Get an inside look with Harmonic Design

Service Design Show

There's an intriguing mystery to the backstage... Think about it for a moment. People love to see what happens inside the kitchen of a Gordon Ramsey restaurant. Or to follow a sports team into the locker room before and after a game.

We want to look over the shoulder and get an inside glimpse. See things that are usually hidden from the general public. We want to see beyond the frontstage. Well, I've got exciting news, because today we're going to do just that. Not for a restaurant or your favorite sports team but for a leading service design consultancy.

To celebrate their 4th anniversary with the community, the team from Harmonic Design agreed to sit down with me for an uncensored ask-me-anything episode.

In this episode, you'll hear the team react to questions like:

• What is your strategy for finding new clients?
• What is the most challenging part of your work?
• What does it take to get hired at a service design consultancy?
• What is the biggest failure you made in a project?
• What is the most important thing you look for in a client?
• What is the future of agencies?
• And many more...

The team promised me the truth and nothing but the truth. I would say listen to the episode and find out if the team managed to live up to their promise.

As you'll see and hear, this is a format we haven't done on the Show before. So let me know if this is something that you enjoy and we should do it more often!

My first encounter with Harmonic Design founder Patrick Quattlebaum was for an interview on the Service Design Show back in episode #115. Ever since our first interaction, Harmonic Design has been a great partner of the Show. I want to use this opportunity to send out my appreciation and gratitude for how they are contributing to the service design community and helping it mature.

[ 1. EPISODE GUIDE ]

00:00 Welcome to Show
04:30 Meet Shreya
05:15 Meet Stephen
05:45 Meet Kerri
06:45 Meet Tucker
07:45 Finish the sentence: communicating the value
11:30 Lightning round: Shreya
13:45 Deep dive: what skill does some need to demonstrate
19:30 Finish the sentence: misconceptions
22:00 Lightning round: Stephen
24:00 Deep dive: how do you get to know the full problem space
32:00 Finish the sentence: our strategy to find new clients is
34:15 Lightning round: Kerri
36:15 Deep dive: how do you scope a project
44:00 Finish the sentence: the most fun part of your work
47:00 Lightning round: Tucker
49:15 Deep dive: the future of agencies
54:00 Finish the sentence: recommendations
59:00 Closing thoughts

[ 2. LINKS ]

• https://thisisharmonic.com
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerrimdesignpro/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/shreya-dhawan/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/tuckerwitter/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-taylor-3847aa4/

[ 3. BOOKS ]

• Orchestrating Experiences - https://amzn.to/3MK5oU5
• The Experience-Centric Organization - https://amzn.to/3PGyntK
• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions - https://amzn.to/3Nt2KSE
• Brave New Work - https://amzn.to/3NAcTgz
• The Design Philosophy Reader - https://amzn.to/3NOJteP