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Let’s (not) get (too) physical, physical • 5
Thinking services instead of products: Inclusion > Exclusion
While the shift from products to services – often referred to as servitization – is far from new, it remains a powerful framework for manufacturing companies and digital-first startups looking to embrace customer-centric, service-dominant business models. In this blog post, I explore the Inclusion Over Exclusion strategy, one of seven ways to think services instead of products.
5. Inclusion > Exclusion
The Inclusion Over Exclusion strategy is about removing discriminatory, socioeconomic, cultural, linguistic, physical, or financial barriers that prevent underrepresented and historically excluded groups from fully accessing, engaging with, and benefiting from products and brands (adapted from Linares, 2021).
The emphasis shifts from making physical products and built environments more universal or accessible to delivering supplementary services that reduce barriers and foster a sense of belonging throughout the customer journey. (Loosely based on Bau 2006, 2010, 2011, 2015.) The thinking applies broadly to digital experiences as well, albeit with some adjustments to the terminology.
Note: Compared to a product-centric and compliance-based approach to DEI, a genuine service design mindset pays careful attention to how experiences are envisioned, co-created, co-produced, and co-delivered across phases, moments, and touchpoints in the customer journey.
In this discussion, I highlight nine strategies for staging equitable experiences and advancing equitable outcomes.
Power tip: These strategies will help you systemically and systematically uncover opportunities for new or enhanced supplementary services across the entire customer journey, from ‘Learn & Buy’ to ‘Repurpose, Resell, or Recycle.’ For more context, see my blog posts on the Solutions Over Products strategy and the Journeys Over Transactions strategy.
Strategies for staging equitable experiences and advancing equitable outcomes throughout the journey
Ensure welcoming, respectful, and safe experiences for all, regardless of ability, identity, or cultural background. See my blog post Going for gold • 7.
Encourage customization and personalization of services, products, and touchpoints to meet individual needs. See my blog post on the Individualization Over Standardization strategy.
Deliver flexible and adaptive solutions that address individual needs in real-time. See my blog post on the Individualization Over Standardization strategy.
Democratize access to high-value assets and resources. See my blog post on the Access Over Ownership strategy.
Connect people with similar goals, interests, or challenges. See my upcoming blog post.
Give people from diverse backgrounds a voice and agency in shaping services and experiences. See my blog post Going for gold • 7.
Empower and equip employees to champion and drive the implementation of DEI initiatives. See my blog post Going for gold • 7.
Drive accountability by setting clear DEI goals, tracking progress, and ensuring transparent reporting.
Foster a culture of continuous feedback, learning, and adaptation to ensure ongoing relevance with evolving user needs and DEI practices.
Examples: Walmart offers sensory-friendly shopping hours for customers with autism and other sensory sensitivities (2023–present). Sephora provides multicultural and multilingual consultations, where beauty experts provide personalized advice in the customer’s native language and adapt recommendations to local beauty standards and cultural preferences (2015–present). Target invests in diversity and inclusion training to ensure employees are equipped to engage respectively and inclusively with customers of all backgrounds, identities, and abilities (2013–present). Makani Homes offers a platform for Muslim travelers to swap homes or book accommodations that cater to their cultural values and preferences (2024–present). Inclusive Design Research Centre helps organizations make their offerings more universal or inclusive (1993–present).
Benefits
Expands market reach by catering to previously underserved or overlooked segments
Transforms products into holistic solutions that support customers at every phase, moment, and touchpoint of their journey
Reduces customer friction by addressing barriers and pain points throughout the entire journey
Creates potential for new and recurring revenue streams through innovative supplementary services
Increases switching costs and reduces customer churn
Builds strong, lasting relationships that enhance NPS, increase CLV, and drive loyalty
Encourages innovation in value creation, value co-creation, and value facilitation (see my blog post Get the balance right! • 2)
Drives differentiation and builds brand equity
See also
Solutions > Products
Journeys > Transactions
Individualization > Standardization
Members > Audiences
The Connection Over Isolation strategy will be covered in the next blog post.
References
Bau, R. (2006). Design av tjänster och upplevelser [Design for services and experiences]. Part of Executive education in Design Management [unpublished training material]. Berghs School of Communication.
Bau, R. (2010, December). Ten strategy paradoxes in service Innovation and design. Paper presented at ServDes 2010 (Service Design and Innovation Conference), Linköping, Sweden.
Bau, R. (2011, December). Strategy paradoxes in service innovation and design. In: Cai et al. (Eds.), Design Management: Toward a new era of innovation. Proceedings from the 2011 Tsinghua-DMI International Design Management Symposium, Hong Kong, China. IDMA.
Bau, R. (2015). Thinking services instead of products. In: Service Design Boot Camp, Day 1 [unpublished training material]. Veryday.
Going for gold • 7
Service Design for Equitable Experiences
Inspired by an article in Harvard Business Review about the underlying quests for corporate transformation (Anand & Barsoux, 2017), I have identified seven arenas where the power of service design can transform organizations, teams, and people. In this blog post, I explore the final category, Service Design for Equitable Experiences. This one acts as a connective thread weaving through and enhancing the other six arenas, ensuring that the tenets of diversity, equity, and inclusion are deeply embedded in all aspects of service design.
7. Service Design for Equitable Experiences
Purpose: To remove discriminatory, socioeconomic, cultural, linguistic, physical, or financial barriers that prevent underrepresented and historically excluded groups from fully accessing, engaging with, and benefiting from workflows, products, services, environments, and experiences (adapted from Linares, 2021). This includes fostering an inclusive environment where all voices feel welcome, heard, and respected; embracing contrasting workstyles and personalities; and leveraging multiple perspectives to identify and address blind spots in processes, outputs, and outcomes. These efforts will lead to long-lasting positive changes that benefit individuals, communities, organizations, and society at large.
Note: Compared to a product-centric and compliance-based approach to DEI, a genuine service design mindset pays careful attention to how multi-touchpoint services and experiences are envisioned, co-created, co-produced, co-delivered, and perceived over time. This ensures that DEI is not just an afterthought but woven into the fabric of internal (employee-facing) and external (customer-facing) services and experiences.
Common themes: Exclusion. Barrier-free experiences. Equity of access, experience, and impact. Fair treatment, inclusive representation, and equal opportunities for all. Conscious and unconscious biases. Blind spots. Intersectionality. Cultural sensitivity and relevance. Physical, sensory, and cognitive impairments. Long-term disabilities, temporary conditions, and situational limitations. Design for belonging. Inclusive/universal design principles and applications. Adaptive and customisable design. Participatory design. Value co-creation. Shared decision-making. User autonomy and empowerment. Equitable outcomes. Iterative design. Continuous learning and adaptation. DEI metrics and evaluation. DEI accountability and transparency.
Project archetypes:
Designing for participation (participatory design and decision-making). Equipping facilitators, designers, and users with the platforms, services, spaces, workflows, tools, and skills needed to collaboratively create innovative, inclusive, and effective solutions to complex, multi-faceted challenges. By treating customers, employees, and other collaborators as co-creators, this approach cultivates collective intelligence, fosters lateral thinking, encourages shared decision-making, and ensures shared ownership of both outputs and outcomes. Designing for participation includes selecting the most effective engagement format(s) for co-creation – such as world cafés, design sprints, innovation jams, hackathons, co-design workshops, and crowdsourcing – depending on project needs at any given time in the process. (Kaner et al., 2014; Lipmanowicz & McCandless, 2014; Gray, Brown & Macanufo, 2010; Knapp, Zeratsky & Kowitz, 2016; Brown & Isaacs, 2005)
Designing for cultural competency. Ensuring that customer and employee experiences are welcoming, relevant, and respectful for all, regardless of cultural background – including ethnicity, nationality, language, religion, education, generation, and other cultural factors. This involves not only appreciating and embracing cultural subtleties and differences but also tailoring workflows, services, and experiences to meet the specific needs and preferences of diverse cultural groups. (Meyer, 2016; Kowalski, 2023)
Designing for accessibility. Ensuring that customer and employee experiences do not intentionally or unintentionally exclude groups and individuals with one or more impairments. This includes designing adaptive solutions for mobility, dexterity, visual, hearing, speech, and cognitive impairments that are effective in three distinct scenarios: long-term disability, temporary conditions, and situational limitations. (Microsoft Design, 2016; Microsoft Inclusive Design, 2023; Holmes, 2020)
Designing for intersectionality. Ensuring that customer and employee experiences address the unique needs and challenges faced by groups and individuals with diverse and intersecting identities – based on factors such as gender, race, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic class – as well as the multiple forms of discrimination or privilege they may experience. This involves creating environments, workflows, and services that are attuned to the complexities and nuances of these intersecting identities, ensuring that everyone feels represented, respected, and valued. (Lupton et al., 2021; Noel, 2023)
Fostering culture of systemic equity. Building and nurturing a culture where all employees feel valued, supported, and empowered, regardless of their background and identity. This involves crafting policies, programs, playbooks, practices, services, tools, benefits, incentives, and feedback mechanisms that leverage diverse perspectives; drive diversity of thought (including style, approach, and experience); foster inclusive collaboration; support underrepresented and historically excluded groups; and promote equitable career paths within the organization. (Myers, 2012; Frost & Aladina, 2019; Brown, 2016)
Examples: Airbnb (Project Lighthouse, Open Doors Policy, Instant Book), Microsoft (Xbox Adaptive Controller), Target (Adaptive Clothing), Nike (FlyEase), Apple (in-app accessibility features), Forum Virium Helsinki (co-creating urban futures for the city of Helsinki), and IDEO (OpenIDEO, the open innovation platform, and Design Kit, the human-centered design toolkit for social innovation).
Complementary/alternative methodologies, toolkits, and resources: Collective Action Toolkit (Frog, part of Capgemini Invent). Liberating Principles & Structures (Liberating Structures). Gamestorming – playbook with 80+ games for collaborative play (Gray, Brown & Macanufo, 2010). Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making (Kaner et al., 2014). Inclusive Design Toolkit (Microsoft). Inclusive Design Toolkit (University of Cambridge). Human-Centered Design Kit (IDEO). OpenIDEO (IDEO). Equity-Centered Community Design Field Guide (Creative Reaction Lab). Equity-Centered Design Framework (Stanford d.school). Racial Equity Tools (Equity in the Center). Liberatory Design Modes (Liberatory Design). Design Justice Network Principles (Design Justice Network). Inclusive Design for Business Impact and Social Impact (Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Royal College of Art).
Supplementary methodologies and toolkits: Systems thinking. Critical thinking and design. Social design and innovation. Civic design. Community design. Ethnographic research. Design thinking. Behavioral design. Industrial design. Service design. UX design. Retail design. Interior design. Workplace design. Experience design. Urban planning and environmental design.
Exploring the problem space: Understanding the broader context. Defining stakeholder mindsets / archetypes / personas. Understanding user drivers, needs, goals, behaviours, and blockers in existing experiences (in close collaboration with stakeholders and end-users). Crafting mental models to highlight moments that matter, pivotal touchpoints / interactions, common pain points, and unmet needs. Uncovering deep insights across multiple research methods and sources. Crafting tentative North Star for equitable experiences, determining ambition levels, and identifying opportunity spaces for improvement. Framing or reframing challenges/problems. Brainstorming initial ideas and hypotheses. Etc.
Exploring the solution space: Finding smart, emotionally resonant solutions (in close collaboration with stakeholders and end-users). Continuously testing tentative solutions through storytelling, rapid prototyping, experimentation, and piloting. Considering scalability, sustainability, and ethical implications of all solutions. Continuously adapting, downselecting, and prioritising tentative solutions. Crafting ideal, future-state end-to-end experiences (onstage and backstage) for prioritised user segments or mindsets. Defining stakeholder, business, and social impact. Crafting compelling stories and value cases for change. Identifying roadblocks, creating roadmaps, defining requirements, and mobilising resources for implementation and sustained success. Etc.
Project sponsors: Chief Diversity Officer, Chief Inclusion Officer, Chief Accessibility Officer, CXO, CHRO, CEO, or equivalent
Desired outcomes: ↑ service/experience accessibility, ↑ service/experience equitability, ↑ user empowerment, ↑ community trust and engagement, ↑ inclusion and representation in innovation & design processes, ↑ DEI-related metrics, ↑ employee engagement and retention, ↑ customer satisfaction and NPS, ↑ brand differentiation, ↑ brand reputation, ↑ brand engagement and loyalty
Note: Thank you, AnnaRose Girvin, Lead Experience Designer at Method, for serving as such a valuable sounding board for this blog post. Any mistakes or shortcomings in the final piece are entirely my responsibility.
References
Anand, N. & Barsoux, J-L. (2017, Nov–Dec). What everyone gets wrong about change management. Poor execution is only part of the problem. Harvard Business Review.
Brown, J. (2016). Inclusion: Diversity, the new workplace & the will to change. Advantage Media Group.
Brown, J. & Isaacs, D. (2005). The world café: Shaping our futures through conversations that matter. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Frost, S. & Aladina, R-F. (2019). Building an inclusive organization: Leveraging the power of a diverse workforce. Kogan Page.
Gray, D., Brown, S. & Macanufo, J. (2010). Gamestorming: A playbook for innovators, rulebreakers, and changemakers. O’Reilly Media.
Holmes, K. (2020). Mismatch: How inclusion shapes design. MIT Press.
Kaner et al. (2014). Facilitator’s guide to participatory decision-making (3rd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
Knapp, J., Zeratsky, J. & Kowitz, B. (2016). Sprint: How to solve big problems and test new ideas in just five days. Bantam Press.
Kowalski, S. (2023). Cultural sensitivity training: Developing the basis for effective intercultural communication. Econcise.
Linares, M. (2021, April). Frameworks for measuring product inclusion and product equity. Medium.
Lipmanowicz, H. & McCandless, K. (2014). The surprising power of liberating structures: Simple rules to unleash a culture of innovation. Liberating Structures Press.
Lupton et al. (2021). Extra bold: A feminist, inclusive, anti-racist, nonbinary field guide for graphic designers. Princeton Architectural Press.
Meyer, E. (2016). The culture map: Decoding how people think, lead, and get things done across cultures. PublicAffairs.
Myers, V. (2012). Moving diversity forward: How to go from well-meaning to well-doing. American Bar Association.
Microsoft Design. (2016). Inclusive 101 guidebook. Microsoft.
Microsoft Inclusive Design. (2023). Cognitive exclusion. Microsoft.
Noel, L-A. (2023). Design social change: Take action, work toward equity, and challenge status quo. A Stanford d.school guide. Ten Speed Press.