In her early days as a designer, Catrine joined NAV (Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration) as their first in-house service designer. The Norwegian authorities underwent a significant transformation in their ways of working, developing, and delivering services. Cathrine played an instrumental role in building the organisation's design competence. “It was an enriching and interesting experience to be part of the beginning of that journey. Using my design competence to improve public services and services for people in vulnerable situations is what drives me."

When asked why she left the in-house environment for the consulting world, she says, "For me, it is easier to do my best work as a designer from the outside of an organisation. Of course, this depends on what stage of a process you’re in. But when it comes to innovating and thinking outside the box, I feel that it comes more naturally to me without being part of the organisation. That said, when it comes to implementation and realisation, you depend entirely on in-house capacity and know-how to make your solution come to life in the real world."

Breaking ground at NAV as the very first service designer

One of the main drivers behind Cathrine’s passion for service design is her wish to make society more inclusive. To make that happen, she believes we must question how we define inclusion. "Often, when discussing inclusive design, we limit ourselves to accessibility from a technical point of view. That is, designing physical and digital products and services that meet directives and standards that people with and without disabilities can use. But we miss the point when we see inclusion only through this lens."

Inclusion that goes beyond accessibility

She adds, “ Vulnerability and exclusion come in many different shapes and forms, and we need to be particularly aware of the barriers beyond those you can see. Such as, for example, not having the money to invest in expensive equipment to access digital services, or the big cognitive load being in a life crisis, having a serious illness or just trying to buy a bus ticket in a hurry with a crying child. This is especially true when we work with digitalisation. Making things accessible in the digital world is important, but if we end up excluding people who are not present digitally, we need to rethink.”

Making things work in real life is what Cathrine is all about. If that hand drawn journey you just jotted down in the client meeting meets their needs, it's good enough. “It's not about making the perfect service blueprint, but helping your clients understand their users needs. Then you can help your customers or citizens understand what the service is about, and all you have to is deliver on those expectations.”

She continues; “I think we over- and underestimate our users. We underestimate their patience and good will with your service as long as their needs are met, and we overestimate their ability to understand what is simple business logics to us but not logical to the user. If you have to choose, focus on how your service should act when things don’t work, because that is the only thing that is certain. People remember you for how you solve those situations.”

More pragmatism and less pixel perfect user journeys

 Spending time with my husband and my 1.5-year-old. I also enjoy yoga, cycling, and building things in my wood workshop.

Meet Cathrine – the service designer with a passion for inclusion