Cantina is thrilled to announce the addition of Shaun Gummere to spearhead the company’s service design practice, a new, holistic, integrative field that is transforming how organizations deliver effective and desirable services, experiences, and products to their customers.

Gummere brings decades of experience in strategy and design to Cantina, most recently as the Chief Design Officer at Boston-based Story+Structure where he shifted the agency’s thinking to a human-centered design model, applying service design methodology to help clients align their purpose, people, processes and technology to deliver great experiences.

Gummere believes that service design is crucial for all organizations that want to innovate and improve their service strategies, offerings, and overall customer experience. “I think it’s imperative for organizations to incorporate a service design approach. In a recent survey, 70% said the service experience they had was a key consideration in the purchase decision. Some analysts think service will displace price and placement as the most important consideration. It’s understandable: the way people find, understand, and engage with organizations has completely changed in recent years. Service design is essential in today’s economy,” explains Gummere.

I think service design is the next wave towards delivering what your customer wants and needs.

Service design is a collaborative method to innovate or improve services across the entire customer journey. Think of interaction design applied holistically to all aspects of an organization. Service design helps organizations shift from reactive problem solving to the proactive design of intentional change by putting the needs and desires of the people who will benefit from this change at the center of the process.

“I think service design is the next wave towards delivering what your customer wants and needs,” Gummere says of his craft. “It’s a way of bringing to life the promise an organization makes in a holistic way.”

Cantina’s pulse on emerging trends in web development are part of its DNA. Founded in 2007, Cantina witnessed the rapid changes in web development with responsive design and again with the rise of the app store and was able to accelerate clients into this new frontier. By bringing in Shaun to lead service design, Cantina is poised to differentiate itself in the mobile/web consulting space by transitioning to a human-centered design focused organization.

Gummere’s focus will be to incorporate the service design methodology throughout Cantina, bringing points of emphasis on consumer experience throughout the design process.

“Building this practice is important. It takes us in the direction of solving interesting, meaningful problems for our clients and amplifies Cantina’s design and technology expertise already in place,” said Matt Chisholm, Co-Founder and CEO of Cantina.

Gummere believes Boston’s dynamic, knowledge-driven economy is a natural fit for service design. Already we see major industries embracing this change, transforming in the process how they approach customers, their employees, and the delivery of their promises. They realize it’s an ideal way to gain and sustain a competitive advantage.

Building this practice is important. It takes us in the direction of solving interesting, meaningful problems for our clients and amplifies Cantina’s design and technology expertise already in place.

“The three industries that jump out to me are healthcare, finance, and insurance. Each are using service design to better understand their customer’s motivations, whether it’s delivering on patient-care, inspiring adults to save for retirement, or building the relationships necessary for people to engage with a challenging set of offerings,” explained Gummere. “While these appear to be leaders, every field can benefit from service design,” he adds.

Since its founding, Cantina has always valued its passionate focus on fostering great relationships with its partners. Gummere aims to amplify this focus by incorporating service design at every level.

“I’m super excited about moving in this direction. For Cantina, it means changing how the company thinks about itself internally: empowering employees to unlock new opportunities with Cantina’s clients. For the organizations we work with, it promises to advance their business by creating transformative service experiences.”