In one week, I am launching the first 2 episodes of my audio book and podcast serial, The Dauntless Gambit! I will have 11 episodes completed by then and ready to start the long, 64 episode journey over the next 8 months, producing 2 episodes a week (in 4 parallel phases of production!).

It took a bit to figure how how, or if, this was even possible. Turns out, with enough planning and time investment, yes, it is. I had to hire a freelance editor and a separate freelance narrator to pull it off, but we’re up and running now…

the tl;dr = I am announcing the launch of a creative project that has been in the works for quite some time, and is now ready!

I present to you…

The Dauntless Gambit is a sci-fi espionage action-drama written as a novel and being released as a FREE serial!

Starting June 1st, new episodes will be posted in both text and audio format every Monday and Thursday. You’ll be able to read each installment right on this website, or listen in any podcast app. …

BEFORE YOU READ: I’ve built a whole new project unlike anything I’ve done before — a fiction podcast/book written and produced by me! Go see how I’m applying the skills of design to a whole different type of medium and give my series a try!

It’s been 2 years since we started blogging on #design and #servicedesign, Megan Erin Miller and I.

A lot has changed in service design, and also in the Medium publishing platform. Having said that, I wanted to put together a list of our top 15 post, all free for those who haven’t seen them, or those who want to bookmark for later. They are in descending order by pageviews, and add up to just over 100,000! Feeling energized? Go add some CLAPS 👏.

Here’s the annotated list!

Journey Maps and Service Blueprints

Top article and canonical distinction between the two types of mapping techniques.

UX to Service Design

The…

How do you predict, and then shape, the behavior of a population? Or better, how do you design for something that is the collection of countless touchpoints or “products” that are interlinked, each with their own vastly different user-experience.

Service design is singularly centered on the human experience. We call it the end to end journey, but the service itself is something that is a collection of all the journeys that can be taken through it. The service that you design on top of is a big picture. …

Remember, this is *design* led, not designer led. There’s nothing that says a culture has to be led by, or even contain, designers for this to work.

I didn’t invent these keys; quite the opposite. They were taught to me over many, many years in successful, and unsuccessful, companies. Now I share them with you, in 500 words.

“Here fishy fishy fishy. Here fishy fishy fishy.” If you’ve ever been fishing, don’t tell me you’ve never whispered that to the waters below.

If you’re working in the technology, software, or startup industry, you are probably neck deep in the idea around offering ecosystems. Companies increasingly want to expand the ways people interact with them by creating ecosystems of products and services that give their customers more options than ever to engage with the company.

The desired outcome is faster adoption, greater network effect or NPS, and ideally the pinnacle of ecosystem success — customers who don’t see themselves…

I’ve spent the last 5 years working slowly on becoming more and more of an embedded service designer after moving from predominantly UX. And with the popularity of the Practical Service Design community, I have fielded a lot of questions from people. After a recent phone call from an organization looking for insights, I figured—it’s time to write up another article on service design culture building.