About this Event
What is the Service Jam?
A weekend of service design doing: listening to real people share their challenges, exploring solutions that meet real needs, and prototyping to develop a solution in 48 hours. March 13th - 15th, San Diego will host its third Service Jam!
What makes SD Service Jam special isn’t just the process: it’s the people, the play, and the practice. Participants don’t sit through talks. They learn by building, testing, and sharing together, supported by local practitioners who believe design should be accessible, human, and joyful.
San Diego Service Jam is part of the Global Service Jam, a worldwide movement that brings together designers, educators, technologists, and community members to solve meaningful problems through service design.
The Jam includes practitioner “flash talks” from notable design thinkers along with tactical coaching and mentorship from practitioners.
Both newbies and experts are welcome. You’ll walk away with new tools for your service design toolkit, share a few scrumptious meals with new friends, and create solid service prototype with a team of fellow designers.
What’s the Jam Experience like?
A weekend of service design doing with experts, newbies, and community members inspired to design for good.
After revealing the Jam’s global secret theme on Friday night, we’ll break into teams and start working. The challenge is to identify and understand a real-world need, ideate and prototype concepts, and deliver a solution by Sunday afternoon through a mixture of skill-based "flash talks," coaching for each team from design practitioners, and real design thinking doing in teams on a problem you choose.
Schedule:
FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2025
Location: New School of Architecture & Design
5:00 PM Arrival and Check-in
5:30 PM Jam Kickoff
- Tour of space
- Flash Talk (Presentation): What is Service Design?
- Group Activity
7:00 PM Dinner (provided by SD Service Jam)
8:00 PM Announcement of Secret Global Theme!
8:15 PM Problem Ideation and Team Formation
9:00 PM Team, Community Building, Problem Statement Definition
9:45 PM Announcements and Wrap-up
10:00 PM End of Day 1
SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 2025
Location: High Tech High, Graduate School, Liberty Station
9:30 AM Arrival and Breakfast (provided by SD Service Jam)
10:00 AM Flash Talk: Research & Sensemaking
10:30 AM Teams Prepare and Conduct Research
12:00 PM Lunch (on your own “in the field”)
2:30 PM Teams Begin Sensemaking
4:30 PM Sensemaking Shareout
5:00 PM Flash Talk: Ideation & Prototyping
5:30 PM Teams Ideate, Iterate
6:30 PM Dinner (provided by SD Service Jam)
7:30 PM Back to Teamwork
8:30 PM Teams Experiment, Prototype
10:00 PM End Day 2
SUNDAY, MARCH 15, 2025
Location: High Tech High, Graduate School, Liberty Station
10:00 AM Breakfast (provided by SD Service Jam)
10:15 AM Flash Talk: Prototyping & Testing
10:30 AM Team Co-creation, Iteration, Prototyping
12:30 PM Lunch (provided by SD Service Jam)
2:00 PM Team Completes Final Prototype
2:30 PM Teams “Show and Don’t Tell”
4:30 PM Closing Reception
5:00 PM End Day 3
Who is the Community that Brings the Jam to Life?
The Jam is volunteer-run, budget neutral, and community-driven. It depends on people who believe in spreading design, community, and having fun together. We host the Jam through UX Speakeasy, the largest UX Design community in Southern California, to ensure all sponsorships and donations are tax-deductible.
What you get for your ticket
- 48 hrs of semi-structured learning (& more importantly, doing) service design
- Networking with other local design enthusiasts of all levels & backgrounds
- Meals during the Jam (breakfast x2, dinner x2, lunch x1)
- Swag from our partners & sponsors
Questions? Want to get involved? Get in touch!
Email [email protected]
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
High Tech High Graduate School of Education, 2150 Cushing Road, San Diego, United States
USD 20.00 to USD 50.00
