This is HCD: Human-Centred Design, UX & Service Design

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Ben Reason co-founded Livework in 2001 with the bold claim that service design was a thing worth building a company around. Twenty-five years later, he is the last original founder standing and still pushing the discipline forward. In this conversation, Ben and Gerry (yes, we know, just like the ice-cream) trace the arc from those early days of helping brands figure out the internet, through to a landmark engagement with the UK Parliament where a service operating model replaced a chaotic, project-driven backlog and delivered transformation two years ahead of schedule.

They explore what it takes for organisations to recognise they deliver services in the first place, how journey management plugs design into operations, and why the current moment feels like punk: stripping away the noise to focus on what actually works. Ben also shares reflections on scale, why mid-sized organisations often get the most from this approach, and what it would look like if governments truly designed the services they provide to citizens.

3 key takeaways
  1. The UK Parliament replaced a broken project-led approach with a service operating model, organising around customer journeys and cutting a five-year transformation down to three.
  2. Before you can sell journey management, an organisation needs to recognise it delivers services in the first place. Skip that step and you are wasting your time.
  3. Service design is countercultural by nature. It cuts across silos and vested interests, and right now the discipline is in its punk moment: stripping back to the grassroots of what actually delivers value.
Links from the episode

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All episodes have been produced by This is Podcasting. 

Creators and Guests

Host
Gerry Scullion
Gerry Scullion is an Irish-born, globally recognised service designer, educator, podcaster, coach, and founder based in Dublin. With 22+ years in design, his career spans roles in interaction design, UX, and leadership positions—most notably as Head of Design at Myspace Australia/NZ and later serving clients like Cochlear, Microsoft, Aer Lingus, and government bodies  . He’s the Founder & CEO of The Human‑Centered Design Network and the voice behind This is HCD, a popular podcast and design community with over one million downloads . A committed educator, he has developed several online courses—spanning UX fundamentals, journey mapping, stakeholder mapping, prototyping, and service blueprints—as well as authoring “Service Design for Executives” on Pluralsight . A passionate keynote speaker at events like UX Scotland and Service Design Days, he shares his insights on resilience in design, ethical frameworks (“do no harm”), and embedding design within tech-led environments . Gerry is also Co‑founder and Director at Humana Design, a Dublin-based agency focusing on design research, consultancy, and enabling design transformation . Beyond design, he’s a coach and mentor to designers worldwide, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a former Councillor for Ireland . In his personal time, Gerry is a musician, barista-in-training, gardener, and family man living by the sea in Clontarf, Dublin

What is This is HCD: Human-Centred Design, UX & Service Design?

Practical conversations about human-centred design, service design, and UX for designers who want to do meaningful work inside real organisations.

Gerry Scullion talks with leading practitioners, design leaders, and strategists about what actually works: building design maturity, getting buy-in from leadership, running better research, improving customer experience, and growing design teams that deliver lasting impact.

With over 1 million downloads worldwide, This is HCD is the go-to podcast for UX designers, service designers, UX researchers, product managers, and anyone working to embed design thinking into how their organisation operates.

Every episode gives you methods, mindsets, and real stories you can put to work straight away. Subscribe to the Design Compass newsletter at thisishcd.com for weekly insights that go deeper.