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2020 was the year of remote conferences

I teamed up with the Service Design Network to create the ultimate conference experience during the 2020 pandemic. We themed the conference around connection: the idea that, even through the unpredictable, we can still be connected.

My role during the 2020 Service Design Jam: Service design mentor

As Service Design Mentor, I was tasked with creating a fun and interactive exercise using an existing methodology - Problem Framing. What is problem framing, you ask? It's a method of ideation where a group of people come together and attempt to understand a problem.

As a mentor, I was tasked with the following.

• Creating video resources to guide people who were new to service design
• Creating an interactive tool that people use to do the problem framing itself
• Act as a mentor and answer questions related to the exercise as it occurred.

This meant that throughout the process, I had to ensure that my problem framing guide was easy to follow, and that I would be available to answer questions.

Initial Event Planning

Before being assigned our roles, however, the Service Design Network team met and discussed important details. We went over what responsibilities would be assigned to each person. Through discussion, we came up with a set of roles, and gave each key team member a role.

I was assigned the role of Mentor for the Problem Framing exercise.

This meant that I was in charge of managing and creating the educational materials that would guide conference attendees through the Problem Framing exercise.

Creating the tutorial video

Each video had to be under 5 minutes long and provide a succinct, helpful description of the problem solving method. In order to create this video, I had to consider a few important things that the video needed to be.

Once that was understood, I could create the video

Creating the video was the next best part! Using Adobe AfterAffects and some video editing tools, I created a resources that would guide conference attendees.

Next, I created the resources to aid new service designers.

In addition to understanding service design as a mentor, I had to develop an understanding of the attendee's experience as well. To begin, I started doing research on what would make this kind of experience a helpful one.

What I took from this experience

Being a service design mentor at the 2020 Service Design Jam was an experience that taught me the value of service design. My understanding of the attendee experience was also improved because of the collaboration and knowledge sharing that I took part in. As I continued to practice as a mentor with the Service Design Network, I also grew as a service designer and gained an understanding not learned by most beginners in the field. I was able to work with professionals in the field.

I also learned to serve others

As part of this community project, I learned the importance of giving back to the design community. This exercise was helpful because it exposed me to different points of view, and being a facilitator to those different points of view wasn't just a good learning experience - it was an enlightening one.

See the conference booklet below

Click through the presentation to see all of the details of the event. We prepared this slideshow as part of our final presentation to all attendees.