Service Designer

Job Description

This is an early-career role where you’re responsible for collaborating with Senior Service Design Strategists, Research and Evaluation Specialists, City departments, and other stakeholders to deliver equity-centered and impactful work.

As a Service Designer, You’ll:

• Collaborate with senior team members to deliver meaningful service improvement projects.
  • Manage multiple, concurrent deliverable creation processes and workstreams.
  • Navigate ambiguity and challenges with a focus on creative problem-solving, generating solutions, and grace.
• Contribute to the growth of the PHL Service Design Studio and practice areas.
  • Report to and be mentored by a Practice Lead.
  • Collaborate with colleagues to grow the practice areas for long-term sustainability.

In the near-term, you’ll be working with a cross-agency team to deliver projects connected to Executive Order 2-24—ensuring a local government that’s visible, responsive, and effective.

Essential Functions

Design research

Collaborate With Senior Team Members To:

• Plan research goals, data collection methods, and research samples.
• Develop research protocol, data collection tools, and other materials.
• Conduct and facilitate research activities and related processes to collect qualitative data.
• Support synthesis and analysis processes to generate meaningful insights.
• Communicate research findings and opportunities to relevant audiences.

Design strategy

Collaborate With Senior Team Members To:

• • Generate a broad range of solutions and future vision with diverse audiences.
  • Design tools like blueprints, process flows, systems maps, etc. to communicate current state and future opportunities.
  • Develop actionable strategies and recommendations for improvement.
  • Create roadmaps or plans for long- and short-term improvements and initiatives.

Prototyping

Collaborate With Senior Team Members To:

• • Develop low- and high-fidelity prototypes of service concepts and improvements (or collaborate with technical experts to do so).
  • Test prototypes for usability, accessibility, and effectiveness with stakeholders.
  • Iterate on prototypes with feedback from stakeholders and implementation requirements.

Implementation

Collaborate With Senior Team Members To:

• Design or build improvements at scale or collaborate with technical experts to do so.
• Plan and conduct pilot tests in collaboration and with support from SDS evaluators.
• Develop strategies and plans to support the roll out and implementation of new improvements.
• Consult and coach service delivery staff or teams in adapting improvements in response to changing requirements and real time feedback.
• Develop governance plans, accountability strategies, templates, and other documentation to maintain and embed improvements within and beyond the organization.

Deliverable and task management

• • Develop and maintain project plans and timelines specific to your tasks.
  • Support communication of project status to stakeholders, with guidance to ensure clarity and transparency.
  • Navigate challenges with a focus on solutions, developing creative problem-solving skills.
  • Understand and navigate organizational structures to advocate for people-centered service design.

Standards development

• • Contribute to the development and maintenance of SDS’s standards, tools, and other resources.
  • Support SDS colleagues in applying practice area standards to their projects.

Competencies, Knowledge, Skills, And Abilities

• Values-based practice: Demonstrate commitment to equitable process and outcomes, prioritize the voices most impacted by change and service challenges, and practice emotional intelligence and cultural humility.
• Systems thinking: Understand and work across the complexity and interconnectedness of systems, issues, organizational structures, and ways of working.
• Inclusive facilitation: Facilitate meetings, workshops, and conversations that encourage active participation, rebalance power asymmetries, practice cultural humility, and help groups build consensus or make decisions collectively.
• Communication: Practice clear, accessible, and honest articulation of complex ideas and approaches through spoken, written, and visual formats.
• Collaboration: Manage conflicts with sensitivity, give and request thoughtful feedback, and practice emergence towards shared goals and agreements.
• Relationship building: Build a culture of mutual care, deep listening, reflection, and celebration.
• Continuous learning: Engage in ongoing reflection and learning as well as be aware of and adapt to current trends and practices in design, government, and analogous fields of practice.

Qualifications

We recognize that meaningful ideas and strong teams come from diverse experiences and perspectives. If you’re passionate about this work and have lived experience that aligns with our mission, values, and the nature of our work at the City, we encourage you to apply—even if you don’t meet every single requirement.

A Successful Candidate Will Have:

• Educational background: A degree in a design-related field (e.g., service design, interaction design, or user experience) or equivalent professional experience in a related industry.
• Professional experience: At least 3 years of professional experience in service design, including managing deliverable creation and building strong working relationships with colleagues, clients, and stakeholders.
• Service design expertise: Proficiency in applying service design methodologies and tools to analyze, design, and enhance service experiences across various touchpoints.
• Equity-centered design skills: Skills in equity-centered design principles, with a strong ability to advocate for the needs of community members and direct service staff throughout the design process.
• Strategic thinking and implementation: Proficiency in translating research insights into strategic recommendations, developing prototypes, and creating tools to support the implementation and scaling of service improvements.
• Task management: Experience proactively managing timelines and tasks.
• Change management and implementation: Ability to navigate organizational dynamics, overcome barriers to change, and effectively communicate and sustain service improvements within complex environments.
• Research capabilities: Proficiency in conducting qualitative research and synthesizing findings to inform service design strategies.
• Visualization and communication: Proficiency in data visualization and visual design to effectively communicate complex information and service concepts.