Go Deeper with Certificate Programs
Human-Centered Service Design is part of a certificate program:
What You'll Learn
Week 1: Introduction
Watch a sneak peek
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Human-Centered Service Design—A sneak peek of the course
3 Video Lessons
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Service Surrounds Us—It’s all service—and we can design it
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Four Qualities of Great Service Organizations—Balanced, intentional, and human-centered moments that matter
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A Mentor Moment with Ilya—Getting started on service projects
1 Assignment
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Project Challenges: We’ve crafted a series of project challenges for you to choose from, all designed to be the right size and scope for this course. You'll practice your selected challenge during the course and later you can bring your learning into your own work.
3 Discussions
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Think of some of your best and worst service moments. What effect they have on you in the moment?
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What can you learn from an organization that you personally believe offers great service? What qualities do they possess?
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What do you think will be difficult about the design process? What do you think will be easier?
Week 2: Expand the Journey
3 Video Lessons
- Understanding the Journey—An introduction to journey maps
- A Mentor Moment with Coe Leta—Gathering insights for your service
- Tips to Pick What Matters—The moments to design
1 Assignment
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Build Your Journey Map: Research your service, gather insights about it, and apply those to create a journey map.
3 Discussions
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In a service you recently experienced, what did the before and after moments look like for you? What were your emotions before and after?
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What tips or stories do you have when it comes to observing, interviewing, or gathering insights?
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Think about a customer service moment that you've had recently. Was there a specific moment that really impacted you? How did the moment make you feel?
Week 3: Make Moments Real
6 Video Lessons
- A Mentor Moment with Melanie—Bringing others in
- Generating New Ideas—Sacrificial concepts
- Generating New Ideas—Extreme prompts
- Generating New Ideas—Constraints
- Make it Tangible—Prototyping and measuring services
- A Mentor Moment with Susan—Prototyping service
1 Assignment
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Prototype Your Service: Prototype a moment of your service, get feedback, and iterate if necessary.
1 Discussion
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What do you find is the hardest part of getting others to participate in service brainstorms and prototypes?
Week 4: Share the Vision
3 Video Lessons
- A Mentor Moment with Melanie and Ilya—Staying the course
- Designing the Visible and Invisible—Creating a blueprint for your service
- Communicating the Vision—Beautiful ways to tell the story
1 Assignment
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From Journey Map to Blueprint: Expand your journey map into a service blueprint by considering the components required to bring your moments to life.
3 Discussions
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Did you receive any feedback during the prototyping phase that helped you move forward or that stymied you?
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How might you involve others into the design process at this stage?
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What are some examples of compelling ways that an organization has communicated a vision to you?
Week 5: Conclusion
2 Video Lessons
- A Mentor Moment with Melanie and Ilya—Parting thoughts
- Stay Flexible—Service is a tool, a prototype, a journey
1 Assignment
- Service Design Project Plan: Synthesize what you've learned and plan your next steps.
2 Discussions
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What is one learning or mindset you're most excited to bring into your daily projects? How do you think it will affect your work?
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What are some ways in which this course has changed your view on Service Design? How will you use your new perspective, or how have you already started using it?
Meet Your Instructors

Ilya Prokopoff
Partner at IDEO & Managing Director of IDEO San Francisco
Ilya launched IDEO’s Organizational Design group to help leaders drive lasting change in their organizations. He has worked with Kaiser Permanente, Mayo Clinic, the Gannett Corporation, and Intercorp. Illya holds a degree in product design from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Melanie Bell-Mayeda
Former Partner and Managing Director, IDEO San Francisco
Melanie helped lead IDEO’s design for change work, guiding organizations and leaders to realize their creative potential and bring value to new and emerging markets. She has worked with the North Face, Citibank, T-Mobile, and more. Melanie holds degrees from Harvard University.
Frequently Asked Questions
Cohort courses run on a set calendar, with fixed start and end dates. Course learning is self-paced within those dates and requires approximately 4-5 hours per week over 5 weeks. Courses consist of videos, activities, assignments, access to course teaching teams, and feedback from a global community of learners.
Cohort courses also provide optional 1-hour video Community Conversations, held weekly by the teaching team. They occur during set times, which are released during the first week of the course, and set to accommodate as many time zones as possible.
All of our courses are fully online and self-paced, so you can take them from any time zone, anywhere in the world.
During 5-week cohort courses, your course teaching team will host scheduled virtual community conversations which are optional. Timing will be announced during the first week of the course and is set to accommodate as many time zones as possible. Don’t worry if you aren’t able to make it, as these are purely optional.
Absolutely! We have had many teams go through our courses together with great success. For those taking our courses as a team, we provide a couple of additional benefits:
1. A Team Learning Guide, developed to provide your team with resources to facilitate offline discussion to complement the in-course experience.
2. A Manage Learners function, which provides visibility into your team's progress within the course.
3. The ability to create a private Learning Circle, which is a closed space for discussion on the learning platform specifically for your team.
For more information, visit our Team Learning page.
You can purchase your course by clicking Enroll on this page. This will take you to our checkout process where we accept various credit cards, PayPal, or Shop Pay.
We also offer installment plans which you can select at checkout if you use the Shop Pay method of payment. Available for U.S. learners at the moment.
Collaborate with a Global Community
Work with Expert Coaches
Our teaching team has extensive applied industry knowledge. They'll help deepen your understanding and application of the course content by facilitating written discussions, live video moments, and assignment feedback.
Expand Your Network
Join virtual live discussion groups for deeper conversation, reflection, and connection led by teaching team members and available multiple times a week across time zones.
Receive Feedback
Gain tips, techniques, and a downloadable feedback guide; and share and receive feedback on assignments from peers.



What Others Are Saying
Human-Centered Service Design
Cohort Course“Thinking differently is simply not natural and teams have such a hard time breaking out of old patterns. The folks at IDEO are best-in-class at inspiring new thinking, coaching through ambiguity, and leading the way in birthing new ideas that make a real difference in people's lives.”
Human-Centered Service Design
Cohort Course“Almost every consumer experience has some element of service design—from navigating an airport to ordering books online. This powerful process fuses design and strategy to help you see the world differently and create new, compelling experiences. And once you learn how to think like a service designer, you have a powerful toolkit that will help you tackle almost any design challenge.”
Human-Centered Service Design
Cohort Course“I know a lot about this content, but the course really helped to push me through a new project I wouldn't have taken on otherwise. I gained confidence from the course and love meeting new people who are also interested in my favorite subject, Service Design!”
Human-Centered Service Design
Cohort Course“The discussions, principles and the journey process is really attractive in my everyday discussions with my organization. I'm focusing more on what matters and happens in the work lives of my staff. I’m helping people journey through that experience to meet their professional goals.“
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Enroll As a Team
The practice and application of design thinking, innovation, and creativity is highly collaborative and team based—which is why we believe that learning is better together. Take a course as a team and develop new skills and mindsets, have deeper discussion during course kickoff and debrief sessions, and build a shared understanding.