Meet the service designer: Haruo Oba

In this issue’s profile, Touchpoint publisher Prof. Birgit Mager speaks with Haruo Oba, the General Manager of the Sony Corporation Creative Center B2B Design Department. He started introducing service design to Sony in 2010.

Birgit Mager: Oba-San, what is your professional background and what are you doing at Sony?

Haruo Oba: I joined Sony in 1986 as a product designer. The first three years I worked for the Audio Product Design, then I had the chance to go to Cranbrook Academy of Art in Detroit, USA to study design for one year. When I came back to Sony, I was in charge of the VAIO computers and, at the same time, I belonged to the CSL, the Sony Computer Science Laboratory where we carried out many projects in collaboration with scientists. Today I am in charge of the B2B business.

How did you encounter service design?

Through you (laughter …). Actually we have been very interested in SD for a long time, but we could not understand what exactly it is and how it works. I looked at webpages and books, talked to friends, but still we could not really understand it. Then I saw your lecture at Akihabara, Tokyo. It was 2010. So I joined and listened to your presentation and it was so impressive. Then I decided to join the SDN Service Design Conference in Berlin. So we started to understand service design and the process of it. And I started to use it for the B2B category.

Why do you think service design is important for Sony?

Around 2000, most of my work was related to interaction design, but interaction design has already become an integral part of the design process around 2010, so I tried to find something new. I found service design and, at the same time, the world was changing from product to service, and service design is very useful for the B2B category.

The B2B Category at Sony: what type of services do you create?

In the beginning – in 2010 – it was more product-related services, for example security cameras. We made blueprints and stakeholder maps and tried to improve the design of the sales process, the maintenance and many other aspects related to products. Later we used service design in the solution business: for example, large displaysystem integration for stadiums or museum solutions. Or medical operating theatre system integration. The issue in the early days was always the budget. People do not understand what service design is, and so we used our own budget to start service design in the company.

With complex services like medical or high-end cameras for cinema, we can’t be end users, we can’t be a doctor or a cameraman. So we have to go to the site. This is very important. In the life-science sector, we launched a cell-analyser business in 2011. It’s very specialised device: we do not know what the market is like. We are trying to understand how the customer uses the device in the laboratory and how they perceive our device compared to the competitors. But it is very complicated.

Now we are starting service design for the Sony financial services. This is our current program.

So this is a really nice development of service design at Sony. How do other people perceive service design outside the design department?

I think it is getting better. When I started it, nobody knew about it and nobody wanted to spend money on service design. So I had to do it by myself. But now, design thinking and service design are getting more popular year by year. Our environment is getting better.

Do people actively ask you to help them with the design of services or do you have to push?

We push! But they are starting to invest money in it and that is a good point for us, because we have many good results already.

Do you work with external agencies or is it more within Sony Design?

More within Sony Design. We have worked with agencies several times, for example, in the life sciences and in the cinema-camera project.

Do you educate people internally for service design and if so, how?

It is a problem. Since 2010, at least one of my staff has always attended the SDN conferences. That is a very important touchpoint for service design education. Secondly, we use books and other cases that we find on the web.

Or collaborations like the one we just had with KISD (Köln International School for Design) and Chiba University?

Yes, exactly.

How do you see the future for service design in Japan and at Sony?

Service design is now more important than ever. We have to design for experience and value. And the second thing, not only for Sony but for Japan’s ageing population problem, the care sector is so important now. How can we improve it? Service design is the most powerful factor to improve this situation and this is why I am trying to expand this business also. Today, in the student workshop, I could feel the power of service design and I think it was very motivating for us to continue service design in the B2B category!

Super! Thank you very much!

Haruo Oba is the General Manager of the Sony Corporation Creative Center B2B Design Department. Born in 1962, he joined Sony in 1986 after graduating from Chiba University. Haruo Oba designed consumer audio products until 1990, then he joined the Advanced Design group in late 1990 and designed computers and interfaces with the Sony Computer Science Laboratory. In 2009 he became the leader of the B2B design unit for broadcast, motion picture, medical, life science and finance divisions. Haruo Oba has received numerous awards including the Good Design Gold Award for VAIO and interaction design, as well as the Red Dot Award.