Getting Started 5: Your first conversations

SPONSORED ADSThe Service Design Global Conference 2026 (SDGC26) takes place 28-30 October in Frankfurt RheinMain region - onsite and online. Get 10% off by using 'HCDSDGC10' at checkout*New* Listen to Marc Stickdorn's new podcast https://www.smaply.com/podcast________________________The last episode of the season covers the part that makes conversations work: keeping quiet. Gerry explains how to take notes that keep people's own words, what to do if the conversations aren't happening, and where to go next.In this episode:- Why the best answers come after the silence- Taking notes in their words, not your summary- The one line that turns a chat into research- Making it smaller when life gets busy- What comes next on This is HCDTry this: after your first conversation, reply to any of Gerry's emails with the one thing that surprised you.________________________BRING THIS IS HCD INTO YOUR ORGANISATION→ Train my organisation https://www.thisishcd.com/training→ Video Courses https://www.thisishcd.com/courses→ Coaching Community (Coaching, Courses, WhatsApp) https://www.thisishcd.com/members→ Gerry's consultancy (Service Design and Design Research) https://humana.design/________________________BECOME A DIRECTORY MEMBER (IT'S FREE!) and get all of this→ FREE Introduction to Journey Management course with Marc Stickdorn & Gerry Scullion (Sign up for free with an email)https://www.thisishcd.com/dashboard/learning/introduction-to-journey-management→ Discover & Connect with others https://www.thisishcd.com/directory→ Claim partner discounts https://www.thisishcd.com/partnersGerry wears clothes from Sutsu, and has a coupon code for them, as well as Smaply, Scenario Cards, Unit 1 and more...________________________All episodes have been produced by This is Podcasting. 

SPONSORED ADSThe Service Design Global Conference 2026 (SDGC26) takes place 28-30 October in Frankfurt RheinMain region - onsite and online. Get 10% off by using 'HCDSDGC10' at checkout*New* Listen to Marc Stickdorn's new podcast https://www.smaply.com/podcast________________________You can listen to a hundred episodes about Human Centered Design and it won't land until you've heard a real person describe a service you work on. Gerry's challenge: talk to three people this month.In this episode:- Who to talk to, and who to ask when you can't reach the public- Five questions you can use word for word- Why you ask about the past, not the future- The one question that does most of the workTry this: book one twenty-minute conversation and put it in the diary.________________________BRING THIS IS HCD INTO YOUR ORGANISATION→ Train my organisation https://www.thisishcd.com/training→ Video Courses https://www.thisishcd.com/courses→ Coaching Community (Coaching, Courses, WhatsApp) https://www.thisishcd.com/members→ Gerry's consultancy (Service Design and Design Research) https://humana.design/________________________BECOME A DIRECTORY MEMBER (IT'S FREE!) and get all of this→ FREE Introduction to Journey Management course with Marc Stickdorn & Gerry Scullion (Sign up for free with an email)https://www.thisishcd.com/dashboard/learning/introduction-to-journey-management→ Discover & Connect with others https://www.thisishcd.com/directory→ Claim partner discounts https://www.thisishcd.com/partnersGerry wears clothes from Sutsu, and has a coupon code for them, as well as Smaply, Scenario Cards, Unit 1 and more...________________________All episodes have been produced by This is Podcasting. 

SPONSORED ADSThe Service Design Global Conference 2026 (SDGC26) takes place 28-30 October in Frankfurt RheinMain region - onsite and online. Get 10% off by using 'HCDSDGC10' at checkout*New* Listen to Marc Stickdorn's new podcast https://www.smaply.com/podcast________________________The second half of the ten principles behind Human Centered Design, plus how to read the chart the This is HCD self-check gives you.In this episode:- Share the power- Use what you already have- Treat trust as infrastructure- Make the complex understandable- Keep questioning- Why your self-check chart is a bearing, not a scoreTry this: take the three-minute self-check and look at your two lowest areas.________________________BRING THIS IS HCD INTO YOUR ORGANISATION→ Train my organisation https://www.thisishcd.com/training→ Video Courses https://www.thisishcd.com/courses→ Coaching Community (Coaching, Courses, WhatsApp) https://www.thisishcd.com/members→ Gerry's consultancy (Service Design and Design Research) https://humana.design/________________________BECOME A DIRECTORY MEMBER (IT'S FREE!) and get all of this→ FREE Introduction to Journey Management course with Marc Stickdorn & Gerry Scullion (Sign up for free with an email)https://www.thisishcd.com/dashboard/learning/introduction-to-journey-management→ Discover & Connect with others https://www.thisishcd.com/directory→ Claim partner discounts https://www.thisishcd.com/partnersGerry wears clothes from Sutsu, and has a coupon code for them, as well as Smaply, Scenario Cards, Unit 1 and more...________________________All episodes have been produced by This is Podcasting. 

SPONSORED ADSThe Service Design Global Conference 2026 (SDGC26) takes place 28-30 October in Frankfurt RheinMain region - onsite and online. Get 10% off by using 'HCDSDGC10' at checkout*New* Listen to Marc Stickdorn's new podcast https://www.smaply.com/podcast________________________Ten principles sit underneath Human Centered Design. Think of them as ten habits. Nobody is strong in all ten. In this episode Gerry covers the first five, a minute each, with one small thing to try for every one.In this episode:- Start as a learner- Design with, not for- Design for how people feel- Design the system, not just the thing- Practise, don't just follow a processTry this: pick the principle that jumped out at you and try its exercise this week.________________________BRING THIS IS HCD INTO YOUR ORGANISATION→ Train my organisation https://www.thisishcd.com/training→ Video Courses https://www.thisishcd.com/courses→ Coaching Community (Coaching, Courses, WhatsApp) https://www.thisishcd.com/members→ Gerry's consultancy (Service Design and Design Research) https://humana.design/________________________BECOME A DIRECTORY MEMBER (IT'S FREE!) and get all of this→ FREE Introduction to Journey Management course with Marc Stickdorn & Gerry Scullion (Sign up for free with an email)https://www.thisishcd.com/dashboard/learning/introduction-to-journey-management→ Discover & Connect with others https://www.thisishcd.com/directory→ Claim partner discounts https://www.thisishcd.com/partnersGerry wears clothes from Sutsu, and has a coupon code for them, as well as Smaply, Scenario Cards, Unit 1 and more...________________________All episodes have been produced by This is Podcasting. 

SPONSORED ADSThe Service Design Global Conference 2026 (SDGC26) takes place 28-30 October in Frankfurt RheinMain region - onsite and online. Get 10% off by using 'HCDSDGC10' at checkout*New* Listen to Marc Stickdorn's new podcast https://www.smaply.com/podcast________________________There's no single method for Human Centered Design, but there is a rhythm: understand, make sense, try, learn. Gerry walks through each step and the two that organisations skip most often.In this episode:- The four-step rhythm behind the work- Why you don't need a job title to do it- The cost of skipping straight to building- Why rough, early work gets more honest feedbackTry this: notice one place in your own work where you jump straight to building, and one thing you could show sooner.________________________BRING THIS IS HCD INTO YOUR ORGANISATION→ Train my organisation https://www.thisishcd.com/training→ Video Courses https://www.thisishcd.com/courses→ Coaching Community (Coaching, Courses, WhatsApp) https://www.thisishcd.com/members→ Gerry's consultancy (Service Design and Design Research) https://humana.design/________________________BECOME A DIRECTORY MEMBER (IT'S FREE!) and get all of this→ FREE Introduction to Journey Management course with Marc Stickdorn & Gerry Scullion (Sign up for free with an email)https://www.thisishcd.com/dashboard/learning/introduction-to-journey-management→ Discover & Connect with others https://www.thisishcd.com/directory→ Claim partner discounts https://www.thisishcd.com/partnersGerry wears clothes from Sutsu, and has a coupon code for them, as well as Smaply, Scenario Cards, Unit 1 and more...________________________All episodes have been produced by This is Podcasting. 

SPONSORED ADSThe Service Design Global Conference 2026 (SDGC26) takes place 28-30 October in Frankfurt RheinMain region - onsite and online. Get 10% off by using 'HCDSDGC10' at checkout*New* Listen to Marc Stickdorn's new podcast https://www.smaply.com/podcast________________________What is Human Centered Design, without the jargon? Gerry Scullion, founder of This is HCD, starts this six-part season with a simple picture: a form that's fair on paper but impossible for some people to finish.In this episode:- Who Gerry is and what This is HCD is about- The gap between how a service works on paper and how it works in real life- Why that gap gets lost in organisations- What Human Centered Design is, and what it isn'tTry this: think of one service you work on or use. Who can use it on paper, but not in real life?________________________BRING THIS IS HCD INTO YOUR ORGANISATION→ Train my organisation https://www.thisishcd.com/training→ Video Courses https://www.thisishcd.com/courses→ Coaching Community (Coaching, Courses, WhatsApp) https://www.thisishcd.com/members→ Gerry's consultancy (Service Design and Design Research) https://humana.design/________________________BECOME A DIRECTORY MEMBER (IT'S FREE!) and get all of this→ FREE Introduction to Journey Management course with Marc Stickdorn & Gerry Scullion (Sign up for free with an email)https://www.thisishcd.com/dashboard/learning/introduction-to-journey-management→ Discover & Connect with others https://www.thisishcd.com/directory→ Claim partner discounts https://www.thisishcd.com/partnersGerry wears clothes from Sutsu, and has a coupon code for them, as well as Smaply, Scenario Cards, Unit 1 and more...________________________All episodes have been produced by This is Podcasting. 

SPONSORED ADSThe Service Design Global Conference 2026 (SDGC26) takes place 28-30 October in Frankfurt RheinMain region - onsite and online. Get 10% off by using 'HCDSDGC10' at checkout*New* Listen to Marc Stickdorn's new podcast https://www.smaply.com/podcast________________________Today on the show, I'm delighted to welcome Itziar Pobes, one of the co-founders and main instigators behind the newest service design conference to enter the scene: Service Design Disrupted, in Barcelona this October.Full disclosure before we start. I'm one of the speakers at the event, alongside people like Lou Downe, Manjari Sahu, Simon Goff, and designers from Airbus, Bosch, IKEA, Roche, Frog and the Government of Alberta. So yes, I have skin in the game. But I want you to hear why I said yes so quickly, because this is not a conference production company parachuting into a city. This came from the community in Barcelona, after the conference they had for years came to an end, and a group of practitioners decided they were not going to let it disappear.We also tried something a little bit novel in this episode. We used AI to generate the questions, and then let the conversation run wherever it wanted to go. Itziar tells me at one point that our friend the AI got a question wrong, which was, I think, the best possible outcome.Before we jump in, here are three things to listen out for.First, AI is not the only thing disrupting us, and it might not even be the biggest thing. Itziar makes the point that human-centredness and customer-centricity were the previous hype, and that hype is over. Organisations have moved on, agency models are under real pressure, and a lot of us are now learning what it feels like to work in a field that is no longer the shiny thing in the room. AI is part of the story. It is not the whole story.Second, service design needs its punk moment. Itziar is brilliantly honest about how we lost credibility. We turned up to serious, decades old problems acting as if the world had started yesterday, as if a couple of workshops and a bit of research would sort it. The people in the room with you, the actuaries, the underwriters, the risk engineers, are experts in their own right, and we need to stop behaving like an alien species waiting politely for a brief.Third, nobody is going to answer the big question for you. Itziar refuses to give one definition of what service design should fight for, because she does not think there is one. Are you a cog helping the organisation make money, or a force trying to transform it? Both positions are in the room at this conference on purpose. The work is deciding where you actually stand, and whether the place you stand is one you can make a living in and still feel something for.There is a discount code for Service Design Disrupted in the show notes, and it stacks with whatever pricing is live on the site. Right, let's jump straight in. This is my conversation with Itziar Pobes. Enjoy.https://sddisrupted.com/________________________BRING THIS IS HCD INTO YOUR ORGANISATION→ Train my organisation https://www.thisishcd.com/training→ Video Courses https://www.thisishcd.com/courses→ Coaching Community (Coaching, Courses, WhatsApp) https://www.thisishcd.com/members→ Gerry's consultancy (Service Design and Design Research) https://humana.design/________________________BECOME A DIRECTORY MEMBER (IT'S FREE!) and get all of this→ FREE Introduction to Journey Management course with Marc Stickdorn & Gerry Scullion (Sign up for free with an email)https://www.thisishcd.com/dashboard/learning/introduction-to-journey-management→ Discover & Connect with others https://www.thisishcd.com/directory→ Claim partner discounts https://www.thisishcd.com/partnersGerry wears clothes from Sutsu, and has a coupon code for them, as well as Smaply, Scenario Cards, Unit 1 and more...________________________All episodes have been produced by This is Podcasting. 

SPONSORED ADSThe Service Design Global Conference 2026 (SDGC26) takes place 28-30 October in Frankfurt RheinMain region - onsite and online. Get 10% off by using 'HCDSDGC10' at checkout*New* Listen to Marc Stickdorn's new podcast https://www.smaply.com/podcast________________________The Pied Piper of accessibility: turning good intentions into real change, with Sarah PulisWhen Intopia was founded 10 years ago, accessibility was largely a compliance exercise that leaned on fear more than encouragement. Sarah Pulis has spent her career turning it into something people actually want to do.In this episode of This is HCD, Hyun Song sits down with Sarah, co-founder and director of Intopia, and the force behind communities like A11y Bytes and A11y Camp. They explore why compliance alone never delivers real outcomes, how AI can both proliferate barriers and help remove them, why culture deserves its own place alongside governance and process, and how starting small and building community is often what makes accessibility finally stick.Resources mentioned in this episode:2025 Assistive Technology Survey overview: https://surveys.intopia.digital/assistive-technology-survey-2025-results/2026 Global Accessibility Pulse: https://intopia.digital/global-accessibility-pulse-2026/Figma Make accessibility trial and resources:https://intopia.digital/articles/building-accessibility-into-figma-make-prototypes/https://intopia.digital/articles/testing-accessibility-in-our-figma-make-skill/Intopia's Resources page: https://intopia.digital/resources/Connect with Sarah:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahpulisThis is HCD is hosted by Gerry Scullion. This special series on inclusive design and accessibility is guest hosted by Hyun Song.________________________BRING THIS IS HCD INTO YOUR ORGANISATION→ Train my organisation https://www.thisishcd.com/training→ Video Courses https://www.thisishcd.com/courses→ Coaching Community (Coaching, Courses, WhatsApp) https://www.thisishcd.com/members→ Gerry's consultancy (Service Design and Design Research) https://humana.design/________________________BECOME A DIRECTORY MEMBER (IT'S FREE!) and get all of this→ FREE Introduction to Journey Management course with Marc Stickdorn & Gerry Scullion (Sign up for free with an email)https://www.thisishcd.com/dashboard/learning/introduction-to-journey-management→ Discover & Connect with others https://www.thisishcd.com/directory→ Claim partner discounts https://www.thisishcd.com/partnersGerry wears clothes from Sutsu, and has a coupon code for them, as well as Smaply, Scenario Cards, Unit 1 and more...________________________All episodes have been produced by This is Podcasting. 

SPONSORED ADSThe Service Design Global Conference 2026 (SDGC26) takes place 28-30 October in Frankfurt RheinMain region - onsite and online. Get 10% off by using 'HCDSDGC10' at checkout*New* Listen to Marc Stickdorn's new podcast https://www.smaply.com/podcast________________________Most of our systems are built for the average person. Dr Jutta Treviranus has spent more than forty years showing why that fails everyone else, and how AI can accelerate the gap.In this episode of This is HCD, Hyun Song sits down with Jutta, founder and director of the Inclusive Design Research Centre at OCAD University and chair of the technical committee behind Canada's new accessible AI standard. They explore her Human Starburst model of human difference, why systems built for the average break down at the edges where people with disability sit, and what it takes to design for that difference rather than design it out.Resources mentioned in this episode:Inclusive Design Research Centre (IDRC): https://idrc.ocadu.ca/We Count: https://wecount.inclusivedesign.ca/CAN-ASC-6.2:2025, Accessible and Equitable Artificial Intelligence Systems: https://accessible.canada.ca/standards-and-technical-guides/standards-and-technical-guides-database/can-asc-622025-accessible-and-equitable-artificial-intelligence-systemsThe Inverted Word Cloud demo: https://wecount.inclusivedesign.ca/initiatives/inverted-word-clouds/Connect with Jutta:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juttatreviranus/This is HCD is hosted by Gerry Scullion. This special series on inclusive design and accessibility is guest hosted by Hyun Song.________________________BRING THIS IS HCD INTO YOUR ORGANISATION→ Train my organisation https://www.thisishcd.com/training→ Video Courses https://www.thisishcd.com/courses→ Coaching Community (Coaching, Courses, WhatsApp) https://www.thisishcd.com/members→ Gerry's consultancy (Service Design and Design Research) https://humana.design/________________________BECOME A DIRECTORY MEMBER (IT'S FREE!) and get all of this→ FREE Introduction to Journey Management course with Marc Stickdorn & Gerry Scullion (Sign up for free with an email)https://www.thisishcd.com/dashboard/learning/introduction-to-journey-management→ Discover & Connect with others https://www.thisishcd.com/directory→ Claim partner discounts https://www.thisishcd.com/partnersGerry wears clothes from Sutsu, and has a coupon code for them, as well as Smaply, Scenario Cards, Unit 1 and more...________________________All episodes have been produced by This is Podcasting. 

SPONSORED ADSThe Service Design Global Conference 2026 (SDGC26) takes place 28-30 October in Frankfurt RheinMain region - onsite and online. Get 10% off by using 'HCDSDGC10' at checkout*New* Listen to Marc Stickdorn's new podcast https://www.smaply.com/podcast________________________Gerry sits down with Sarah Stone McDevitt — a self-described "unstructured data" kid from the back of the classroom, now working in SaaS ecosystems and author of The Round Table. Sarah explains how phonetic dyslexia led her to write an entire book by talking into a voice memo, why we've been measuring human value wrong since school, and why relationships compound through the least efficient things we do: sitting with someone's story, sending an article with nothing attached, closing the laptop. Plus: the five signals of relational intelligence, why empathy without accountability isn't kindness, and a competition to win a copy of the book, signed and posted by Gerry himself.Question: Sarah names five 'signals' of relational intelligence in the book. Name one.Email [email protected] with your answer before August 31st to be in with a chance of winning. Winners will be announced via our newsletter. To join, go to thisishcd.com________________________BRING THIS IS HCD INTO YOUR ORGANISATION→ Train my organisation https://www.thisishcd.com/training→ Video Courses https://www.thisishcd.com/courses→ Coaching Community (Coaching, Courses, WhatsApp) https://www.thisishcd.com/members→ Gerry's consultancy (Service Design and Design Research) https://humana.design/________________________BECOME A DIRECTORY MEMBER (IT'S FREE!) and get all of this→ FREE Introduction to Journey Management course with Marc Stickdorn & Gerry Scullion (Sign up for free with an email)https://www.thisishcd.com/dashboard/learning/introduction-to-journey-management→ Discover & Connect with others https://www.thisishcd.com/directory→ Claim partner discounts https://www.thisishcd.com/partnersGerry wears clothes from Sutsu, and has a coupon code for them, as well as Smaply, Scenario Cards, Unit 1 and more...________________________All episodes have been produced by This is Podcasting.