Company
NYC Service Design Jam
Role
Lead Organizer
Years
2015 & 2016
Bringing Service Design to NYC
In 2015, I took the lead role in organizing an event that I love: the NYC chapter for the Global Service Design Jam. The Jam is an all-volunteer event that provides a weekend for people to come together and practice service design methods. I had participated in the Jam and also volunteered in previous years, and I jumped at the unique opportunity to run the Jam and help build the service design community in New York.
In a meta frame of mind, I applied service design methodology to designing the Jam itself. From follow up interviews with past attendees, I learned that the announcement of the theme for the weekend caused confusion for participants and that a lot of time was lost as teams argued about how to interpret such an abstract catalyst. This was a major pain point for attendees that I eliminated by changing the agenda of the first day to reframe the discussion about the role of the theme. Past Jammers were on hand to explain it is better to think of it as a prompt rather than a constraint, which shifted the context for current jammers.Humor also helped, and when the theme was announced, Jammers were able to laugh instead of scratch their heads.
Leading the Jam also gave me an opportunity to use some skills I acquired in other fields to my advantage. My years working in project management and nonprofit fundraising helped us double the budget from the prior year and keep attendance affordable.I recruited a team of 16 other volunteers to bring the Jam to life. I worked with another IXD from Fjord to design and build the event website and update it to meet users’ needs before during and after the Jam. I reached out to my network to promote theJam-which sold out in a matter of hours. And during the event, I was on hand to lead presentation and facilitate teams.
In the end, the Jam was a fantastic event. And after interviewing and surveying participants and volunteers, I gathered up tons of ideas and notes for how to improve future Jams all over the world.
“Anyone who meets Whitney will understand the affinity she engenders from the positive, fun environment she creates to the witty, gregarious commentary she leads.
Her enthusiasm draws in even the staunchest of skeptics and makes them believe that the hardest, most complex, and most contextual problems can be solved with creativity, empathy, and great design. ”