Stupid Startup Studio – Stupid Studio

How might we support our client in defining and communicating the vision for Stupid Startup Studio, so that he can successfully engage in strategic conversations with stakeholders and launch the business sustainably?

→ WHEN
2021

→ WHERE
Copenhagen, Denmark

→ CLIENT
Stupid Studio

→ TEAM
Marialuisa Dubla, Amalia Robinson, Simona Mancusi

→ MY ROLE
When we started the project I was already part of the Stupid Studio team, so my role was one of mediator between my team and the client. Also, as I have a background in visual communication, I was responsible for visualising the models we developed. Beyond that, the design team was homogeneous in skills and we set our learning goals together at the start of the project, so we all contributed equally throughout. This project was one which pushed me and my team out of our comfort zones, which resulted in a lot of learning about research, facilitation, project management and concept development. 

→ CHALLENGE
This project is the result of my MSc Thesis in Service Systems Design at Aalborg University. The goal of the project was to explore how service design can facilitate strategic conversations, through an empirical case together with the leader of a Danish communication design agency, Stupid Studio. The project case consisted of supporting the client in creating a vision for a startup studio, in order to communicate it to potential stakeholders and launch it sustainably. Therefore it is important to mention that our aim was not to focus on the best concept, but rather to support the client’s thinking through Service Design tools along the way.

When kicking off the collaboration the client had the vision of building, launching and running a Startup Studio within a year – this idea was still in the very initial phases of its maturity. The client needed in fact to clarify the Business Unit’s mission, value proposition, main offerings, stakeholders interactions and engagement, startup development process and the typical journey of the startup – from idea creation to launch. To do so, it was necessary to engage in strategic conversations with possible collaborators and stakeholders to create a strategy for his vision and also to collect necessary information for the research phase. 
After illustrating our Service Design capabilities, we aligned on our main role: supporting him in envisioning a business structure and mapping a value co-creation system, identifying the actors involved and their value exchange. Additionally, we supported the client in shaping and communicating his vision to promote the business by producing materials that make the idea more tangible.

→ CONCEPT
Stupid Startup Studio (SSS) is an Innovation program that regularly develops and launches impactful businesses.
MISSION: SSS welcomes the public to participate in an online community platform in order to shape the startups that the studio develops and launches.
VISION: SSS wants to democratise entrepreneurship by empowering communities to participate in shaping and funding the businesses that address their needs

→ LEARNINGS
In this project we found ourselves working with the intersectionality between Service Design and Strategy. It’s been a useful project to reflect on how our role and capabilities have facilitated a strategic process, therefore we learned that Service Designers can facilitate strategic conversations by:

  • Facilitating Processes: orchestrating activities and providing a structured yet flexible framework that guides the stakeholders involved.

  • Making the unknown known: Through research and people, participation and (or) inclusion, service design enables strategic conversations to include different perspectives, guaranteeing empathetic and informed decisions.

  • Making the intangible tangible: Service design enables stakeholders through maps and models that transform abstract complex thoughts into tangible structured visions. In this way, service designers reduce complexity and facilitate cognitive processes.

About the client relationships, we learned that it’s necessary to:

  • Establish trust: To build a transparent and efficient relationship with a client it is important to clearly communicate to him or her the intentions
    behind each design proposal.
  • Empathise: Designers play the role of therapists through active listening and maieutic questioning, allowing for unspoken words to surface. This
    process benefits the client, as it helps them to put words to their own thoughts and visions.
  • Identify preferred means of communication: service designers need to detect which are the means of communication with which the leader feels
    most comfortable and familiar.
  • Accurately evaluate relationships between stakeholders when engaging in conversations
  • Design tools that are clear, accessible and collaborative – to allow their iteration with timeFinally, we learned how to position ourselves as Service Designers – communicating the value of the process and making sure to deliver outcomes along the way.
    In fact, our role was not to create a defined service or concept, but rather to facilitate the process of a client’s idea and transfer knowledge to him.

→ TOOLS USED
Workshop facilitation, expert interviews, literature review, market research, SWOT analysis, trend research, slide decks, personas, stakeholders map, business model canvas, value system map, motivation matrix, service journey map, low-fi prototyping

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