Systems design challenges are the focus of Melanie Bell-Mayeda’s work at IDEO. As a partner and managing director, she has worked in systems design for 20+ years. In this conversation, she shares her approach to mapping complex systems, how to identify the layers of a system in order to spot opportunities for change, and ways to manage bias in systems design.

Now, as the founder and CEO of Milk Stork, the world’s first breast milk shipping solution, Kate is on a mission to prove that breastfeeding and work can coexist. In this episode, she shares her story of how one nightmare travel experience turned into a successful business and the lessons she’s learned about purpose, leadership, and motherhood along the way.

What does it feel like for your customers to interact with your business? Building a customer journey map is the best way to answer that question and build empathy with their experience. Your map can also act as a rallying point for your team or organization, creating a shared vision of the experience you’re all working together to create.

Here is Rochael’s advice for how you can bring more creativity into your role if you work in a functional area like operations or finance.

How do you evolve a customer journey map from a tool that inspires and explains to one that creates action? In this episode of our Creative Confidence Series, hear tips for this and other service design challenges, and learn how IDEO Partner and Managing Director Melanie Bell-Mayeda and her team are evolving the practice of service design with stories from the latest work at IDEO.

Journey mapping is a tool central to service design. It helps you better understand the interactions people have with your company and identify the moments that matter most. But journey maps can also serve another function—they’re an ideal guide for identifying parts of your customer’s journey where partnerships can play a key role.

Chris Waugh, Chief Innovation Officer at Sutter Health, and IDEO U Dean Suzanne Gibbs Howard sat down to discuss how service design can radically and rapidly change the ways healthcare is delivered, making it more personalized and a better experience for patients.

Journey mapping can be daunting. When considering a user journey, we recommend starting with what you know and using this as a spark to help you think creatively about what could be different. Often when designing services we tend to think only about the moment of interaction when the service happens, but it’s important think beyond that moment and consider the entire user experience well before or after the interaction. Here’s an activity to help you get into the mindset of designing for the entire user journey.

In our most recent Creative Confidence Series chat, IDEO managing director and Human-Centered Service Design instructor Melanie Bell-Mayeda and IDEO U’s Coe Leta Stafford shared stories and tips about how to use service design to bring more meaningful experiences to customers and organizations.