This list represents a summary of the past forty years of service design literature. The citations were compiled from the Emergence conference at Carnegie Mellon University as well as the Designing for Services project in the UK, service design syllabi at CMU and independent research. I've included the abstracts and introductions to the papers and cross-referenced examples and concepts so that it's easy to follow the development of ideas such as "service blueprinting" across multiple papers.

Select any underlined term to filter the list, showing only papers that share that particular concept, example, author, journal or decade. If you'd like to help fill in the gaps by suggesting other canonical papers, e-mail the citations to service at howardesign.com. Thanks!

Filter: Papers that mention "Costco" | View all papers
Creating Growth with Services
Sloan Management Review, 2004
Mohanbir Sawhney
From the article: "In a world of commoditized products, companies are turning to service offerings for growth. The key to success involves redefining markets in terms of customer activities and outcomes, not products and services."

Examples: Kodak, Ofoto, Noble House Custom Tailors, Batesville Casket Co., Florists, Bernina Sewing, McAfee, General Motors, OnStar, iFit.com, Costco Wholesale, eBay Inc., Elance Inc., United Parcel Service, Nike, DuPont, Flixrunner.com, Pizza, John Deere and Co., Smith Cogeneration Management, Gevalia Kaffe

Lean Consumption
Harvard Business Review, 2005
James Womack
From the article: "Lean production transformed manufacturing. Now it's time to apply lean thinking to the processes of consumption. By minimizing customers' time and effort and delivering exactly what they want when and where they want it, companies can reap huge benefits. "

Examples: Fujitsu Services, Grupo Fernando Simão, Grocery Stores, Shoe Stores, Nike, Tesco, Wal-mart, Costco

Compare with:
The Lean Service Machine