Samie Niemelä is co-founder and Creative Director of the Finnish design agency Nordkapp. He will give a keynote speech at NEXT Service Design. We seized the opportunity for a short interview with him:

Why does Service Design matter for digital agencies?

Samie Niemelä: Because it is the future. No, seriously. As our world gets faster and more complex, service design and related strategic design methodologies – such as design thinking – offer tools and proven ways of making sense of the complexity all around us. It’s also important to remember you don’t have to fully subscribe to the dogma— once you understand what strategic design is all about, you can pick your favorite ways of working that fit the task at hand.
Another thing is that ‘top down’-driven design doesn’t work very well in a digital world. In order to design and deliver products and services that have a place in people’s lives, you need to understand people. SD offers a great set of tools to work with the people you’re designing for.

What are the biggest challenges confronted by companies when designing digital services?

Samie Niemelä: The whole business environment companies work in is changing quite fast. The client and service provider face different dilemmas, too. Many companies get this, and understand that making it through the disruption offers huge rewards to those agile and bold enough to embrace the change. Some embrace it less, and end up looking a bit like dinosaurs admiring that pretty bright ball of light in the sky.

In the next year, what will be the key issues in the field of Service Design?

Samie Niemelä: In 2010, design moved up the corporate ladder to boardrooms worldwide. Now it’s time to take the leap of faith and convert old businesses into agile, design-led enterprises ready to the face the challenges of our near future. This will require a lot from designers as well; how to retain the best practices from the old world within the new, more agile ways of making things happen, while avoiding getting lost in the debate as to what is it what we do.

Thank for the interview, Sami!