Service Design & Customer-Centric Innovation – Rome (Italy), 10–14 May 2027

Introduction:

In an era where customer expectations evolve rapidly, organizations must embed service design thinking and customer-centric innovation at their core. This Service Design and Customer-Centric Innovation course explores how to design services that are resonant, usable, and value-creating across all touchpoints. Participants will learn how to frame innovation from the customer’s perspective and translate insight into service offerings.

The Service Design and Customer-Centric Innovation curriculum combines theory with scenario-based learning to help you internalize the logic of human-centered service solutions. Participants will engage with strategic tools such as journey mapping, blueprinting, and value proposition design in a service context. They will lead initiatives that improve customer experience, drive loyalty, and foster sustainable innovation.

Targeted Groups:

This Service Design and Customer-Centric Innovation training targets professionals seeking specialized knowledge and skills:

• Service designers and UX professionals are expanding into holistic service systems.
• Innovation managers aim to place customers at the heart of strategy.
• Customer experience (CX) leads wishing to design cohesive service journeys.
• Product managers oversee service components and aftercare.
• Strategic consultants advising transformation in service organizations.
• Leaders and department heads are aiming to embed a customer-centric culture.

Course Objectives:

Participants will achieve the following objectives by completing the Service Design and Customer-Centric Innovation course:

• Understand core principles of service design and customer-centric innovation in organizational settings.
• Analyze customers’ needs and “jobs to be done” to generate innovation opportunities.
• Map multifaceted customer journeys and identify key touchpoints for redesign.
• Build service blueprints and prototype service concepts for iterative testing.
• Develop strategies to embed customer-centric processes and culture in organizations.
• Evaluate service innovation performance using metrics and feedback loops.
• Develop a project plan to pilot a new or enhanced service offering within your specific context.
• Communicate service-driven propositions persuasively to stakeholders.

Targeted Competencies:

Participants will gain the following competencies during the Service Design and Customer-Centric Innovation program:

• Ability to empathize with customers and translate qualitative insight into service concepts.
• Skill in constructing holistic customer journey maps and detecting pain or delight moments.
• Proficiency in designing service blueprints that connect frontstage and backstage operations.
• Capability to prototype and co-create service modules with users and cross-functional teams.
• Aptitude for embedding innovation workflows aligned with customer feedback loops.
• Judgment in prioritizing service design interventions based on feasibility, desirability, and viability.
• Confidence in presenting customer-centric service proposals to decision makers.
• Competence in measuring service outcomes, iterating, and scaling successful designs.

Studying Scenarios:

In this Service Design and Customer-Centric Innovation training, participants will develop their skills through the analysis of the following scenarios:

• Bank redesigns branch and digital channels to unify customer experience.
• Telecom innovates support services to reduce frustration and churn.
• Healthcare provider builds a patient-centered journey to enhance satisfaction.
• The retail chain creates a subscription service that matches customer expectations.
• Public utilities are reimagining their service operations to improve trust and reduce complaints.
• Startup tests hybrid physical/digital service concepts through early prototyping.
• Hospitality firm personalizes guest experiences by mapping key touchpoints.

Course Content:

Unit 1: Foundations of Service Design & Customer-Centric Innovation:

• Definition and scope of service design in modern organizations
• Key concepts: touchpoints, moments of truth, service ecosystem
• Customer-centric innovation logic: desirability, feasibility, viability (three factors).
• “Jobs to be done” framework and outcome-driven innovation integration.
• The difference between product innovation and service innovation.
• Role of service design in building competitive advantage (operating model).

Unit 2: Customer Insight & Journey Mapping:

• Qualitative methods, including interviews, shadowing, and ethnography, are used for insight gathering.
• Segmentation by customer motivations and jobs to be done.
• Customer journey mapping: phases, touchpoints, pain & delight exercises.
• Mapping emotional journeys and cognitive loads.
• Identifying “moments that matter” for design focus.
• Aligning internal stakeholder perspectives with customer journey maps.

Unit 3: Service Blueprinting & Process Design:

• Blueprint mechanics: frontstage, backstage, support systems.
• Linking customer journey to internal processes and value chains.
• Visualizing service operations and touchpoint dependencies.
• Identifying bottlenecks, redundancies, and service failures.
• Integrating digital and analog channels in the blueprint.
• Coordinating actors, policies, and resource flows.

Unit 4: Ideation, Prototyping & Co-creation:

• Generative ideation methods in the service domain.
• Co-design workshops with customers and stakeholders.
• Rapid prototyping for services: role play, mock interactions.
• Service design sprint adaptation (agile timeframe).
• Testing, feedback, and iteration are integral to service modules.
• Piloting small-scale implementation and scaling.

Unit 5: Implementation, Measurement & Scaling:

• Embedding customer-centric processes and governance.
• Change management for service culture shift.
• Key metrics and KPIs for service design outcomes.
• Feedback loops, continuous improvement cycles.
• Strategies for scaling innovation and sustaining momentum.
• Risk management, governance, and resource alignment.

Final Insights & Key Takeaways:

Participants will leave with a structured approach to fuse service design and customer-centric innovation into real business initiatives. The framework and tools learned serve as a foundation for designing services that are both meaningful to customers and viable for the organization.