Service Co-Design in the Finnish Municipal Sector – Case: Early Education Services
Pessa, Johanna; Nousiainen, Tiina (2012)
Laurea-ammattikorkeakoulu
2012
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201202152202
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201202152202
Tiivistelmä
The primary purpose of this thesis was to research how customers could be involved in the co-design of municipal services in Finland and to discover what kinds of best practices or processes have been established for this type of activity. The objective was to form a process model for co-designing services in the municipal sector, a model which would not be tied to the content.
In 2010, the city of Lohja initiated a project with the aim of developing the city´s service processes and incorporating customer involvement into these processes, encouraging the city organisation’s customers to improve, create and design the services offered by the city, so that they would better match the customers’ needs. One concrete area of focus of the project was the early education services unit, in which the objective was to set up workshops with customers in order to generate ideas, hear directly from the customers how they experience the services, how the services could be improved and find ways to involve the customers more in the service development. The same type of customer involvement and co-design has also taken place in other cities in Finland mainly through different types of piloting projects.
The theory in the thesis is drawn from the subjects of service-dominant (S-D) logic, service co-design, customer involvement, service design and organisational change management. The data was gathered in multiple ways. Workshops for city employees and customers were arranged, and four benchmark cases around Finland were studied in order to gain insight into the status of service co-design in other areas around Finland. The research was complemented by expert and customer interviews and observations. Numerous books, articles, websites and newspapers were also consulted.
Customer involvement and service co-design have become a key aspect of municipal strategy on a national level in Finland. It has clearly been noted that there is a need to involve customers in the design and development of services in the public sector. Service design methods and tools can provide new and innovative solutions to meet this goal.
Based on the outcomes of the research a formed process model was developed and is presented in this thesis. The model was designed so that it can be applied in other service co-design contexts, both in public and private sectors.
In 2010, the city of Lohja initiated a project with the aim of developing the city´s service processes and incorporating customer involvement into these processes, encouraging the city organisation’s customers to improve, create and design the services offered by the city, so that they would better match the customers’ needs. One concrete area of focus of the project was the early education services unit, in which the objective was to set up workshops with customers in order to generate ideas, hear directly from the customers how they experience the services, how the services could be improved and find ways to involve the customers more in the service development. The same type of customer involvement and co-design has also taken place in other cities in Finland mainly through different types of piloting projects.
The theory in the thesis is drawn from the subjects of service-dominant (S-D) logic, service co-design, customer involvement, service design and organisational change management. The data was gathered in multiple ways. Workshops for city employees and customers were arranged, and four benchmark cases around Finland were studied in order to gain insight into the status of service co-design in other areas around Finland. The research was complemented by expert and customer interviews and observations. Numerous books, articles, websites and newspapers were also consulted.
Customer involvement and service co-design have become a key aspect of municipal strategy on a national level in Finland. It has clearly been noted that there is a need to involve customers in the design and development of services in the public sector. Service design methods and tools can provide new and innovative solutions to meet this goal.
Based on the outcomes of the research a formed process model was developed and is presented in this thesis. The model was designed so that it can be applied in other service co-design contexts, both in public and private sectors.