Can service designers do user research?

My experience of moving between the two

When I first started out in service design I worked for a small design consultancy where everybody did a bit of everything. Consequently I did both service design and user research (and project management actually). This was a great learning experience for me as I moved from the world of brand design into user centred design.

I got on the job training for 2-3 different roles all at the same time, experience that’s very difficult to get these days due to the design consultancy landscape changing so much over the last five years. I learned how to journey map and blueprint alongside running depth interviews and carrying out contextual observations. I took my own notes in interviews and learned how to type really fast!

A few years into my time at Snook I took on leading the Tesco account. This was a big client for our small, but growing, company. We had bigger budgets and we partnered with their internal team. My first Tesco project involved being paired with an amazing Tesco researcher who is still a good friend today, Caroline Morton. This experience showed me the value of paired working and was the starting point for me specialising in service design as Snook started to create distinct disciplines. During research sessions Caroline was able to focus on conducting the interview and asking the questions, while I was able to map journeys and identify pain points and insights live.

Through my work at Joy I now often create projects around a service design and user researcher pair. For example, I worked with the excellent Sophie Rankin last year to redesign the onboarding journey for the Q community. Unfortunately, the budgets are not always big enough to allow two people to work together on a project so recently I’ve been trialling a different approach.

The lovely Hannah Kirkbride agreed to be a sounding board partner on my recent work for the University of Manchester around personalised medicine. Hannah has a healthcare background which I was interested in bringing into the project. I also haven’t been doing as much user research over the last two years and I wanted her to supervise my practice.

At this point I want to acknowledge that service design and user research are distinct disciplines (with a venn diagram cross over). I always refer to myself as a service designer who can do user research. I caveat that service design is my primary area of expertise. With this in mind, Hannah has been great at checking over my approach to participant information and consent, reviewing my discussion guides and sitting in some of my research interviews to take notes and give me feedback on my interviewing approach.

It’s been reassuring to have this support in place. Hannah has given me confidence in my research abilities. She’s highlighted my strengths, my calm and reassuring tone, while pointing out areas I could have held back assumptions or asked more open questions. Personal development is super limited for freelancers and being someone who learns through doing I feel like this has been a great way to sharpen my practice in one of my secondary skillsets.

So in answer to the original, somewhat clickbait style, title of this piece. Yes, I think they can. But in doing so I think it’s important to recognise that both are disciplines in their own right and if you are putting yourself forward as an expert in both you need to be committed to professional development and continuous practice and learning in both.

I would also say that, if you have the budget, the project will be stronger with two people bringing the distinct skillsets together and working as a duo.

I’d be interested to hear what others think.