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 ] ---

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/bwhtt/

--- [ 3. CIRCLE ] ---

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

⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle

[4. FIND THE SHOW ON]

• Youtube ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/252-youtube
• Spotify ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/252-spotify
• Apple ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/252-apple
• Snipd ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/252-snipd

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 ] ---

• Playbook Slides
• CX Cost Calculator
• The Journey Management Playbook

--- [ 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 ] ---

• Youtube ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/journey-management-playbook-09-youtube
• Spotify ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/journey-management-playbook-09-spotify
• Apple ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/journey-management-playbook-09-apple
• Snipd ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/journey-management-playbook-09-snipd

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 ] ---

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/navqirti/
• www.navqirti.com
• www.metaskills.global
• Skills to make us future ready & future relevant

--- [ 3. CIRCLE ] ---

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

⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle

[4. FIND THE SHOW ON]

• Youtube ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/251-youtube
• Spotify ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/251-spotify
• Apple ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/251-apple
• Snipd ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/251-snipd