Behind the Scenes of Advancing Service Design with Shreya Dhawan & Gustavo Vieira

What do a Brazilian retail strategist and an Indian industrial designer have in common? A passion for transforming complex systems through service design—and a shared mission to push the profession forward. In this episode, Lou welcomes Gustavo Vieira and Shreya Dhawan, two of the curators behind the upcoming Advancing Service Design conference, for a behind-the-scenes look at how service design is evolving—and how they’re helping shape that evolution.
Gustavo shares how his early work in franchising sparked a fascination with aligning brand strategy, operations, and customer experience, eventually leading him to service design as a more holistic lens. Shreya’s journey began with product design in hospitals, where she realized the real challenge wasn’t just designing a better object—it was improving the entire system around it.
Together, they reflect on the emerging trends in the field, including the move toward systems-level thinking, new contexts like journalism and B2B, and the rich global collaboration shaping this year’s conference. The conversation is full of thoughtful insight, heartfelt reflection, and a few unexpected gifts—from Ken Wilber to Picasso.
 

What You'll Learn from this Episode:



• How two service designers from very different backgrounds each found their way into the field


• Why service design thrives in complex, multi‑stakeholder environments like healthcare, franchising, and journalism


• The emerging shift from focusing on “journeys” to understanding entire service ecosystems


• How global collaboration and peer learning are shaping this year's Advancing Service Design conference


• New ways to think about performance in services—beyond KPIs and toward learning, adaptability, and shared meaning


• The value of evolving one’s craft: moving from precision and “doing it right” to embracing abstraction, ambiguity, and creative confidence


 

Quick Reference Guide:
0:12 - Meet Shreya and Gustavo
1:31 - Gustavo’s path into Service Design, which includes retail and franchise
7:30 - Shreya’s path into Service Design, which includes hand sanitizer and medical research
13:09 - Finding the magic of service design in unexpected fields 
17:46 - Check out the Rosenverse
19:11 - Shreya’s perspective on the upcoming conference
23:27 - Gustavo’s perspective on the same conference
25:21 - Hear the smiles
27:28 - Shreya’s and Gustavo’s gifts for listeners
 

Resources and Links from Today's Episode:
Advancing Service Design 2025 - November 19-20 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-service-design/ 
Ken Wilber’s books https://www.amazon.com/stores/Ken-Wilber/author/B0FKHPT8WN?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true&ccs_id=8053455d-fb3f-46a6-bd1d-a7b16cf04b04  
 

Quotes:
“The top of spirituality is service. You’re being spiritual when you’re serving.” 
“We build together and co-create, and the cases evolve through time.”
“ As you go, you become more experienced and work with different contexts, environments, and your practice grows and morphs into something else. Your comfortableness with ambiguity and being able to work with uncertainty and with abstract concepts and not knowing everything, I think you become more and more comfortable with that.”

Видео Behind the Scenes of Advancing Service Design with Shreya Dhawan & Gustavo Vieira канала Rosenfeld Media