Service Designer

Reports To: Director of Performance & Improvement

Role Type: Full-time, professional

Summary

Responsible for understanding, visualizing, and clarifying how Public Works services actually function, this role pairs strong qualitative research skills with the ability to translate user needs, operational realities, and system constraints into clear, highly visual artifacts
—including service blueprints, journey maps, personas, SOPs, and prototypes that staff at all levels can use to understand and improve their work.

In shaping MPI’s emerging design framework, this position helps establish standards for service blueprints and customer journey maps, identifies friction points and opportunities within current processes, and guides departments in understanding how services are delivered today, how they should function, and what improvements are both feasible and meaningful. Mastery of Nexgen
, the City’s CRM and workflow engine, is essential—this role will be expected to understand how staff interact with Nexgen, how workflows are constructed, and how system design shapes user experience and service outcomes. The role is also essential in recognizing when existing services can evolve to meet new challenges—and when entirely new services must be co-created to address unmet resident needs.

Collaboration with the Performance Analyst—especially during field research and service observation—is a critical part of this work. Together, these roles weave qualitative insights and quantitative validation into unified recommendations, ensuring that service narratives and redesigns are both human-centered and measurable, grounded in the operational realities of staff and residents.

Ultimately, this position helps transform complex service systems into clarity, alignment, and forward momentum—giving the organization the tools, insight, and shared understanding it needs to solve problems, evolve services, and deliver a city government that works better for everyone.

• Conduct qualitative research through interviews, workshops, field observation, and journey shadowing.
• Co-create service blueprints that document processes, front-stage and back-stage actions, system supports, and opportunities for improvement.
• Develop customer personas representing the diverse needs and expectations of residents served through Public Works.
• Produce detailed customer journey maps for all Public Works services, identifying touchpoints, pain points, and friction moments.
• Create and deploy customer surveys to gather feedback about each service offered.
• Facilitate department workshops
  —process mapping, root cause analysis, ideation sessions, SOP development.
• Collaborate with IT and vendors to align design insights with digital tool capabilities
  .
• Produce clear,
  visually compelling deliverables
  : infographics, SOPs, service-design artifacts, process diagrams, guides, manuals, and training materials.
• Prototype operational and digital solutions
  , test them with users, and refine based on feedback.
• Partner with the Analyst to integrate qualitative and quantitative insights into unified recommendations.

• A full suite of Public Works service blueprints
  , maintained as needed.
• A city-wide library of customer journey maps
  , touchpoint inventories, and personas.
• Standardized templates and design patterns for service improvement.
• Repeatable, workshop-based improvement methods used across departments that strengthen a culture of continuous improvement and empower teams to evolve their services based on customer needs.
• A cohesive “MPI operating system”—the design component of the City’s performance model.

• Bachelor’s degree in UX Strategy, Service Design, Civic Design, Industrial Design, Public Administration, Business, Engineering, or a related field.
• Proven experience with human-centered design, design thinking, or service design methods.
• Strong visual communication ability—capable of making complex processes easy to understand.
• Skilled facilitator, comfortable leading workshops with cross-functional groups.
• Ability to synthesize qualitative research into actionable improvements.
• Familiarity with tools like Miro, Adobe Creative Suite, Survey Monkey, Canva, , or similar tools.

Entry level

Full-time

Design, Art/Creative, and Information Technology

Government Administration