A service is not a product

Our need to interact with products is brought on by the need for emotional, physical, or psychological fulfillment.

Today, we as consumers, and as a society, are part of the fourth industrial revolution. Consumerism reigns. Products, and the design thereof, are an extension of not only how we do things, but in essence, who we are. The statement then that a service is not a product, might sound a bit controversial.

Being a service designer and technological process engineer at heart, I started out in my career as a multimedia designer, later pivoting to focus my efforts on user experience and interface design. My curiosity soon led me to ponder why we’re creating aesthetically pleasing, efficient, and user-friendly designs in the first place. I needed to understand not only why, what, and for who we need to design, but also how design is made tangible and, how the design of a product or service is orchestrated, implemented, and delivered. To arrive at the answers to these questions, we need to ask how we as humans experience and interpret services and products, how it impacts our decision-making and ultimately influences our state of being.

To substantiate my theory, I think that it is imperative to revisit the very definition and our understanding of what a service is. Secondly, we need to redefine what exactly a product is, and what the differences between the two are. Lastly, but most importantly, I will delve into the human psyche and explain exactly how I arrived at this conclusion and how it should affect our design focus and efforts.

According to Google, our “all-knowing” friend and “single source of truth”, a product is widely defined as something that can be physical, virtual, digital, and (to my dismay), even a service. This it seems, is where I’m going against what everyone believes to be true; that a service is a product, and that the two can’t be differentiated, as they can be the same thing. They may even serve the same purpose of fulfilling a physical or emotional need. Hold your horses! Let’s now look at why a service can’t be a product and why it should be differentiated and focused on as two separate entities and proficiencies.

Using a very basic scenario: Your goal is to hang a large family portrait on the wall.

You get this done by using a product that delivers an intended service. A drill is used to drill a hole. If the drill, being a product, couldn’t deliver the service of making the hole, you would never have been able to hang the portrait. The point is this; if a product can’t, or doesn’t deliver the intended service you need, the product, in itself, is rendered purposeless, useless, even inanimate.

Another example could be your smartphone. We acquire and utilize our mobile phones, a product, for the basic purpose of communication. Applications on the smartphone are used to enlighten and satisfy our emotional needs, and our need for social interaction. With the phone and the applications being the product, our needs are fulfilled through the product, which is the service.

Thus, a product is something that can be a tangible, physical, or digital object. A system, tool, or vessel used to deliver a specific service for a specific purpose. A service is an intangible solution to providing emotional, physical, or psychological fulfillment.

Can we then conclude that there is a difference between the two? A product shouldn’t and couldn’t exist if the intended service is not delivered. Likewise, there would be no service if not for a product able to deliver it. Thus, a product is only as good as the service it provides.

A product can’t be viewed as a service and vice versa.

To further bolster my statement that there is, a difference between a product and a service, I want to delve into and touch on the human psyche. More importantly, however, I want to explain why we should prioritize the design of services above products.

We as humans, no matter our age, are emotional beings. Our decision-making, first and foremost, is dictated by our emotions, and our state of being, supported by our sensory processing, seconded then by logic. Our logical processing incorporates our accumulation of experience and knowledge.

Modern applied psychology dictates that ideas are built upon ideas, and knowledge is built upon knowledge. This valued and widely accepted methodology informs us of the fact that something I might want or need today, might not be what I want or need tomorrow, purely because of the knowledge and experience we accumulate daily.

To put the above into practical context, I would like to share a personal experience or two with you. How, when, why, and what products we choose over others, and subsequently, why the services delivered by these products, and the design thereof, inform and shape our decision-making processes going forward.

Earlier this year with my son’s seventh birthday fast approaching, my wife and I decided to take him shopping for something he wanted for his birthday. In the store, being of the age that he is, he immediately darted towards the “NERF” gun section. Overwhelmed by all the options available, his attention was immediately drawn toward the biggest and most colorful options. I tried in vain to explain to him that bigger and more colorful doesn’t mean better or more fun to shoot. Needless to say, he chose the biggest and most colorful option. Just a week later, his opinion was that he would’ve wanted a smaller version that functioned better and shot faster. “I told you so” came to mind…

In a similar scenario, close friends of mine were due for an upgrade on their mobile phone contracts. My friend, being quite tech-savvy for his age, opted for a phone that, very basically, delivered what he needed from the product. His wife, on the other hand, being less technically informed, opted for a phone that looked better at face value and provided a lot of new savvy features (which my friend and I knew she would never use).

Looking at these two scenarios, one thing becomes clear. There is a distinct difference in the decision-making of a product, and we can break it down into two basic influences or factors:

1. Emotion: The appearance of the product and the added emotional satisfaction it offers, putting aside the service and quality of the service it should or promises to provide.
2. Logic: Putting aesthetics aside, focusing on the experience and knowledge regarding the service and quality of service the product should provide.

Can we then assume that if someone is inexperienced with regards to a specific product supposed to deliver a specific service, most people will base their decision first on the aesthetics and not necessarily the service or quality of service provided by the said product?

Vice versa. People with experience and knowledge about a certain product and the service it provides might base their decision solely on the accumulated knowledge and experience of the product and its intended service. Considering the aesthetics of the product then becomes secondary.

Interestingly enough, this boils down to the Bauhaus movement, which was based on the design principle that form should follow function; form being the tangible product, and function relates to the service provided.

“When you have two coffee shops right next to each other, and each sells the exact same coffee at the exact same price, service design is what makes you walk into one and not the other.” — 31 Volts Service Design

Moving along, let’s now look at how we should focus and prioritize our design efforts between services and products.

What comes first? The chicken or the egg?

In industry, more specifically the fintech industry, there is a common misconception and mispractice relating to the importance of getting products out on the market as quickly as possible, deprioritizing the service and quality of the service provided by that product.

Furthermore, it is a misconception that people’s very first step in their journey with a product is the physical interaction with that tangible product. This is wrong. A person’s very first step in the user journey with a tangible product is initiated by their need for fulfillment, a service to be provided, then only is the decision to interact with a tangible product realized.

The form(product) should follow the function(service), and not the other way around.

This is why we first need to determine whether there is a need for a service to be provided, what emotional, physical, or psychological need is to be fulfilled, why it needs to be fulfilled, and how. Secondly, we focus on the what: What is needed for this service to be provided or delivered? What product would we then need to design, develop, and implement to fulfill and satisfy this specific need?

Therefore the design of the service (service design), should be prioritized, incorporating the design of the product as an inclusive, but secondary priority in the process of delivering successful products to end users.