In this episode of Service Design Principles, Guy and Daniele talk about the critical role of naming in service design. Daniele shares a story from his parents’ experience establishing a church in Switzerland, where an initial naming choice led to confusion. A renaming solved the issue and shaped the church’s identity.

The discussion then moves to project naming. Daniele explains how names can set expectations and influence outcomes. He emphasizes the importance of names that convey vision and values, avoiding generic terms that might mislead stakeholders.

Guy adds his perspective, recounting how different group names at a former job—councils, committees, working groups—helped clarify roles and responsibilities. The talk explores the balance between innovative and standard naming, using a tech company’s choice of a new product term as a case study.

Listeners also hear about a well-known entertainment company’s unique naming conventions for visitors and employees, illustrating how thoughtful naming can shape experiences.

The episode concludes with Daniele’s cautionary tale on the importance of easy-to-spell names, highlighting potential issues with misspellings. Tune in to learn more about the strategic significance of naming in service design.

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00:00 Intro 01:11 Give Everything a Name 05:25 A project name can make or break a project 07:39 Councils, Committee, and Working Groups 10:47 Stop Inventing Silly Names for Standard Stuff 19:28 Don’t Assume That I Know How to Spell Your Company Name 23:20 Some History on “Neolux” 25:24 An Apple by any other Name 30:26 Summary 31:19 Outro 31:51 Credits - Thanks to Castopod.com

AI generated episode summary

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Time - rate us on your preferred podcast platform, write a review, or submit your own service design principles or insights into the SDP in the books.

Talent - Help promote the podcast on social media, produce some incidental music for the show, or suggest a way your talents can help.

Treasure - use a modern podcast app to send us boost-a-grams or streaming value. We’ll recognize all contributions and comments in future episodes. Alternatively, make a traditional donation via Ko-Fi to help us cover our hosting and production costs.

Get a modern podcast app: https://modernpodcastapps.com/

Traditional donation: https://ko-fi.com/neoluxpodcasts https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=KCP8BRUHP3HZS

Daniele Catalanotto is a service design practitioner, the author of the Service Design Principles series of books, and the founder of the Swiss Innovation Academy

Guy Martin has worked with global companies and startups in a wide range of roles, including service delivery, corporate education, and leadership development.

Music by Mikhail Smusev from Pixabay

Thanks to Castopod, a Podcasting 2.0 and ActivityPub enabled host, for their support.

A production of Neolux Consulting

In this episode, Daniele and Guy talk about the Workplace, including the need for rest, practical ideas on how to manage workload and communication channels, and how there are many things everyone can do to make their workplace better, even if they aren’t in a position of authority.

Note: We used a new service to record this episode, and I (Guy) neglected to set up my levels properly, so there are points where my audio is a little distorted. I tried to fix this as much as possible in “post”, but it’s still noticeable. Sorry for this drop in quality - it’s a valuable lesson learned!

Chapters

00:00:00 Workplace

00:00:02 Intro

00:01:15 Employee experience is an essential part of Service Design

00:12:27 Work Can Wait

00:20:57 The benefits of rest

00:26:26 Employees Should Check Their Email Less Often

00:32:58 Put Some Stupid Plants to Make Your Workplace Better

00:34:28 Your Open Space Is Like Hell

00:43:04 Mistakes Are Worthy Only If You Share Them

00:48:21 Create a process of recognizing your colleagues

00:51:50 A brief caveat for those in toxic environments

00:56:17 You Need To Repeat a Behavior for 66 Days to Create a New Habit

01:01:03 Authority does not a leader make

01:06:19 Wrap up

01:07:45 Credits - thanks to Castopod.com

Mentioned

• Leadership is Language - L. David Marquet
• Atomic Habits - James Clear
• Deep Work - Cal Newport

Interested in the book, Service Design Principles 1-100? Check out the special offer just for podcast listeners.

Support us with Value 4 Value

Find out more about “Value 4 Value” here: https://value4value.info/

Time - rate us on your preferred podcast platform, write a review, or submit your own service design principles or insights into the SDP in the books.

Talent - Help promote the podcast on social media, produce some incidental music for the show, or suggest a way your talents can help.

Treasure - use a modern podcast app to send us boost-a-grams or streaming value. We’ll recognize all contributions and comments in future episodes. Alternatively, make a traditional donation via Ko-Fi to help us cover our hosting and production costs.

Get a modern podcast app: https://modernpodcastapps.com/

Traditional donation: https://ko-fi.com/neoluxpodcasts https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=KCP8BRUHP3HZS

Daniele Catalanotto is a service design practitioner, the author of the Service Design Principles series of books, and the founder of the Swiss Innovation Academy

Guy Martin has worked with global companies and startups in a wide range of roles, including service delivery, corporate education, and leadership development.

Music by Mikhail Smusev from Pixabay

Thanks to Castopod, a Podcasting 2.0 and ActivityPub enabled host, for their support.

A production of Neolux Consulting

This episode Daniele and Guy take a look at Technology, and join most of the world to give our take on AI. We espouse the virtues of analog technology (pencil and paper), and look at why some bots are better then humans, and others make us feel betrayed.

Chapters 00:00 Technology 00:02 Intro 00:42 Why do we sometimes struggle to make technology work for us? 02:31 Sometimes, Pen and Paper works best 07:46 Ambivalence about “AI” 15:20 Robots don’t have mirror neurons. 19:26 I prefer bots over fake humans (SDP 33) 22:12 Let me speak with a Human (SDP 34) 26:46 Why can’t I answer this email? (SDP 35) 32:53 The balance between user-friendliness and security. 33:52 IT is your peer with a different perspective. 35:39 Stick with the tools you already have. 39:28 …or maybe not. 44:16 It’s now time for websites that react to the context (SDP 36) 51:31 Outro 52:12 A small request.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Cal Newport - Deep Questions

Interested in the book, Service Design Principles 1-100? Check out the special offer just for podcast listeners.

Support us with Value 4 Value

Find out more about “Value 4 Value” here: https://value4value.info/

Time - rate us on your preferred podcast platform, write a review, or submit your own service design principles or insights into the SDP in the books.

Talent - Help promote the podcast on social media, produce some incidental music for the show, or suggest a way your talents can help.

Treasure - use a modern podcast app to send us boost-a-grams or streaming value. We’ll recognize all contributions and comments in future episodes. Alternatively, make a traditional donation via Ko-Fi to help us cover our hosting and production costs.

Get a modern podcast app: https://modernpodcastapps.com/

Traditional donation: https://ko-fi.com/neoluxpodcasts https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=KCP8BRUHP3HZS

Daniele Catalanotto is a service design practitioner, the author of the Service Design Principles series of books, and the founder of the Swiss Innovation Academy

Guy Martin has worked with global companies and startups in a wide range of roles, including service delivery, corporate education, and leadership development.

Music by Mikhail Smusev from Pixabay

Thanks to Castopod, a Podcasting 2.0 and ActivityPub enabled host, for their support.

A production of Neolux Consulting