SDN ACADEMY IN-HOUSE
In-House Training from SDN Academy
Organizations with design teams face constant pressure to keep skills sharp and stay ahead of evolving customer expectations. Finding the right training that fits your team’s schedule and specific needs can be a challenge. The SDN Academy offers a solution with our flexible, expert-led in-house service design training designed to boost your team’s capabilities and deliver measurable impact.
Why in-house service design training?
Training your design or service design team in-house offers several advantages over public courses or generic online programs:
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Tailored to your team’s needs: When you book an in-house cohort of any of our courses, we can adapt dates and session times to fit your organization’s priorities and calendar.
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Cohort learning: Groups of employees learn together, fostering collaboration and teamwork.
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Cost-effective: Discounts apply when minimum cohort sizes are reached, and a cohort is delivered exclusively for you, making it more affordable than individual public course registrations. If you can't fill an entire cohort, we can offer group discounts on seats within our public courses.
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Access to expert trainers: Our trainers are thought leaders with deep experience in service design, typically holding Master-level Accreditation from the SDN, and seasoned educators.
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Flexible formats: Our remote delivery formats allow teams to participate from anywhere without travel disruption.
These benefits combine to create a learning experience that is practical, relevant, and immediately applicable to your team’s work, no matter what their current level of service design expertise is.
Popular courses for in-house teams
The SDN Academy offers a broad catalog of courses, but two stand out as favorites for in-house cohorts:
Practitioner Curriculum
This comprehensive introductory service design course leads to Practitioner Accreditation from the SDN. It covers foundational skills such as:
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Setting up service design projects
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Exploration and research
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Customer journey mapping, service blueprinting, ideation, and prototyping
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And more!
Teams completing this 6-module course gain a solid grounding in service design tools and methods, ready to apply them confidently in their projects.
Masterclasses Series
For teams seeking advanced skills across a range of topics, the Masterclasses Series offers an ideal solution. This 8-week, 8-module course leads to Professional Accreditation from the SDN. Topics include:
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Designing services with AI
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Team leadership and organizational change
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Prototyping and successful implementation
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Systems thinking and sustainability
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Aligning service design with business strategy
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This course is ideal for senior design roles or those leading service design initiatives.
Which employees benefit from our courses?
For our two Accreditation courses, we typically see participants with a range of training goals and job titles:
Practitioner Accreditation​
Suited for those wanting:
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Foundational fluency: To acquire a rigorous grounding in the end-to-end service design process, from initial discovery and user research to prototyping and implementation.
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Career transition: To pivot professionally into service design by building a credible portfolio of methods recognized by the SDN.
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Methodological rigor: To move beyond intuitive problem-solving toward a structured application of tools like service blueprints, journey mapping, and stakeholder ecosystems.
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Professional validation: To obtain a formal Accreditation that serves as a quality career benchmark.
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Course attendees typically include:
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Entry-level: Career starters and recent graduates .
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Career switchers: Professionals from marketing, project management, or business analysis looking to re-skill in service design.
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Junior design practitioners: UX/UI designers, product designers, and researchers aiming to broaden their scope from digital interfaces to service ecosystems.
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Service delivery staff: Front-line managers and public sector professionals who wish to apply service design thinking to improve the operational efficiency and user experience of their services.
Masterclasses Series​
Suited for those wanting:
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Advanced specialization: To master complex, niche domains such as systemic design, service design for sustainability, organizational change or AI-integrated service models.
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Strategic leadership: To transition from "doing" design to "leading" design, focusing on organizational transformation, design strategy, and stakeholder buy-in.
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Practice refinement: To bridge the gap between standard methodology and high-level execution.
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Future-proofing: To stay at the forefront of the industry by exploring emerging trends and advanced frameworks that define the next generation of service design.
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Course attendees typically include:
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Experienced designers: Mid-level and senior service designers (typically: 2+ years of experience) seeking to deepen their expertise.
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Design management: Heads of design, design ops leads, and creative directors responsible for managing design teams and design culture.
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Strategic roles: CX strategists and digital transformation leads who integrate service design into broader business strategies.
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Consultants and educators: Independent consultants or academic staff looking to update their toolkit with the latest industry-standard advanced practices.
Custom course development
In addition to offering in-house cohorts of our public courses (where the content remains the same, but we adapt the delivery to your needs), we also offer custom-made courses on a wide range of topics:
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Journey management
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Service design and AI
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Service design leadership
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Organizational change and service design
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Advanced prototyping
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Service design for innovation and ventures
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Advanced facilitation techniques
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Systems thinking
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Sustainability
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Psychology and service design
SDN Academy collaborates closely with your organization to understand your goals and challenges. The process typically includes:
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Needs assessment: Discuss your team’s current skills, project demands, and training objectives.
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Course selection and customization: Choose from our catalog or request custom course development tailored to your context.
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Scheduling: Set dates and session times that work best for your team, including both online and in-person formats.
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Delivery: Experienced trainers lead interactive sessions using top-notch resources and real-world examples.
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Follow-up: Participants receive certificates, Accreditation (when applicable), and SDN membership benefits.
Benefits beyond training
Participants in all SDN Academy courses gain more than just skills:
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Accreditation: For those who follow one of our Accreditation-granting courses, they earn a professional distinction that is globally recognized and establishes their credentials.
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SDN Membership: Courses typically include Professional Membership with the SDN, giving participants access to the SDN community, the largest global network of service designers, with a wealth of resources, on-line and in-person events, and discounts.
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Prestige: Being part of a non-profit organization established in 2004, the SDN Academy carries a reputation for quality and leadership in service design education.
Our in-house clients
SDN Academy has partnered with organizations of all sizes worldwide. For example:
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We trained a unit of the Australian Government on the value of strategic design in organizations
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15+ participants of German telecoms giant Deutsche Telekom followed our Practitioner Curriculum course
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Accenture consultants in Portugal learned about service design management from our expert trainer
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A multinational bank in Africa trained an entire department on systems thinking thanks to a group-booking of our on-demand course 'Systems Thinking: The Yin and the Yang sides'
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Other clients include: Metro (Germany), NASK (Poland), Interaccess (Ireland), and a university in El Salvador
Take the next step
If your organization wants to build stronger design capabilities, the SDN Academy’s in-house service design training offers a flexible, expert-led path. Contact us via email to discuss your team’s needs and explore course options.
OPTIONS
CUSTOMIZED
TRAINING
The customized training program not only addresses your company's specific challenges but also empowers you to select the service design skills most relevant to your organisation's need​.
CUSTOMIZED TRAINING
+ ACCREDITATION
Embarking on a customised training programme with accreditation offers a dual advantage, uniquely tailored to elevate your team's skills while providing official recognition.
SDN ACADEMY COURSES
By opting for a pre-existing course tailored exclusively for your company, you benefit from a proven curriculum designed to address essential skills and knowledge areas while still catering to your team's specific requirements.
KEYNOTE OR INVITED SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT
Opting for a keynote or speaker engagement for your team promises an inspiring and insightful experience with immediate impact.
TRAINER / KEYNOTE SPEAKER
SDN ACCREDITED MASTER
Prof. Birgit Mager
Birgit Mager is Co-Founder and President of the Service Design Network, the leading non-profit organisation committed to global development and innovation within the practice of service design. Since 1995, Birgit Mager has held the first professorship for service design worldwide.
She regularly conducts tailored service design keynotes and workshops all around the world both on-site and in hybrid/online modes. Most recent topics are Service Design Basics, Service Design Advanced and Service Design for the Public Sector.
SDN ACCREDITED MASTER
Jesse Grimes
Jesse is an expert-level independent service design consultant, Senior Vice President of the global Service Design Network (SDN), and Editor-in-Chief of its journal, Touchpoint. He has eleven years’ experience as a service designer.
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​He regularly conducts tailored service design workshops all around the world both on-site and in hybrid/online modes. Most recent topics are Innovation, Circular Economy, and Service Design for the Financial Sector.
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SDN ACCREDITED MASTER
Dr. Tina Weisser
Tina Weisser is an expert in organizational strategy and implementation, and has delivered multiple in-house trainings for some of Germany's largest organizations (like BMW, Lufthansa).
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She works both on-site and in hybrid/online modes, and works with groups on topics such as Service Design Management, Implementation, Service Design Leadership and User Research.​
ACHIEVEMENTS
126+
In-house
course participants
12+
In-house trainings
accomplished
7
Countries
world-wide