What do I want to learn? Expectations?
Who would I like to meet/plan to meet?
How to prepare? Questions?
Expectations before SDGC14
I heard the term "service design (SD)" for the first time when Marika told us that we could apply to take part in the SDGC14 with Designing Services students. Since I was not on the Designing Services course, I had to do some googling to get some kind of an idea what SD was.
"The purpose of service design methodologies is to design according to the needs of customers or participants, so that the service is user-friendly, competitive and relevant to the customers. The backbone of this process is to understand the behavior of the customers, their needs and motivations." Wikipedia 2014
I also followed what the students on the Designing Services course were posting on their Facebook group. For example I read about customer journey maps from Petri's post: http://servicedesignbypetri.wordpress.com/2014/09/29/customer-profiles-customer-journey-maps/
My expectations for the conference were:
- to get "hands-on knowledge" about service design
- to get to know to companies working with SD
- to get connections (possibly for internship or thesis)
- meeting new people
I was also looking forward to meeting people who, as Sirpa said, are so excited about something that they volunteer working hours for it just because they love it so much! I thought, "This has to be dope".
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| My expectations-post-it from Arla workshop Sun 5th Oct |
Trip DiarySat Oct 4th
I took a bus with Ada from Porvoo to Helsinki-Vantaa Airport around 4p.m. Our Finnair flight set off at 20:05 and arrived to Arlanda one hour later (20:05 Swedish time).
We took Flygbussarna bus from Arlanda to Stockholm city center. The tickets were really easy and fast to buy from the ticket machines and we could do that while waiting for our luggage! Handy! The bus driver spoke only a little English and he could have been a bit nicer to us..
After arriving to Stockholm's
T-Centralen, we headed to Burger King and ate like kings. I lead us to
the wrong direction for a while when we were trying to find our way to
the hostel but luckily we managed to find back to the right track pretty
easily. We stayed in Best Hostel City's 12 bed mixed dorm. My review of the hostel can be found from TripAdvisor. Sun Oct 5th
We had a short workshop at the Scandic Grand Central hotel at 2p.m. We talked about the conference and what SD is with Sirpa Lassila (HAAGA-HELIA teacher) and Ulla Jones (Consumer Engagement Manager at Arla Oy). We also were asked to write down our expectations for the conference.
After the workshop 8 of us decided to go for a lunch together and managed to find our way to Soft Kök & Bar. The food was good but the service was terrible! Review also on TripAdvisor: "Average food, terrible service!". After the lunch Ada and I went back to our hostel. I had to go to bed since I had started to feel a bit ill during the day. In the evening we went to buy Access Cards for the subway. There was no one in the ticket selling desk at T-Centralen and they didn't tell that on SL website.. Luckily we could buy the cards from SevenEleven. I fell in love with their carrot muffins! :P
Mon Oct 6thWe woke up at 7, had a quick breakfast at the hostel and jumped to the subway which would take us to Telefonplan. From the subway station we walked a couple hundred meters to a building where one of the Hyper Island learning hubs is located. We spent the morning hours with the "Questions and Answers" workshop. "Customers create the new services, service designer just facilitate".
At noon we took a subway back to city center and had a lunch at Pong Asian Restaurant. We took also a quick tour around the old town and bought some souvenirs.
The afternoon we worked in groups. Our task was to plan socially engaging services to Vallastaden,
Linköping. We had started the assignment already at home by observing
the services around us and we continued working with some of the
examples we brought with us. Finally we presented our ideas and got feed
back about them.I was a bit annoyed by the fact that the email which included our Vallastaden assignment, did not say that there was an assignment attached to it.Quite many of us (also some of the Dutch students) started working on the assignment a bit too late and did not understand the assignment properly.
Tue Oct 7th
First actual conference day! We were positively surprised that there was a guide, Mert, standing
in the rain and showing the right way to München Bryggeriet. I got my
name badge, strong coffee and next thing I was looking for was the info
about WiFi access. I hoped the password would've been in the
badge or somewhere else visible but I did not see it anywhere (later I
noticed that it was printed on some of the posters on the wall but since
there was so many people, I couldn't see it earlier). The hosts told
the password to the whole audience, apparently quite many of us had been
asking for the info.. As you can see from the picture, I was not
feeling that well. The flu was really kicking in and it was pretty difficult for me to follow with full attention.
However, I was really happy to hear Mark Levy telling the AirBNB story and it got me interested of the company as a future work place (or internship place, why not). Stan Phelps told about the Purple Goldfish,
"the additional gift", and I realized that I had used this "philosophy"
in my personal work throughout the years. No wonder I got so good
feedback from the customers! :)I had enrolled to a PhD workshop, since it was the only one available, and heard in the morning that I was not even able to take part in it since I was not doing my PhD. I was annoyed: why they did not say this in the SDGC website? Instead of trying to get into a workshop I decided to listen to the talks on the main stage.
Some sentences to remember from Tuesday:
"There are enough white tea cups."
"Fall in love with the problem!"
"Be a cereal entrepreneur."
"Remember the 9 inch marketing."
"There will be fewer alcohol related problems if alcohol is sold only without profit."
"How are you doing?"
"People are NOT rational."
"Make the next 100 days count."
At
one of the coffee breaks, I was coughing so much I got water in my eyes
and felt like a beaten dog. At the same time one of the speakers, Kigge
Mai Hvid, passed me by. She turned back, touched my shoulder and asked
"Is everything okay?". It was a small thing to do but it really made me
smile! :)We had the opportunity to take part in an evening programme at a local bar but I was feeling too ill to go out. We ate dinner with my friend, who is doing her internship in Stockholm, and went to bed early.
Wed Oct 8th
In the morning there were short "well being workshops" to choose from: a juice bar, Nordic walk, yoga, meditation and functional fitness. I chose to go to the meditation because I was still having the flu and being guided by a Tibetan Buddhist monk, Tenzin Shenyen, sounded extremely interesting. After the meditation session I felt relaxed, and to my surprise, motivated instead of tired.
I spent the whole Wednesday listening to the talks on the main stage. Stefan Krook's talk was the one which made me think my life from a "survival perspective": I will drive myself into a pit of suffering unless I do something I am good at and something I enjoy doing.
Sentences to remember from Wednesday:
"Creating a better reality takes courage."
"Do something you're good at."
"Making is thinking."
"Know what you want."
"Humans function by habit, not by decision."
"People normalize their disease to cope."
"Patients don't know what they don't know."
I was extremely tired and hungry after the conference so we decided to find a place to eat somewhere nearby. We found this small Italian restaurant right next to Mariatorget's subway station and I have to say I have never experienced better customer service! TripAdvisor review of FECA Pizza Al Taglio & Pasta Bar.
In the evening I and Ada met her friend at a cafe called Espresso House Konserthus and afterwards packed our stuff ready for the morning. We donated our breakfast tickets to this one girl from the US since we were going to take the Flygbussarna bus to Arlanda Airport before the hostel's breakfast was to be served.
Thu Oct 9th
We woke up early, grabbed our stuff and walked to T-Centralen for our airport bus. We were at Arlanda a bit too early, the terminal was so small that there was not that much to do or see so we decided to just have a breakfast and then take a nap.
The prices in the small cafe Lavazza Espression were so high that they made me angry: a sandwich was 8€! I decided to have just a latte and survive alive to Helsinki with my willpower. When we were making the order and paying, one of the sellers dropped a huge basket of coffee cups on the floor. It was interesting to follow their reactions, I expected to hear some swearing and muttering but no, they were both absolute professionals! Through the whole episode both of them were smiling, laughing and serving us very well. I burst into laugh when Rasmus, the one serving us, gave us our coffees and said "May I present you, two fuck-ups!". And truly, the figures on the milk foam did not look like hearts at all.. I was laughing so hard and Ada gave the boys her remaining kronor as a tip. :)Flight back to Helsinki was the worst flight in my life. I had had a slight pain in my ears because of the flu and during the flight the pain just got worse. I couldn't hear anything, it felt like my ears and my head were going to explode. Tears started to run from my eyes when we started the landing and when the pain just grew and grew, I started to hyperventilate, panic and cry out loud. I was sure my ears were bleeding when we finally landed in Helsinki.
I was exhausted, hungry and feverish so I decided to go straight to bed when we got back to Porvoo. I fell asleep immediately when I finally reached my bed...
My Customer Journey Map: Best Hostel City
