**See full reading schedule below** 60 minute d...

Improv for Service Design prototyping 4077 April 17th  9:00AM PDT; 12:00PM EDT; 17:00PM BST (London); 18:00PM CET 22:30 PM IST 60 minutes >>Registration required + Pre-session material review required NEW Format: Flipped Masterclass (20 minutes of pre-session prep and 1 hour discussion and hands-on activities)

• Non-member: $99 [wlm_stripe_btn sku=payperpost-4064 button_label="Buy Now" pay_button_label="Buy Now" coupon="1"]
• Inner Circle: Included in your $99 a month Inner Circle membership (50% discount available) for all events plus Digital Library 250+ videos, mentoring, hands-on workshops and more...

Related Intensive on Maven: Service Design Intensive & Certification- Design for End-to-End Services course on Maven

Improv for Service Design prototyping

Services are not screens. They are conversations, behaviors, and moments in time...

Yet most teams prototype with static maps and slides. This course flips that. In this Flipped Masterclass, (review videos and a toolkit before the session, practice live in the class) you will act out your service, not just describe it. You will see where it breaks, where trust drops, and where users struggle. Then fix it live.

You will learn how to use improv to prototype real service interactions. No acting experience needed! We use simple rules and structured exercises. You will run “freeze and fix” scenes, test tone and language, and simulate full journeys with users, staff, and systems. This surfaces invisible problems. The result? Teams align more quickly. Decisions become grounded in real behaviour.

By the end of this masterclass, you will have a repeatable method. You can run improv sessions with stakeholders, test edge cases, and improve services under pressure. You will leave with scripts, prompts, and checklists you can use immediately. This is for service designers, UX leaders, and teams working on complex, human-centred services.

What you'll learn

In this Improv for Service Design prototyping with Service Design leader, Frank Spillers, you will learn how to: • Run improv-based service prototyping sessions
• Turn journeys into live, testable scenes
• Spot failure demand in real time
• Improve tone, language, and behaviour
• Prototype edge cases and stress scenarios
• Facilitate safely with non-actors
• Capture insights into blueprints and maps Why this matters:  Many service failures happen during real interactions. Without acting out interactions, you might miss an obvious issue or gain insights you may have missed on screen. Improvisation is what "paper prototyping" is to digital user testing, just in 3D with role-play techniques.

More topics we will cover in this Masterclass:

• Improv basics for non-actors
• “Yes, and” in service interactions
• Freeze and fix technique
• Live service walkthroughs
• Role-based prototyping (user, staff, system)
• Designing for stress cases first
• Tone and behaviour design
• Capturing insights into service artefacts
• Running sessions with stakeholders
• Scaling improv into team practice

About Flipped MasterClasses:

These monthly meet-ups are topic-driven live events featuring an informal presentation by Frank Spillers, along with group activities and discussions. Monthly MasterClasses are included with your paid membership (starting at $ 49 USD per month). They offer a deep dive into important UX topics, drawing on process best practices and case studies from Frank’s 2.5 decades in the field.

Masterclasses are now flipped: A flipped classroom model shifts learning out of the session and into prep. You'll review short videos or materials before the masterclass. The live session then focuses on practice: discussion, application, and problem-solving. More doing, less listening.

Starting in January 2026, all masterclasses will move to this flipped format so we can use live time for deeper skills, better collaboration, and faster progress.

Redesign Google Maps with AI Real-Time Prototyp...

Designing Peak Moments in Services (Flipped Masterclass) 4064 FEB 27th  9:00AM PST; 12:00PM EST; 17:00PM GMT (London); 18:00PM CET 22:30 PM IST 60 minutes >>Registration required + Pre-session material review required NEW Format: Flipped Masterclass (20 minutes of pre-session prep and 1 hour discussion and hands-on activities)

• Non-member: $99 [wlm_stripe_btn sku=payperpost-4064 button_label="Buy Now" pay_button_label="Buy Now" coupon="1"]
• Open Circle: FREE (Get it FREE>> Join Open Circle)
• Inner Circle: Included in your $99 a month Inner Circle membership (50% discount available) for all events plus Digital Library 250+ videos, mentoring, hands-on workshops and more...

Maven alumni Discount: Cost $5 if you took or are taking my Service Design Intensive & Certification- Design for End-to-End Services course on Maven

If waiting during a service bothers you...

A common moment we ignore is waiting. In Don Norman's book Living with Complexity, he has a chapter titled "The Design of Waits." He almost titled that book Designing for Waiting. A classic and very apparent example of managing the waiting moment in a service is the pager. One of the first restaurants to put this to use was Olive Garden (in the 1990s). When you arrived, they seated you in the lobby, gave you a beeping pager and asked for your drinks order (starting a tab that often exceeded the cost of the meal). Genius moment design: fills the time, makes it fun to wait, and managed time expectations...all while you're buying more wine than you might have ordered at your table.

Why moments are the key to memorable product-service experiences in Service Design

First, Moments exist within Stages of a Journey. For example, going to the restaurant…Waiting to be seated, Ordering food and drinks etc. Touchpoints happen within those moments. For example, where to park, where to indicate “We’re here”, getting a menu, and asking a question about an allergy. Touchpoints need to be smooth, thought out and carefully executed. Next, a customer might not remember a touchpoint, but they do remember a Moment. This is why moment design is so critical to address. In this Flipped Masterclass, Frank Spillers will guide you through a clearer understanding of how to design Moments that accommodate better journeys and more strategic touchpoint design.

Learn Service Design techniques…

In this Flipped Masterclass (20 minutes of pre-session prep and 1 hour of discussion and hands-on activities), we dive into a core Service Design area implicated in the infamous Moment of Truth, or “MOT”. The MOT is where customers love or hate your brand experience. Why is this significant? Because NPS (Net Promoter Score), emotional reflection (intent to use, intent to purchase), word of mouth and customer satisfaction are all attributed to what happens in Moments. So, moments are critical to architect for services and product-service experiences.

Who came up with this? Attributed to the early 90s work of Angus Jenkinson, moments are sacred in CX/UX work because they represent intense hotbeds of emotion. In Emotion Design you want to support, shape or get out of the way of customer emotions. While Jenkinson attributes the concept of the “Moment of Truth” to his industry clients, he probably thought more about this than anyone, making him an early Service Design contributor. He also promoted personas and created the idea of touchpoints, which is a key design target in Service Design.

What you'll learn

• Design moments customers actually remember. Learn how to identify and design for peak moments in services.
• Design emotional states, not just 'informative' touchpoints. Learn to design for emotional states that adapt to change. Moment design requires careful consideration of key events before, during, and after journeys.
• Apply peak moments to real service work.  Moments of Truth are the measurable impact of a well-designed moment.

Why this matters: Deliberately designing moments and their touchpoints is 'the difference that makes a difference' in service design. Moment design is how you do on-the-ground orchestration of your service that sustains emotion (moments of truth). They shape the stages of your journey for good or bad. This shapes how satisfying, loyal, recommendable, and memorable a service feels.

More topics we will cover in this Masterclass:

• How to inoculate against bad Moments with good moment design
• How Moments impact Customer Journeys, Personas and Touchpoint design
• Designing Moments to perfectly fit Touchpoints (customer interactions)
• Fixing broken, missing or mis-calibrated Moments
• Orchestrating MOTs on your Service Blueprint
• Introducing AI in your moment design strategy

About Flipped MasterClasses:

These monthly meet-ups are topic-driven live events featuring an informal presentation by Frank Spillers, along with group activities and discussions. Monthly MasterClasses are included with your paid membership (starting at $ 49 USD per month). They offer a deep dive into important UX topics, drawing on process best practices and case studies from Frank’s 2.5 decades in the field.

Masterclasses are now flipped: A flipped classroom model shifts learning out of the session and into prep. You'll review short videos or materials before the masterclass. The live session then focuses on practice: discussion, application, and problem-solving. More doing, less listening.

Starting in January 2026, all masterclasses will move to this flipped format so we can use live time for deeper skills, better collaboration, and faster progress.

60 minnutes Designing from Values, Driving with...

Inclusive AI- part 2 4000 47 minutes- In this session part 2, we trialed a new format (the Flipped Masterclass). Based on the feedback, this will become default in 2026 going forward! More fun to learn (more fun to facilitate), more applied learning and reflection. See Part 1 here... Two primer videos for this session:

VIDEO 1 (11 min)

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/9qc232zenfbcmct57a649/Inclusive-AI-Flipped-part-1.mp4?rlkey=k1j17717hec94vlyp6ursc1a8&dl=0

VIDEO 2  (17 min)

 https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/e2ug3acoeyzqf0ldr81d9/Inclusive-AI-Flipped-part-2.mp4?rlkey=7wmu53rzp4jbexicws2cje801&dl=0

 

part 2: Inclusive AI Masterclass_Flipped

From recruitment tools to chatbots and city services, AI is shaping decisions that affect people’s lives. When built without care, these systems can exclude, harm, or misrepresent. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

If you’re building AI-powered products or services—this masterclass is for you.

AI can reflect bias, or it can challenge it. This masterclass is for teams building AI-powered products and services who want to do better. You’ll learn practical methods to design for inclusion from the start, avoid harm, and challenge biased systems. Through real-world examples, discussion, and guided activities, we’ll unpack what it means to build inclusive, human-centered AI (HCAI). This session is hands-on, collaborative, and focused on skills you can apply right away—across teams, tools, and workflows.

Topics We’ll Cover in this Inclusive AI Masterclass

• What Inclusive AI means: definitions, tensions, and opportunities
• Bias in AI: where it comes from and how it shows up
• Inclusive data practices (collection, labelling, and audit points)
• Ethical frameworks vs. lived experience insights
• Designing for edge cases and “extreme” users
• Inclusion prompts for model training and prompt engineering
• Techniques to co-design with underrepresented groups

About Monthly MasterClasses:

These monthly meet-ups are topic-driven live events with an informal presentation by Frank Spillers and group activities and discussions. Monthly MasterClasses are included as part of your membership. They allow a deep dive into important UX topics, with insights drawn from process best practices and case studies from Frank’s two decades in the field. How to access this masterclass...

• Open Circle: FREE (Get it FREE>> Join Open Circle)
• Inner Circle: Included in your $99 a month Inner Circle membership (50% discount available) for all events plus Digital Library 250+ videos, mentoring, hands-on workshops and more...

Dec 9th (Open House FREE 30 min) 12PM-2PM ET/ 5...

Session 1: DEC 17th 9:00AM PST; 12:00PM EST; 17...

60 minutes Designing from Values, Driving with ...

Designing With, Not For: Participatory Techniques in Action 3979 NOV 20th  9:00AM PST; 12:00PM EST; 17:00PM GMT (London); 18:00PM CET 22:30 PM IST 60 minutes

• Non-member: $99 [wlm_stripe_btn sku=payperpost-3917 button_label="Buy Now" pay_button_label="Buy Now" coupon="1"]
• Open Circle: FREE (Get it FREE>> Join Open Circle)
• Inner Circle: Included in your $99 a month Inner Circle membership (50% discount available) for all events plus Digital Library 250+ videos, mentoring, hands-on workshops and more...

Masterclass-Designing With, Not For: Participatory Techniques in Action

If you hold power (like designers and devs) you can make mistakes. This shows up as assumption, bias or being exposed to unintended consequences. Power can limit our perspective.

Designers hold a subtle kind of power: every screen, journey map, or AI prompt embeds assumptions about who matters and who doesn’t. When left unchecked, those assumptions harden into bias, oversight, or harm.

Traditional UX has give us extractive approaches to dealing with our problem children: users.

UX research focuses on capturing, engaging, or gathering from users rather than working with them. This mindset produces distance: researchers extract; users stay disconnected from decisions- they are made behind the curtain.

Yes, this is the norm and we’re moving too fast to get relational with users. But in the age of AI, that gap is no longer safe. Systems learn from our choices, and when those choices are made in isolation, they scale our blind spots faster than ever.

Enter: Participatory Methods for Research, Design and Co-Production

Designing with, not for, means shifting from extraction to relationship. It asks us to share power across time, not just collect feedback once. It means creating safe spaces for lived experience, co-analyzing findings, and co-deciding directions. It involves learning with users, not over them—and bringing our organizations along so the learning becomes collective. In practice, that looks like multi-session collaboration, consent-based decisions, and participatory AI approaches where communities shape how systems behave. This is relational, trauma-informed design. It’s more deliberate about ‘quick’. It’s inclusive and accountable, but it’s also about releasing our power, and thereby making better design decisions. Participatory approaches are the kind of UX the AI era demands.

In this Masterclass, Frank will immerse you in the latest in a range of practiacal ways to weave in participatory methods for your UX and Service Design process. This includes codesign and coproduction. Join Frank as he shares field-tested methods and learn why it took him so many years to adopt these methods.

Agenda: Designing With, Not For: Participatory Techniques in Action

1) What’s absent in UX Research, Design and Delivery? Beyond Empathy toward Lived Expereince 2) Co-production over consultation. Share power from discovery to delivery. 3) Participatory mindset shifts: Bringing your organization along 4) Participatory AI: Building saftey, inclusion and ethics into AI projects 5) Q&A

About Monthly MasterClasses:

These monthly meet-ups are topic-driven live events with an informal presentation by Frank Spillers and group activities and discussions. Monthly MasterClasses are included as part of your membership. They allow a deep dive into important UX topics, with insights drawn from process best practices and case studies from Frank’s 25 years in the field. How to access this masterclass...

• Open Circle: FREE (Get it FREE>> Join Open Circle)
• Inner Circle: Included in your $99 a month Inner Circle membership (50% discount available) for all events plus Digital Library 250+ videos, mentoring, hands-on workshops and more...

From North Stars to Guardrails: vision to values 3973 84 minutes

Vision and Values Masterclass: From North Stars to Guardrails

Values shape our behaviors. Vision aligns our direction. Yet too often, teams treat both as background noise— implied in roadmaps, buried in backlogs, or lost in delivery. Values are an issue of ‘alignment’ in AI. See: See Why Agentic AI needs user values 

We can no longer rely on values being implied. They need to be designed. Especially when designing for Inclusive AI.

In AI, drift shows up as bias or hallucination. In organizations, it shows up as cynicism, burnout, or “just following the process.” In both cases, it happens when nobody is checking alignment anymore.

“Drift” is an LLM behavior, where the language model erodes or ‘goes off-script’ over time. It’s important to design for it. Likewise, when values aren’t operational, they drift. And when they drift, culture follows. A poster on the wall doesn’t help you in a tough call. “Integrity” means nothing if it’s not part of your decision flow. Culture erodes when values aren’t in the room for trade-offs.

In this Masterclass, Frank Spillers will provide tested methods for bringing back values into AI design conversations (guardrails, drift) and to your team. He’ll connect vision (roadmaps) to values (principles) and share strategies for preventing cultural and AI drift while designing ethical and inclusive guardrails.

Why this matters:

AI is accelerating every decision, every interaction. Without grounded values, we risk automating bias, scaling harm, or following whoever shouts loudest—whether that’s a populist politician or a billionaire troll.

If you don’t design values into the work, you’re designing drift into your culture.
And in an AI-driven world, drift means bad experiences and compromised product development.

Join Frank to explore how to operationalise your organisation’s values, build meaningful guardrails, and design against drift. Because vision without values is chaos—and values without vision go nowhere.

Agenda: From North Stars to Guardrails: vision to values

1) Principles: How to operationalize your values at the design level 2) Guardrails: Defining guardrails for your design, AI strategy and your culture 3) Drift: Avoiding drift in LLM design and in your culture 4) Q&A

About Monthly MasterClasses:

These monthly meet-ups are topic-driven live events with an informal presentation by Frank Spillers and group activities and discussions. Monthly MasterClasses are included as part of your membership. They allow a deep dive into important UX topics, with insights drawn from process best practices and case studies from Frank’s 25 years in the field. How to access this masterclass...

• Open Circle: FREE (Get it FREE>> Join Open Circle)
• Inner Circle: Included in your $99 a month Inner Circle membership (50% discount available) for all events plus Digital Library 250+ videos, mentoring, hands-on workshops and more...

35 min Visiontyping- Prototyping Future Scenari...