• 1 hour 6 minutes
    Selling Journey Management to Your VP / Journey Management Playbook S02E03

    Want to secure executive buy-in? Stop waiting for a strategic brief from leadership, learn how to pitch solutions that solve your VP's biggest headache.


    Tired of doing incredible journey mapping work only to realize you still aren't invited to the room where important business decisions are made? In this episode of the Journey Management Playbook, Martin and I break down a highly specific, 5-slide pitch designed to get you a seat at the executive table. Learn how to stop being viewed as just the "journey maps person" and start navigating boardroom politics like a pro.


    in this episode

    • Why asking your VP what could get them fired is the ultimate shortcut to tapping into executive urgency.
    • A tactical, step-by-step breakdown of how to write your own strategic brief and present a high-value proposition.
    • How to handle heavy pushback from stakeholders and turn a painful "no" into meaningful progress.
    • How to reposition customer experience (CX) from a minor workshop activity into a core business solution.


    We’ve put together an Objection Response Cheat Sheet with the most common pushbacks and ways you can navigate them. You can download it for free using the link in the show notes.


    Enjoy and keep making a positive impact.

    ~ Marc


    [1. LINKS 🔗 ]


    [ 2. GUIDE 📺 ]

    00:00 Season 2 Recap

    02:00 Shifting Focus to Business Impact

    04:45 The CX Trust Gap Explained

    06:30 Breaking Out of the Workshop Box

    11:15 Creating a High-Value Proposition

    29:45 Repackaging for Time Constraints

    35:30 Surface vs. Root Cause Problems

    40:15 Aligning Strategy with Backlogs

    51:00 Re-evaluating Urgency

    55:30 Handling Objections & Silence

    57:00 Setting 90-Day Timelines

    1:00:00 Turbocharging Your Preparation

    1:02:45 Overcoming Presentation Rejection

    1:04:15 Wrap-Up


    --- [ 3. FIND THE SHOW ON ] ---

    11 June 2026, 6:00 am
  • 1 hour 10 minutes
    How AI is Changing the Rules of Service Design / Pablo / Ep. #255

    If building digital products becomes instant and free, what happens to the value of a service designer? Discover why traditional discovery is under attack and how to survive the impending "Design Winter."


    The rapid trajectory of AI development has completely shifted the rules of corporate problem-solving. In this episode, host Marc van Tijn sits down with academic coordinator Pablo Fernández Vallejo to unpack the deep structural changes hitting the design industry. They move past basic chatbot hype to look at the realities of autonomous AI agents, shifting organizational power dynamics, and why designers must quickly transition from "authors" to "editors" to stay relevant.


    Here is what we cover:

    • Why corporate obsession with cheap, instant builds risks turning upfront design discovery into an operational roadblock.
    • Why automating the messy, time-consuming parts of qualitative work might actually cause our core design muscles to atrophy.
    • How autonomous AI agents are forcing us to redesign websites and platforms for machine consumption instead of human eyes.
    • How to harden your service ecosystems before competitors or angry clients launch automated, voice-cloned agent swarms to overwhelm support desks.
    • Why the future belongs to designers who can let go of the static deliverable and focus on continuous, systemic agility.


    On a scale of 1-10, how fluent do you feel with AI as a design material right now? Let me know, I really do read and reply to all responses.

    Enjoy and keep making a positive impact!

    ~ Marc


    --- [ 1. GUIDE ] ---

    00:00 Welcome to Episode 255

    03:45 AI Velocity

    08:45 Future Job Market

    13:30 Productive Friction

    19:15 Impact on Designers

    23:15 What happens to our value

    28:30 How we combat corporate Proto Bros

    34:00 Where we anchor the "real" domain of design

    36:45 Impact on Services

    37:30 Autonomous Agents

    42:15 Designing AX

    47:45 Ecosystem Defense

    50:15 Broken Journey Maps

    52:00 Impact on Organizations

    56:30 Authors vs Editors


    --- [ 2. LINKS ] ---


    --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] ---

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    ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle


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    4 June 2026, 6:00 am
  • 1 hour 1 minute
    The Art of the "Sneaky" Service Designer / Inside Service Design / Max & Jennifer

    What do you do when you want to drive human-centered change inside your organization, but you don't have the formal authority, you don't hold the budget, and you don't even have the official job title?

    To dive deeper into this strategy, I sat down with Max Seabrooke and Jennifer Kitchen.

    According to them, you stop asking for corporate permission and start getting a little bit sneaky. We step away from perfectly polished frameworks to look at the raw, political reality of practicing "undercover influence" from the inside out.

    In this episode, you will learn:

    • How to quietly embed user-centric design into your organization without triggering corporate resistance or using confusing industry jargon.
    • Why slowly building a toolkit of data on top of your company's existing expertise wins over skeptical executives.
    • How to figure out exactly how other siloed teams measure their own success so you can align your project to their metrics.
    • Why avoiding friction inside your team can quietly destroy project alignment and sabotage quality.

    So, if you want to hear raw, practical insights from professionals who are in the trenches every single day, you'll really like enjoy this one!

    I’m curious, if you don't have the official "Service Designer" title, what does your email signature currently say? Let me know.

    Enjoy the episode and keep making a positive impact.

    Be well,

    ~ Marc


    --- [ 1. GUIDE ] ---

    00:00 Welcome to the April Round Up 2026

    03:45 Career Paths to Service Design

    05:30 Titles vs Doing the Role

    06:15 Modern Human-Centered Design

    07:15 UX Design for Kids

    09:15 Supply Chain Overhauls

    12:15 The Human Side of Blueprints

    13:15 Product Repair Operations

    15:30 Strategic Sneakiness

    18:15 Fixing Complex Mergers

    21:00 Politics as Design Material

    21:45 Corporate Political Survival

    24:15 Active Listening & Handoffs

    28:30 Eliminating Corporate Jargon

    33:45 Operational Alignment

    39:15 Dangers of Toxic Politeness

    44:15 Confronting Hard Truths

    50:00 Customer Belief Toolkit

    54:15 Leadership Evidence Layers


    --- [ 2. LINKS ] ---


    --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] ---

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    ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle


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    28 May 2026, 6:00 am
  • 1 hour 57 seconds
    What the Agentic Era Means for Service Design / John Ayers / Ep. #254

    We are moving way past the point of just typing prompts into chat interfaces. We are entering the "agentic era," where a single person can deploy high-level AI agents who manage their own teams of digital workers underneath them.

    This shift is triggering a massive compression of skills, collapsing separate specialized roles into a single generalist function. If most service interactions shift to agent-to-agent communication, the human experience risks disappearing completely.

    In this episode, John Ayers joins Marc to explore how to help the "80% in the middle". The people who are curious but completely exhausted by the daily AI hype cycle. You'll learn how to take your existing mapping toolkit and adapt it to build "AI service blueprints," translating human personas directly into digital agents so we don't lose empathy.

    As you listen, think about John’s closing challenge: When the dust settles two years from now, what do you actually want your career to look like?

    Be well,

    ~ Marc



    --- [ 1. GUIDE ] ---

    00:00 Welcome to Episode 254

    01:00 Introducing John Ayers

    02:15 Reality vs AI Hype

    03:45 Lessons From Past Shifts

    07:15 Why AI is Different

    09:00 The Rapid Pace of AI

    11:30 The Shift to AI Agents

    13:15 Agent-to-Agent Decisions

    15:00 Building a Digital Workforce

    16:15 Domain Knowledge vs General AI

    18:00 Helping the Overwhelmed Majority

    26:00 Avoiding Fake AI

    29:15 The Governance Gap

    31:00 The New AI Giants

    34:00 Service Blueprinting for AI

    35:00 Anatomy of an AI Agent

    39:30 The Democratization Trap

    41:30 Human Skills vs Job Losses

    45:00 Stop Chasing Tech Tools

    46:30 Focus on Humans, Not Jargon

    51:45 Human Purpose in the AI Era

    54:30 Avoiding AI Burnout

    54:45 John’s Disruptor Confessions

    56:15 Asking the Hard Questions

    58:30 Wrap-Up and Community Call


    --- [ 2. LINKS ] ---


    --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] ---

    Join our private community for in-house service design professionals.

    ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle


    --- [4. FIND THE SHOW ON] ---



    21 May 2026, 6:00 am
  • 1 hour 5 minutes
    How to Shift CX from a Cost Center to a Strategic Asset / Journey Management Playbook S02E02

    Does your "Master Journey Map" just sit in a digital drawer? You aren’t alone.

    In this episode, we dive into "Journey Theater"— the trap of performing progress without moving the needle on business outcomes.

    We’re moving beyond "mapping for mapping’s sake." Learn how to shift from being a service provider to a strategic partner by building a living system that survives the next re-org.

    Watch this episode to learn:

    • Why your budget holder is your real customer
    • The warning signs of Journey Theater
    • How to shift from project cycles to an operational model
    • Using the Journey Maturity Scorecard to track growth

    Just like the rest of the Playbook, this episode is best consumed as a video because we walk through specific examples, like the Journey Maturity Scorecard, on screen. If you’re listening on the go, you can always grab the slide deck from the show notes to follow along.

    Enjoy and keep making a positive impact!

    ~ Marc


    --- [1. LINKS 🔗 ] ---


    --- [ 2. GUIDE 📺 ] ---

    00:00 Welcome to Journey Management Playbook S2E2

    03:45 Internal Customer

    05:30 Decision Maker Needs

    07:15 Budget Agenda

    10:30 Impact Over Selling

    13:15 Organizational Friction

    16:15 The Journey Scope

    19:15 Journey Theater

    21:00 Reporting Progress Live

    26:45 Breaking Project Cycles

    30:45 Quantifying Wins

    40:15 Decision Context

    41:30 Continuous Insights

    42:45 Common Language

    44:00 Cross Vertical Impact

    45:30 Eight Success Steps

    46:45 AI Data Leverage

    48:00 Delivery Authority

    49:15 Proactive Influence

    50:30 Impact Focus

    51:45 Six Month Strategy

    53:00 Revenue vs Cost

    54:15 Agenda Alignment

    56:45 Management Maturity

    58:00 Scaling Momentum

    1:00:45 Journey Health Score

    1:04:30 Summary and Next Steps


    --- [ 3. FIND THE SHOW ON ] ---

    14 May 2026, 7:00 am
  • 1 hour 2 minutes
    Reclaiming Your Energy When Design Feels Like a Losing Battle / Sara / Ep. #253

    Do you show up as an "A-student" constantly seeking the next gold star, only to feel personally attacked when your work is misunderstood? 🌟 In this episode, we tackle the "identity trap" in design and how to stay passionate without letting corporate exploitation drain your soul


    In this episode, you'll learn:

    • Why wrapping your personal value in professional output leads to burnout and frustration.
    • How the constant need for "exceeds expectations" reviews can actually undermine your professional agency.
    • Strategies to care deeply about your impact without letting it define your humanity.
    • How to feel in control even when your leadership doesn't yet grasp the full value of what you bring to the table


    Our guest: Sara Wachter-Boettcher

    Sara is a vocal leader in the design community and the founder of Active Voice, where she has coached dozens of professionals through these exact challenges. She joins Marc to explore how to lean into conversations about value without feeling like you’re constantly pleading for your seat at the table.


    As you'll hear, Sara brings some "tough love" that helps you come out the other side more confident. It’s about learning to keep your side of the street clean, even when the organization around you feels messy.

    Enjoy and keep making a positive impact!

    Be well,

    ~ Marc


    --- [ 1. GUIDE ] ---

    00:00 Welcome to Episode 253

    03:30 The collective headspace of design today

    05:30 The impact of AI-related layoffs on design morale.

    08:15 Era of cheap money

    10:00 20-teens tech boom and its consequences

    15:00 The ROI trap and identity

    18:15 How shifting performance standards destabilize personal identity

    22:00 Breaking the spell of work identity

    24:45 Discomfort of realizing a job doesn't align with personal values

    33:00 Navigating organizational change

    38:45 Power mapping exercises

    44:45 Empathy for colleagues

    51:45 Concept of "humanizing" organizations to reduce isolation

    55:15 Radical act of clocking out

    57:00 Leadership without the ego

    59:15 Strategic patience in a crisis

    1:01:15 The value of the human behind the designer

    01:14:15 Question to ponder


    --- [ 2. LINKS ] ---

    --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] ---

    Join our private community for in-house service design professionals.

    ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle


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    7 May 2026, 6:00 am
  • 58 minutes 51 seconds
    How to Thrive When Your Company Doesn't Get Service Design / Inside Service Design / Elle & Nick / Ep. #12

    You look around the room and realize you’re the only one who cares about the customer. 😫 It’s exhausting to be the lone voice begging for user research while everyone else just wants to ship the next feature.

    In this episode, Elle Beaumont-Bilsby and Nick Gaff join the show to discuss the heavy lifting required to be an in-house service design practitioner. We move beyond "thick skin" and look at how to build a sustainable career in environments that don't fully understand design.

    You’ll learn:

    • Why surviving as a lone wolf is impossible and how to locate "quiet allies" hidden in other departments.
    • A practical framework for building resilience at an organizational, service, and personal level.
    • How Elle and Nick practice high-impact design without having "Service Designer" on their business cards.
    • Practical tips for staying sane and avoiding burnout when you are the only advocate for the user.
    • How to find a support crew outside your organization to help you carry the weight.

    I'm curious, if you had to make a guess, how many people do you have around you inside your org that get it? 1, 5, 20... let me know.

    Enjoy the episode and keep making a positive impact.

    ~ Marc


    --- [ 1. GUIDE ] ---

    00:00 Welcome to the March Round Up

    01:45 Defining Resilience

    03:30 Service Design in Australia

    04:45 Elle’s Design Journey

    07:00 Nick’s Career Path

    09:00 Effects of Digitization

    11:00 Higher Ed Challenges

    12:30 Impact Over Tools

    14:00 The Resilient Self Season

    14:45 3 Altitudes Framework

    16:00 Organizational Resilience

    17:00 Resilient Service Design

    18:00 Personal Development

    19:15 Recharging and Self-Care

    20:00 Resilience as a Quality

    21:00 Individual Resilience Focus

    24:15 Peer Support Systems

    28:00 Navigating Corporate Culture

    31:30 Vulnerability in Leadership

    35:45 Building Internal Allies

    39:00 Friday Afternoon Reflections

    42:15 Success Beyond Metrics

    45:30 Managing High-Stress Projects

    49:00 Sustainable Innovation

    52:15 Resilience as Design Criteria

    56:45 Switching Off and Recharging


    --- [ 2. LINKS ] ---


    --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] ---

    Join our private community for in-house service design professionals.

    ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle


    --- [ 4. FIND THE SHOW ON ] ---

    30 April 2026, 6:00 am
  • 54 minutes 43 seconds
    The Story Vacuum: Why User Research Isn’t Enough / Brian Whittaker / Ep. #252

    Imagine making the cover of Time magazine...

    Okay, maybe not. Nobody gets into service design for the fame.

    Actually, as we’re always saying on the show, our best work is usually the stuff nobody notices.

    The spotlight stays on the CEOs. You rarely see the people in the trenches, the ones making sure the "faceless" public services we rely on actually work.

    Think about it for a moment, you can thank a mailman because he’s a human being standing on your porch in the rain. But when water is coming out of your faucet, there’s nobody to thank. It’s just "the system".

    That invisibility is exactly why people sometimes get hostile toward the government or big institutions. It's always "us versus them" because there’s no "them" to relate to.

    So our guest for this episode, Brian Whittaker, decided to change by starting a project called Humans of Public Service (HoPS).

    In this episode, we talk about the early days of the project and the weirdly difficult task of getting modest, quiet service design professionals to actually talk about themselves (on camera). He also shares hard won lessons on how he finally got the project to take off.

    It’s an inspiring conversation. It shows how much the vibe changes when you put a human face on a anonymous system.

    So if you’re trying to build empathy inside a big, messy organization, Brian’s blueprint really might just be what you need.

    While you’re listening, try to think of one "boring" story in your own org that deserves a spotlight.

    Enjoy the conversation and keep making a positive impact!

    Be well,

    ~ Marc


    --- [ 1. GUIDE ] ---

    00:00 Welcome to Episode 252

    03:45 Family Roots in Service

    05:00 Current US Service Challenges

    07:30 Private to Public Transition

    10:00 Modernizing Federal Tech

    11:00 Passion of Public Servants

    13:30 The Shift in 2020

    14:15 Humans of Public Service

    15:45 Growing on LinkedIn

    17:00 Amplifying Unheard Voices

    18:15 Shifting the Narrative

    21:30 Bridging the Empathy Gap

    25:45 The Power of Recognition

    32:45 Institutional Design

    38:30- Scaling Human Connection

    44:55 The Future of Service

    51:15 Advice for Change-Makers

    53:30 Final Reflections


    --- [ 2. LINKS ] ---


    --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] ---

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    ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle


    [4. FIND THE SHOW ON]

    23 April 2026, 6:00 am
  • 1 hour 15 minutes
    Why Bad CX is Your Greatest Leverage Point / Journey Management Playbook / S2E01

    How do you get your boss to actually fund journey management? 💰

    We’ve all felt the frustration of making an impressive map that everyone "likes" but nobody actually uses. when that happens, our practice loses credibility. Season 2 of the Journey Management Playbook is here to fix that by focusing on the BUSINESS CASE.

    What we cover in this episode

    • Why journey management is a strategic asset, not a "nice-to-have."
    • how to calculate the actual cost of bad customer experience.
    • shifting the conversation from "fluffy" CX metrics to boardroom metrics.
    • getting stakeholders to embrace a journey-led way of working.

    Martin Palamarz is the chief customer officer at TheyDo. he spends his time helping global organizations scale their CX efforts and understands the language of executive decision-making.

    It’s best to watch the video version on Youtube to see the examples on screen, but you can also find the slide deck in the show notes below.


    --- [ 1. LINKS ] ---


    --- [ 2. GUIDE ] ---

    00:00 Journey Management Playbook S2E01

    02:00 Martin's background

    04:30 Origin story of TheyDo

    06:45 Series overview: CX costs

    08:45 The CX Toolkit

    10:00 Bridging the gap

    13:45 Forrester research findings

    16:30 CX & business performance

    19:30 The Norway story

    23:00 Boardroom metrics

    30:45 The Cost of Bad CX

    38:30 High-value journey steps

    40:30 Drop Off Rate Explained

    42:30 "Nice-to-have" trap

    48:15 Service design & revenue

    50:00 Starting small

    52:15 Mckinsey research

    57:30 AI for customer data

    1:00:00 3-minute executive reports

    1:01:30 Ticket value & variables

    1:08:30 Bad CX VS. CX Investment

    1:12:00 Building momentum

    1:14:00 the final challenge


    --- [ 3. FIND THE SHOW ON ] ---


    16 April 2026, 6:00 am
  • 1 hour 10 minutes
    Why "Being Human" is Your Only Future-Proof Skill / Nav Qirti / Episode #251

    Our brains were not designed for this pace...

    Just think about it. For thousands of years, humans had ages to adapt to new technology. When we discovered fire or the steam engine, we had generations to figure out the implications.

    Today, things are shifting so fast that trying to keep up by just "learning more stuff" feels biologically impossible. At least to me 🤣

    It’s like you’re trying to run 2026 apps on the operating system of a legendary—but limited—Nokia 3310 phone.

    So, for this episode, I sat down with Nav Qirti from the School of Metaskills to talk about why we’re looking at the "skills gap" all wrong.

    Nav argues that we should stop chasing "functional skills" (which have a very short shelf life anyway) and focus on the things technology can't touch: judgment, curiosity, and reasoning.

    We also dive into why you can’t just read a book to get better at empathy or judgment. Nav explains that you need a "proxy environment" to train those muscles. Most professionals I know practice by just following a script, but Nav shows us how to build the mental strength behind the craft.

    This conversation offers an optimistic path forward by focusing on the core human abilities that technology simply cannot replace.

    Which of your "mental muscles" feels a bit weak lately? If you’ve got a moment, leave a comment below and let me know. I’d love to hear what a "workout" would actually look like for you 🙂

    Enjoy the conversation and keep making a positive impact.

    Be well,

    ~ Marc


    --- [ 1. GUIDE ] ---

    00:00 Welcome to Episode 251

    04:00 The Falling Behind Puzzle

    05:30 6Adapting to AI

    08:15 Seeing what matters

    10:15 Obsolete hard skills

    12:30 Outdated learning models

    15:00 The 90/10 Imbalance

    16:45 Bucketing Skills

    17:15 Communication as a base

    19:00 Human survival traits

    21:15 Building capacity

    25:45 Expertise vs. scripts

    29:15 Measuring the wrong things

    37:30 Leadership and meta-skills

    39:45 The shift from "doing" to "leading"

    42:15 Why technical expertise has a ceiling

    45:00 Identifying your personal meta-skill gaps

    48:15 Low-stakes practice

    50:00 Defining Proxy Environments

    51:30 How to practice judgment daily

    55:15 Building empathy without the pressure

    58:15 Anxiety to Control

    59:00 Reframing the AI threat

    1:01:00 Focusing on the human operating system

    1:02:15 Regaining professional confidence

    1:02:30 Closing thoughts


    --- [ 2. LINKS ] ---


    --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] ---

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    ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle


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    9 April 2026, 6:00 am
  • 1 hour 3 minutes
    The Curse of the Competent Service Designers / Chad & Jin / Inside Service Design #11

    What happens when a service design professional does their job well...

    Usually? Absolutely nothing.

    No organizational gears grind. No customers complain. No one panics.

    You did your job, so the disaster simply stayed in your head instead of becoming a reality.

    That’s the curse, though. No one's going to congratulate you for a crisis they didn't have to experience.

    I sat down with Jin Wan and Chad Cheverier for the this episode of Inside Service Design to talk about this "great enabler" trap.

    To make things practical, Jin had a great example about redesigning an onboarding journey. His biggest win wasn't a shiny new interface. It was moving a step in the verification process to the backend so nobody had to intervene manually. It saved the company (and customers) countless hours, but the solution itself is completely unseen.

    Chad mentioned a similar struggle. Looking at his quarterly review and realizing he doesn't have many "shiny" deliverables to show. His best work was aligning teams and coaching PMs to do their jobs better, which doesn't look like a "deliverable".

    So, how do you stay motivated when your best work is invisible and goes unnoticed? And more importantly, how do you sell the value of that work to the people holding the budget?

    We unpack all of that in this episode.

    If you had to make an estimate, how much of the work you do is "invisible"? Send me a quick reply and let me know.

    Be well,

    ~ Marc


    --- [ 1. GUIDE ] ---

    00:00 Welcome to February Round Up

    05:00 Jin's path: From IT and HR to Marketing and CX

    07:30 Chad's path: From photography to in-house design

    10:45 What a CX professional does at a startup

    11:45 Why you should ignore job titles

    14:30 Jin’s digital onboarding in financial services

    18:00 Why service design feels like internal consulting

    24:35 Core competencies missing from design education

    31:15 Navigating the "messy middle" of organizational change

    39:00 Dealing with stakeholders who bake in solutions

    45:30 The power of simplifying complex journey maps

    52:00 Strategies for building internal resilience

    58:45 Advice for aspiring in-house service designers


    --- [ 2. LINKS ] ---


    --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] ---

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    ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle


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    2 April 2026, 6:00 am
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