10 in 5. Mattias Hagbard, Service Design Lead at Humblebee

10 Questions in 5 Minutes for Mattias

We get a lot of enquiries from job seekers, which we’re very grateful for, and super ‘humbled’ there seems to be so much interest in us. We ❤️ meeting you guys, and try to meet as many applicants as we possibly can!

To give an insight into Humblebee life we’re going around the team asking our staff to answer (approximately) 10 questions.

We’ve been lucky enough to attract outstanding service design, user experience design and business design talent and we’ve started interviewing them. Don’t worry

John Hult… we’ll get to the dev’s very soon!

So without further ado, let’s meet Mattias…

1. Hello Mattias. How the devil are you?
   Very well thanks!
2. Groovy. What do you do here at Humblebee?
   I work as a service designer and lead service design at Humblebee. So both hands-on projects and lots of discussions about processes and how we can keep improving. We have so many talented people with lots of thoughts on how to best create digital products and services which is great. It really pushes us forward.
3. Can you tell us exactly what a Service Designer at Humblebee does?
   We do a lot of the typical things you would expect like user research, service blueprinting and workshopping. But we’re also big believers in a lean mindset and in experimentation so we’re always trying to get things out into the real world as quickly as possible. Some types of questions can’t be answered until it’s in the hands of real users in my experience. That’s why we’re setup the way we are, so that we can take an insight or an idea and quickly build it and learn from it.
4. How come you ended up working with Service Design ?
   I’ve been working in the digital industry for a long time, mainly as UX/Interaction designer and I’ve been drawn more and more towards the strategic side over the years. I really like to dive deep into trying to understand users and complex processes so service design is a great place to be for that.
5. Tell us about one project you’re particularly proud of…
   I’ve done so many fun projects over the years but if I only can mention one it would be Västrafik’s ToGo. It’s fantastic to see how many people use it on a daily basis. It was also one of Västtrafiks first in-house projects which was really challenging and fun.
6. Do you have one good tip for a tool you love, or perhaps a book or resource you highly recommend?
   I’m not that much into tools actually, the tool I use the most is probably Notes. I think the most interesting things happen when you talk to other people, users, clients and colleagues. Now having said that we do use Mural a lot, it’s a collaborative canvas that is great for communication and sharing.
7. What do you do to make sure you continue to grow as an expert within Service Design?
   I read a lot of books and blogs which is a good way to get new ideas. I can really recommend the Remains of the day-newsletter by Eugene Wei, deep dives into all things digital (and more). The absolutely best way to improve though is, in my opinion, to do a lot of different projects. That is why I’m with a digital studio rather than with a product company. For every new industry and user segment you learn about, your skills as a designer multiplies.
8. How will Service Design evolve in the future?
   It will be more and more important :) Ok, but seriously I think that’s the case. We’re still just in the infancy of internet of things, as more and more things get connected the need to orchestrate the experiences will only grow stronger. Another big trend that has been going on for quite some time is that a lot of traditional companies need to add more value to their offering to stay competitive. Digital services is definitely one piece of that puzzle.
9. Do you have any advice for people starting out their career and considering Service Design?
   Get experience any way you can! I know how hard it is to try to build the first portfolio based on school projects. Any experience from real work life-projects really helps you stand out.
10. If you could give a company one piece of advice (from a Service design perspective)… perhaps a recurring error you have seen from your career… what would that be?
    I have a hypothesis that user research is the one of most time effective things you can do. A lot of companies still seem to skip research because it’s seen as an additional cost, or that it will delay the project. My feeling is however that if you were to count all the hours spent in meetings discussing what features should go in to a product you would quickly save the time spent on research and more since the needs and priorities would be much clearer (would be really interesting if someone would do some research on that topic so I could know if my hunch is right). Not to mention that the chance of building something that customers will be willing to pay for will be much higher! Just enough research (done well!) upfront and then start experimenting to continuously learn more and more would be my advice.

Thanks Mattias! Would definitely be interesting to see some data based on that hypothesis you mentioned! Cheers for taking the time to speak to us :)

If you’re interested in working with us at Humblebee then get in touch and we’ll meet up for coffee and a chat.

Contact:
Russell Clark
e. russell.clark@humblebee.se
t. +46 (0)734 359 741
w. humblebee.se