Define Design: Service and Strategic Design
Thank you for your valued input to date on the DIA Emerging Design Disciplines advocacy work. Your participation has been instrumental in shaping and refining the draft definitions for Service Design and Strategic Design. This work is critical to testing and strengthening the definitions and associated task lists that will underpin the DIA’s upcoming submission to the ABS public consultation for Occupation Standard Classification for Australia (OSCA), 2027 update due 24 April 2026.
Following sector-wide consultation undertaken over 2024–2026, the DIA has drafted occupation descriptions and task lists for Service Design and Strategic Design for consideration of the ABS. You will find these included below.
Why two versions?
For each occupation, we're showing you two versions of the description and task list: the consultation version (drawn from your input and sector-wide consultation over 2024–2026) and our proposed OSCA version (reformatted for the ABS submission).
OSCA follows strict style conventions: short, verb-led descriptions (typically 25–40 words) and concise task lists (typically 8–12 items). To give our submission the best chance of acceptance, we've worked your rich input into the OSCA format by:
Condensing descriptions into single-sentence, verb-led statements of ~30–35 words, consistent with existing OSCA 242 design profiles (e.g. Interior Designer, Graphic Designer)
Consolidating the 15 consultation tasks per occupation down to 10, merging overlapping items and standardising verb forms to present participles (conducting, facilitating, analysing)
Removing aspirational or values-based framing where possible, retaining the substance as concrete activities
Preserving the distinctive character of each occupation while ensuring they read as clearly differentiated from one another
Differentiation: We've aimed to preserve the distinctive character of each occupation while ensuring they read as clearly differentiated from one another - which the ABS will scrutinise closely.
Please read the proposed descriptions and task lists for Service and Strategic Design below and complete this survey to provide feedback by Wednesday 8th April, 2026.
SERVICE DESIGN
Consultation Description
Service Designers shape how services work today and in the future. They can operate in different sectors and collaborate across and within organisations to deliver end-to-end service designs that meet stakeholder and service user needs. Through design research, prototyping, and iteration, they position stakeholder and service user needs through translation of research into responsible, ethical, and sustainable design solutions that seek to be reflective of complex system dynamics.
✔ Proposed OSCA Description
Service Designer: Researches, plans, designs and improves services across organisations and sectors, collaborating with stakeholders and service users to develop end-to-end service solutions that are responsive to complex delivery systems.
Consultation Task List
Tasks Include:
Lead multi-stakeholder co-creation activities to surface complexity, build shared understanding, and co-frame objectives and briefs.
Uphold ethical, responsible, and sustainable conduct; embed inclusive design practices.
Design and run design research in social and organisational settings; gather evidence through qualitative interviews, quantitative surveys, observation, and evaluative testing.
Explore end-user requirements and service delivery friction points; make constraints and enablers visible for all stakeholders.
Synthesise perspectives from stakeholders to identify requirements, opportunities and service improvements.
Map and communicate service journeys and experiences from all stakeholder viewpoints; ensure front-end/back-end alignment across socio-technical components.
Bring aesthetic coherence to the service experience while protecting accessibility and operational integrity.
Reframe service goals and needs based on evidence; define measures of success and decision criteria that balance experience, operations, and viability.
Create service blueprints to clarify roles, processes and, where relevant, technology; reveal dependencies, constraints, and handovers.
Identify pain points, gaps, and opportunities; prioritise improvements and pathways forward across programs and/or organisations.
Prototype service changes (policies, processes, touchpoints); test and iterate with stakeholders and technical teams to reduce risk before implementation.
Translate design research into implementation: standards, guidelines, procedures, briefs, and service documentation; communicate service functionality and rationale.
Analyse service performance and feedback; support ongoing evaluation, learning, and iteration.
Facilitate cross-functional collaboration; align governance, capability, and resources for delivery; mediate between users and technical/specialist and/or implementation teams.
Develop training and enablement materials for service teams; coach others to build internal capability in complex contexts.
✔ Proposed OSCA Task List
Tasks Include:
Conducting design research across social and organisational settings using qualitative, quantitative and evaluative methods to inform service improvements
Facilitating multi-stakeholder co-creation activities to surface complexity, build shared understanding and frame project objectives
Mapping service journeys, experiences and blueprints from all stakeholder viewpoints to clarify roles, processes, dependencies and handovers
Synthesising stakeholder perspectives and evidence to identify requirements, pain points, opportunities and improvement priorities
Prototyping and testing service changes to policies, processes and touchpoints with stakeholders and technical teams to reduce implementation risk
Translating design research into implementation standards, guidelines, procedures, briefs and service documentation
Analysing service performance and feedback to support ongoing evaluation, learning and iteration
Facilitating cross-functional collaboration and aligning governance, capability and resources across delivery teams and organisations
Embedding ethical, responsible, sustainable and inclusive design practices across service design activities
Developing training and enablement materials to build internal service design capability
STRATEGIC DESIGN
Consultation Description
Strategic Designers work in complex systems to shape institutional directions by working at the intersection of strategy, user experience, and innovation. They bridge executive strategy and frontline practice to unearth challenges and build durable design interventions. Operating at all levels, from decision makers to operations and external stakeholders they balance customer, user or beneficiary needs with institutional requirements and use design-informed methods, creativity and experimentation to explore future options and create actionable implementation plans.
✔ Proposed OSCA Description
Strategic Designer: Develops and implements design-informed strategies that align organisational direction with stakeholder and user needs applying design research, systems thinking and experimentation to frame challenges, explore solutions, and create actionable plans for institutional change.
Consultation Task List
Tasks Include:
Develop design-informed strategies aligned to institutional objectives and goals, balancing desirability, feasibility, and viability.
Conduct strategic user and stakeholder research to diagnose root causes of problems and opportunities and guide product, service, and policy directions.
Facilitate design-led workshops with stakeholders to frame and reframe challenges and move groups into action.
Translate insights into actionable strategic recommendations and roadmaps that connect outputs to outcomes and impact.
Design and test value propositions, operational models, and enterprise initiatives using imagination and controlled experimentation.
Prototype and experiment with strategic recommendations using quantitative and qualitative data across horizons of strategy.
Activates innovation through supporting and promoting Research & Development.
Promote foresight / future thinking and visioning with diverse groups.
Create material artifacts that capture requirements, systems, and opportunity spaces for shared understanding and decision making.
Build, mentor, and establish design capabilities and governance frameworks that enable iterative change in institutions.
Lead cross-functional collaboration across and within institutions, liaising with all levels of leadership and delivery teams.
Manage delivery portfolios across horizons and identify strategic initiatives while navigating ambiguity and emergent risk.
Navigate ambiguity, emerging risk, and diverse stakeholder perspectives to support inclusive, evidence-informed decisions.
Work with system and policy levers; engage governance groups to identify and mitigate risk.
Develop enterprise-wide, multi-year strategies and design strategic conversations that span top-down and bottom-up contexts.
✔ Proposed OSCA Task List
Tasks Include:
Developing design-informed strategies aligned to institutional objectives, balancing desirability, feasibility and viability
Conducting strategic user and stakeholder research to diagnose root causes of challenges and guide product, service and policy directions
Facilitating design-led workshops to frame and reframe challenges and translate insights into actionable strategic recommendations and roadmaps
Designing and testing value propositions, operational models and enterprise initiatives through prototyping and controlled experimentation
Applying foresight, futures thinking and systems analysis to explore strategic options across multiple planning horizons
Creating material artefacts that capture requirements, systems and opportunity spaces for shared understanding and decision-making
Leading cross-functional collaboration across and within institutions, liaising with leadership, delivery teams and external stakeholders
Building, mentoring and establishing design capabilities and governance frameworks that enable iterative institutional change
Managing delivery portfolios and strategic initiatives while navigating ambiguity, emerging risk and diverse stakeholder perspectives
Engaging governance groups and working with system and policy levers to identify and mitigate risk