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In order to design integrated product-service offerings and implement servitization processes, manufacturers need practical and tangible methodologies. Service design has been suggested as a way to facilitate such processes. This paper assesses the results gathered from an experiment of the implementation of service design in six Basque manufacturers already undergoing servitization processes. Data was collected by means of participatory observation and semi-structured interviews. The findings suggest that service design allows manufacturers to go beyond product-oriented mindsets and to design integrated product-service value propositions through focusing on the experience offered to customers. Moreover, it concludes that service design can be applied without needing to fully transition towards services as a core offer. Nonetheless, manufacturers participating in this experiment highlighted the need to consider business competencies in service design in order to properly assess and manage all the change elements inherent to servitization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insurance companies are in the midst of massive disruptive change occurring as a result of new consumption models and technologies. Companies unable to keep up with the rapid pace of change run the risk of disappearing. Service Design has become an essential practice for firms competing in experience-centred sectors. However, Service Design is not only limited to improving customer experience: it has also been proposed as an enabler for strategic and organisational change. This paper presents a case study in which Service Design was applied to foster transformative strategy and processes in an insurance company. The experiment has shown that Service Design can help companies to identify new business opportunities, as well as assisting organisational transformations. The findings in this paper show that by adopting Design-led approaches, firms can achieve faster and more flexible New Service Development processes able to significantly reduce time to market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]