Emma Thomas started out as an administrative assistant at the Intellectual Property Office and now heads up their Service Design department. In this interview, Emma reveals how she discovered Service Design and developed her knowledge and skills. 

If you did not start out as a Service Designer, where did you start out? 

I went straight into the workplace instead of completing my A Levels, into an agency job at the UK Passport office. I then secured a permanent job at the government Intellectual Property Office (IPO) in South Wales, where I work today. My first role was as an Administrative Assistant. 

I volunteered to help with the intranet pages for my department, and this led me to a position within IPO’s web team. I worked as website developer and content editor, managing the IPO website and progressing to managing the team. 

How did you first discover Service Design? 

When the new ‘gov.uk’ website came along, we had to transition the IPO website into the new domain. It was then that I began to truly understand user needs and the project world and first came across the concept of service design – and user-centred design. 

Where and how did you begin working as a Service Designer or focusing on Service Design? 

I went for and was offered a job in IPO’s external communication team, however the Director of IT approached me to ask if I would start up a User Experience (UX) team, to make sure IPO was adhering to gov.uk service standards. I decided to take that opportunity and it was while I was in this UX role that I began to focus on service design. I was already thinking ‘end to end’ and the design thinking process followed naturally. 

How have you developed your Service Design skills and knowledge? 

I managed to find courses in the User Experience through the Open University, in my own time. I also took Government Digital Service courses which included UX Design and Service Design in Government. I completed a STEM degree through the Open University two years ago. 

I’m excited about the new service design accreditation and the AssistKD courses leading to the new A4Q qualification. 

Much of my learning has been from doing. As I’ve explained to my team, there is something innate in you that makes you a Service Designer. You can learn the tools and techniques, but you need to have it in you to be able to really think about the customer needs. 

Which Service Design skills are proving to be the most valuable to you? 

We are still educating people about the value of service design and taking the time to do things right. I think the skills connected to managing transformation and getting people ‘on board’ are the most valuable to me right now. 

How is your Service Design career progressing? Any major milestones? 

I’ve been Head of Service Design at IPO for the past three years. I took the position on a trial basis first, my team had to ‘sell’ service design to the organisation. When the position became permanent, that was a significant milestone. 

Where are you now in your career, and how do you feel about it? 

The Service Design team is in a phase where we are educating and promoting – the move to a service design focus is a transformation programme in itself. We are recruiting for new roles in the team, which involves making sure we are bringing in the right people at the right skill level and grading. 

What are you planning to do next? 

I have quite a big team to manage. Once the team is progressing and all the training and development paths are firmly in place then I want to attend more conferences. I want to present on IPO’s service design journey, to give back to the Service Design community… and to educate. 

There is great work going on in the field of Service Design right across government – there’s a huge public design review coming on. I’d like to get involved in the planning and policy side and to champion the Service Designer role and our work at IPO. 

Where do you see yourself in 10 years’ time? 

Who knows? Watch this space! 

What advice would you give to people interested in a career in Service Design?

Investigate it. Speak to people. If anyone wants to speak to me I’d be happy to chat. We had a work experience day at IPO and I spoke to a young lad who was interested in IT, so I showcased service design and content design and interaction design to him. He had no idea that the Service Designer role existed. 

So my advice is to find out all you can about service design, read everything you can about the subject and speak to people who are already working in the field.