Bernhard Schindlholzer

The ability to design innovative services is an important capability for organizations in the 21st century. Although innovation is the fundamental force to create a sustainable business, many organizations, especially mature organizations, struggle to develop innovative services. This paper offers a method for managing service innovation projects in mature organizations. The method is described using the elements of method engineering. Its relevance is evaluated through an exploratory case study at the intersection of business and IT, focusing on a German financial services provider that sought to develop new IT-based service innovations. Information technology plays a major role as an enabler for a broad range of innovative services, and IT organizations are in a unique position to design services in collaboration with business units to address evolving customer requirements. The key finding of this case study is that while processes, methods, and tools are important for managing service innovation projects, socio-technical aspects such as context, environment, team management, and project setup also are essential for the successful design of innovative services. The current literature provides rudimentary guidance in these areas, yet a thorough description of these factors and their integration into a complete method has not yet been documented.

Customers of complex IT-services increasingly demand integrated value bundles that fit their individual needs. At the same time, IT service providers are facing commoditization of their products and need to standardize their portfolios to realize economies of scale. While approaches to coping with the gap between individual customer demand and the economic necessity of standardization have a long standing tradition in mature manufacturing industries, IT-service providers still struggle with translating their standardized portfolio into a form that is understandable and relevant for their customers. This paper proposes a way of describing IT-services that follows the paradigm of a service dominant logic. We therefore transfer service dominant logic to the realm of IT and propose guidelines to create customer oriented service descriptions. An excerpt of a prototype description serves as an example, how the technical, inside view on IT-services can be translated into a customer-oriented outside view.

Design thinking is more than just a new, one-off method of innovation. Its focus is on establishing an innovation-friendly climate in companies and organizations for the long-term. To achieve this, an interdisciplinary team of authors has composed this "recipe book" that can be practically applied to your everyday business life. This book is for all who intend to understand and practice the design thinking method in the most rapid and uncomplicated way. The first part describes in depth what this method is all about. The second part of this comprehensive book offers you a step-by-step guide to practically apply design thinking. The subsequent sample cases show how to put theory into practice. The authors have gained their expertise in design thinking from both academic and scientific theory, and from countless long-term implementations at companies in various industries. So, benefit from this rich knowledge and start becoming innovative today. This book will show you how it's done. Readership: Business owners, lecturers, students and employees interested in design thinking and its implementation.