! — come together to work in small teams to prototype new services around a common theme. Oh, and did we mention that the theme is a secret?
Who can attend the jam? Everyone and anyone can join the jam! You don't have to be a “Designer” to jam. Service design and design thinking are processes and tools that anyone can use for innovative and creative approaches to problem solving, regardless of job title or skill level.
Why should you attend? You will learn design-based approaches to creative problem solving and gain hands-on experience, all while having fun. You will have an awesome time and connect with passionate people from your community, and from all over the globe. You will make cool prototypes like videos, customer journeys, service blueprints and more! You will experience how a structured innovation process can produce robust, concrete and human-centered results, in just 48 hours.
Can I attend just one day of the jam? Unfortunately, you cannot attend the jam for just one day, as teams use the entire weekend to research, concept, prototype and test their ideas. We understand that people have other obligations, such as family and work, so arriving a bit late/leaving a bit early, or stepping out for a few hours, is ok. If you can't make the entire weekend, but want a taste of the jam, consider getting involved as a volunteer!
Who’s putting on the LA Service Jam? LA Service Jam 2016 is part of the Global Service Jam, a non-profit volunteer-run event organized by a network of service design enthusiasts, who all share a common belief that collaborative tools and design processes can be used to cause change for the better.
Want to sponsor the event or get involved? Consider joining the jam as a sponsor, mentor or volunteer! Sponsors make the jam possible, by providing meals to keep jammers fueled, and supplies to keep jammers prototyping! If you are a skilled practitioner in your field (service design, creative director, entrepreneur, start up/business development, customer service, etc.), consider being a mentor! Volunteers help keep the jam going the whole weekend!