Experience based design at the UK’s National Health Service

Yesterday I was in Lille, France, to speak at a small conference on service design organised by Philippe Picaud, the highly dynamic design director of Oxylane-Decathlon.

Decathlon is an international private sports retailer that many may know, since it is active in fifteen countries. Oxylane is the new group name that captures also all the brands sold in the Decathlon stores, and thereby gathers the entire production chain: from R&D, to design, to production and logistics, to sales.

During her presentation, Jennie Winhall of the UK consultancy Participle casually mentioned that the UK’s National Health Service has now decided to base its entire innovation process on a service design approach.

So I delved into the matter, and found a wealth of information:

Experienced based design (ebd) is an exciting new way of bringing patients and staff together to share the role of improving care and re-designing services. It is being developed by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement as a way of helping frontline NHS teams make the improvements their patients really want.

While leading global companies have used similar approaches for years, the ebd approach is very new for the NHS. Where it has been used in the health service, it is having amazing results – delivering the sort of care pathways that leave patients feeling safer, happier and more valued, and making staff feel more positive, rewarded and empowered.

The October 2008 issue of the NHS “In View” magazine has more background:

Engage Patients in service design – don’t be afraid to ask
In his report, High Quality Care for All, Lord Darzi defines quality in service as: “clinically effective, personal and safe.” Personal is the word that stands out. Darzi is saying that services must be orientated around individuals; services must be fit for everyone’s needs. […]
What is needed is a new way of thinking about services that starts with the individual not the organisation. We call this Service Thinking.

Innovation through co-creation
C K Prahalad, the Paul and Ruth McCracken Distinguished University Professor of Strategy at the Ross School of business at the University of Michigan, is “the most influential living business thinker in the world” according to global guru ranking, the Thinkers 50, published by The Times.
Des Dearlove talked to Prahalad about his latest thinking and how it applies to the NHS and public health.

Innovation Labs – The writing’s on the wall
Using the experiences of the Royal Mail and other organisations, Steve Coomber looks at how the unconventional environment of an innovation lab can generate an atmosphere conducive to creating ideas.

Other resources:
– Master class presentation
– Introductory booklet and DVD
– Guidance and tools book
– Experience questionnaire
– Poster
– Information leaflet