Workshop description:

Want to take your stakeholder workshop facilitation skills to the next level? Learn the basics of service ecosystem mapping and how it applies to identifying and solving system-level problems. While the increased popularity of service blueprints and customer journey maps is an encouraging sign for the proliferation of service design into the mainstream experience design toolbox, the fact remains that by themselves, they arent always ideal methods when dealing with senior business stakeholders in the context of overall business discovery and strategy. The theory behind systems thinking and an approach to visualize the service ecosystem at a high level should be part of the toolkit of every design strategist.

Learning the basics of facilitating ecosystem mapping exercises goes a long way towards being able to identify the role and influence a company has in its ecosystem, and pinpoint which key parts of that ecosystem should be given strategic priority (and consequently be journey mapped/blueprinted in detail if those journeys are deemed critical). Understanding an organizations ecosystem is not (just) about visualizing and diagramming it. Being able to identify and apply the right lenses to craft a visual representation that tells a compelling story can become a key sense-making tool in your strategic arsenal.

 

What topics will be covered?

Core concepts of systems thinking and how it differs from our traditional ways of representing and understanding complexity. Framing, boundary setting, and its importance in identifying the scope of an ecosystem. The most common types of ecosystems and a methodology for ecosystems mapping.

Throughout the workshop, a combination of presentation, discussion, and individual and group hands on work will be used to tackle an ecosystem of your choice. Participants will work in groups (4-6 per table) towards conceptualizing a service ecosystem map.

 

Workshop outline (full-day):

The following is a high level outline of the workshop contents. The instructor reserves the right to modify the order of the topics based on audience needs.

  • PART I: Theory
    (includes 4 individual exercises)
  • A cautionary tale
  • Complexity: mindset vs scale
  • Framing a scale of design
  • Visual thinking, design thinking, systems thinking and futures thinking
  • Deep dive on systems and systems thinking
  • What is an ecosystem?
  • Visualizing systems
  • Ecosystem mapping methods in design
  • PART II: Practice
    (includes a full ecosystem mapping activity for table groups in 5 exercises)
  • Mapping service ecosystems
  • Conducting system-level research
  • Identifying primary and secondary ecosystem actors
  • Drawing rich pictures of the ecosystem
  • Grouping primary service clusters
  • Adding secondary clusters and setting ecosystem boundaries
  • Identifying and applying ecosystem lenses

 

  • PART III: Conclusions
  • How it all ties together
  • Futher reading
  • Wrap up / Q&A

Who is the ideal audience for the workshop?

The material is best suited for intermediate to senior researchers & designers, product managers, and business leadership looking to add new techniques derived from systems thinking to their method toolbox. The workshop assumes some prior exposure to visual design thinking and a basic understanding of classic service design methods, though neither of those is a prerequisite.

 

Companies previously in attendance

Designers and leaders from the following companies have attended either the full-day, half-day or the in-house version of this workshop.

  • Amazon
  • Netflix
  • McKinsey & Co.
  • Booz Allen
  • Samsung
  • Spotify
  • Shopify
  • NN/g
  • BBC
  • Bloomberg
  • CBC
  • Capital One
  • Moment Factory
  • Quicken Loans
  • Continental
  • USC
  • CXpartners
  • Pivotal Labs
  • Itau Unibanco
  • ANZ Banking Group
  • American Airlines
  • Plangrid
  • Cambia Health
  • NearForm
  • GovTech
  • Google
  • HP
  • Thompson Reuters
  • Comcast
  • Forrester
  • Expedia
  • Liberty Mutual
  • State Farm
  • Vanguard
  • Swisscom
  • Sears
  • WIPRO
  • Ubisoft
  • Snagajob
  • Bottle Rocket
  • CommBank
  • Concrete UX
  • Mobimeo
  • APG Financial Services
  • NSW Gov't
  • Singapore Gov't
  • City of Montreal
  • SEI Systems
  • ATEC
  • Flight Centre
  • Salesforce
  • SAP
  • Fjord
  • IBM Design
  • Indeed
  • Fidelity Investments
  • Home Depot
  • H&R Block
  • Pinterest
  • Schibsted
  • Slalom Consulting
  • Mission Capital
  • Maya BCG
  • Poste intaliane
  • Gitlab
  • Regence
  • UWA
  • Handrail
  • Tink
  • Genetec
  • Macquarie Group
  • Xperienz
  • Miami Dade County
  • University of Sydney
  • and many many more...

 

Contact info

To book this or any other talk or workshop led by Cornelius, you can reach him via email at cornelius AT crnls.io

What people say about the workshop...

"The best (according to feedback from participants) workshop #ixdasyd and #euxsyd has run since we started workshops in 2012."

IxDA Sydney

"Can't commend this highly enough! Best workshop I've ever taken, and now it's the full-day version!"

Jeff Onken (Fjord)

"Shout-out to @Corneliux for his awesome workshop on Mapping Service Ecosystems that inspired this tweet thread!"

Tiffany Taylor (Netflix)

"Great fun mapping ecosystems in a workshop by @Corneliux - an approach to understand services and interdependencies BEFORE being trapped in a specific proposition or user journey."

Johannes Schleith (Thompson Reuters)

"Today's #EuroIA18 #conference #workshop with @Corneliux onMapping Service #Ecosystems was cool. Got some new ideas for my daily work. Thanks!"

Wolfram Nagel (TeamViewer)

"A couple of inspirational days at #euroia18 - particularly the planning session with IA pioneer @Morville and the mapping service ecosystems session with @Corneliux"

Anna Mulvaney (Nationwide)

"Good memories from @uxlx! Thanks @Corneliux for the great and very provocative workshop!"

Renata Tonezzi (Itau Unibanco)

"Amazing workshop on mapping ecosystems by @Corneliux at #uxaustralia #UXA18 Thank you."

Kevin Chan (Independent)

Upcoming public dates

AMSTERDAM, NL

June 05, 2023 (full day)
Mapping Service Ecosystems
presented by UX STRAT Europe
Tickets

SINGAPORE, SG

February 22, 2023 (full day)
Mapping Service Ecosystems
presented by IxDA SG
Tickets

WELLINGTON, NZ

February 16, 2023 (full day)
Mapping Service Ecosystems
presented by UXNZ
Tickets

Instructor Bio: Cornelius Rachieru

Cornelius Rachieru is the Founder and Managing Director of Canadian strategic UX consultancy Ampli2de Inc., where he explores his fascination with the politics of design while leading service and system-scale enterprise experience design projects. Over the past 20 years, he has managed a number of large UX teams as UX practice leader at Deloitte Canada and Shaw Communications, and has consulted in a wide range of industries, from technology to financial services, healthcare, enterprise risk management, autonomous transportation, intellectual property and law.

Cornelius is also the Founder, Co-chair and Creative Director of the popular CanUX conference, Canada's largest and longest running annual UX event. A self proclaimed night owl (he is originally from Transylvania), he loves red eye flights and is a nomad at heart.

Press photo (JPG, 234KB)