ESD19
The State of Service Design in Mexico is an annual report dedicated to capturing the country’s situation around the practice of service design with the objective of studying and measuring its growth.
In this second edition, the study was focalized to obtain more detail on the same topics of last year, while also adding new topics. The first survey was open to all types of designers who were familiar with service design, from enthusiasts to professionals. For 2019, only to those who studied it or did it professionally were invited to respond. The result of this refinement is that fewer responses were obtained compared to last year, but had a cleaner and specialized sample.
This year we can observe a discipline with little growth, but certainly going through a formalization phase. It is notorious that large corporations are the pioneers in starting to formalize their service design teams, surpassing agencies. The need for these companies to fill senior and leadership positions poses interesting challenges for young designers who must demonstrate the value of service design in these organizations. This creates new opportunities for those who are entering the practice, but it will be necessary to observe with caution since corporations are not always prepared to continue training these new profiles.
This 2019 was undoubtedly an interesting year for the practice of service design in Mexico, for us it meant graduating the 6th Generation of students from the Immersion Program, and doing the first service design conference in the country.
Find out the results of the survey below on the interactive site and download the report to get more insights.
As an improvement to the 2018 survey, the In-House Professional was segmented to differentiate those in Corporate with those from Startup.
Service Designers in Mexico are mainly working for large corporations, followed by agencies and as freelance consultants.
There is a rise in the number of designers that are entering service design, and are considered as such since 2 years or less.
This growth of new designers entering the practice is taking a healthy annual rhythm, which provides a lot of potential to the practice to continue growing and feeding new positions.
This question was also refined to differentiate the type of education received, to inquire whether service designers in the country are formally educated in service design or are self-taught as the past survey showed.
The reality is that designers learn through several mediums. Most service designers have learned while working, followed by continuing education, and many have pursued formal postgraduate education, with a few having the opportunity to study one in service design.
The discipline aims to be an inclusive space for women, and in general a balanced practice on gender issues.
Service design is predominantly practiced by millennials in Mexico. We can begin to see the entry of centennials into the practice.
The level of studies of the majority of service designers is University followed by a Master's degree, although as indicated in question 03, they are not necessarily studies carried out in service design or similar.
It is interesting to note that many people who have followed another career up to Master's degree are making a career change towards service design. This brings diversity to the practice of people with a background of engineering, anthropology, economics, among others.
The seniority level of service designers is mainly in the mid to senior, with some reaching management positions.
Amount of designers that report having a team.
Where 1 is a company with low maturity, which for example considers design as merely a visual attribute. And 10 is one that considers design as part of the corporate strategy.
Mexican companies are at different levels of adoption of service design seen as something relevant for the institution, with very few exceeding an 8 in maturity, according to the designers who answered the survey. If we consider that the majority of the service design teams in Mexican companies have 5 or less years of existence, it is not surprising that the teams are still consolidating.
Salaries remain similar to those of last year. Don’t forget to check the report to understand salary ranges depending on seniority and educational level.
*Salaries are in Mexican Pesos
Salary satisfaction levels remain the same as last year, with more than half of service designers feeling dissatisfied with their salary. Learn some of the reasons in the report.
*Net monthly salaries in Mexican pesos.
When considering a job, Mexican service designers are mainly looking for one in which they can generate a positive impact and have a balance between their lives and personal projects. These attributes are listed before a salary or position increase.
In addition to the most common benefits, respondents added others such as food stamps, unlimited vacations and equity.
2019 seems to be a year of changes, with almost half of service designers changing jobs in a year or less.
A critical point in the employment relationship seems to happen between the first and second year where a large number of designers often consider new offers and leave their current job.
Although the percentage has improved since last year, still half of the respondents feel dissatisfied with their jobs and are considering new opportunities.
METHODOLOGY
Typeform was used for the survey and Google Sheets for data filtering. The results percentages were rounded to the next closed number, and the salary figures are handled as net earnings. The survey remained open for 4 weeks, during which 154 responses were obtained.
ANALYST
Gabriela Salinas is co-founder of Service Design México, an institution dedicated to service design training, and Frontstage, the first service design conference in Mexico. Her passion for design, strategy and research has led her to create initiatives focused on promoting new design disciplines in the country. She has a Master in Business Innovation, and ten years of experience, having worked at GBM as Director of Design, as well as BBVA and Idea Couture, and as a teacher at CENTRO and the Master of Strategic Design at IBERO.
