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A4Q Certified Service Designer

The need for organisations to continuously innovate and adapt their services to meet the ever-changing, and increasingly demanding, expectations of their customers is more of a challenge today than ever! A seamless service experience for the customer can have a huge impact on an organisation’s reputation, customer acquisition and retention and indeed the company’s overall growth.

» The leading certification for Service Design
» Internationally recognized
» Exams are available worldwide

Every step of the “change journey” for organizations must seek to co-create value with its customers and to co-construct the service experience that aligns with the customer context.

Service Design is a field that encompasses this value-co-creation. It is a human-centred, iterative approach that incorporates the theory and practices of design thinking, customer experience analysis and business service design.

The Alliance 4 Qualification (A4Q) is the official licensor for the A4Q Certified Service Designer Scheme!

How to become an A4Q Certified Service Designer.

The A4Q Certified Service Designer is a modular certification program.

Each module within the scheme has its own inherent value as a certification and will add value to individuals seeking to develop and attest to skills in each of the respective fields.

  • Full A4Q Certified Service Designer can be applied for by candidates who have achieved the three mandatory modules and one of the electives.
  • The A4Q Design Thinking, the A4Q Business Service Design & the A4Q CX Analysis modules are available now!
  • The elective modules, Business Service Design Consultancy and Business Acumen are available now. Business Service Architecture – coming soon!

“The job of a service designer, or the change practitioner applying service design skills, is to analyze services holistically and to design and improve an organization’s services, systems and processes to better meet the needs of the customer and stakeholders.”

The A4Q Certified Service Designer certification attests to an individual having demonstrated:

Each module within the scheme has its own inherent value as a certification and will add value to individuals seeking to develop and attest to skills in each of the respective fields.

  • They have a portfolio of must-have service design skills and techniques
  • They have an understanding of the customer experience, mapping the customer journey across all platforms to build a better understanding of the value proposition from a customer viewpoint
  • They are able to analyze the business service offering, looking at services, systems and processes from a customer perspective
  • They can use innovative design thinking techniques to unlock insights and transform your business service.

Ideal Candidates for the A4Q Certified Designer?

The A4Q Certified Service Designer certification is suitable for any professional who wants to gain service design expertise and future-proof their toolkit including: Business Analysts; Business Designers; Product Owners; Enterprise Architects; Portfolio Managers; Program Managers; Project Managers and Business Change Managers. Design and UX professionals may also find this of interest.

Start your journey to become an A4Q Certified Service Designer

The A4Q Certified Service Designer is a modular certification program. Each module within the scheme has its own inherent value as a certification and will add value to individuals seeking to develop and attest to skills in each of the respective fields. Full A4Q Certified Service Designer can be applied for by candidates who have achieved the three mandatory modules and one of the electives.

The application form for the A4Q Certified Service Designer is available at:

If you have any further questions regarding the A4Q A4Q Certified Service Designer scheme, please feel free to contact us.

Mandatory Modules for the A4Q Certified Service Designer

A Certified Service Designer provides a holistic approach to unifying the customer experience and business objectives while implementing a human-centered element to design and business innovation.

Business Service Design has an in depth focus on business systems, processes and services behind the customer journey, focusing on their impact on customer satisfaction.

Participants will be able to demonstrate an understanding of Business Service Design principles, approaches and techniques.

The A4Q Business Service Design certificate assesses a candidate’s ability to:

  • The four thinking frameworks that combine to provide a powerful toolkit behind innovative, customer-centric service design: Systems Thinking, Service Thinking, Design Thinking and Lean Thinking.
  • Being able to explore the business services, their value propositions and the customer perspective.
  • Being able to identify where changes are required.
  • Being able to apply useful Service Design techniques to drive business innovation.

In the digital age, it has become critical to understand more about the organization’s customers and what motivates, delights and even annoys them. CX (Customer Experience) Analysis is critical to business success. The A4Q CX Analysis certification looks in depth at the customer experience, and how an organization can transform its existing processes to offer engaged, responsive and connected customer experiences.

The A4Q CX Analysis certificate assesses a candidate’s ability to:

  • Tune in to organization’s customers, action the insights and add value across multiple touchpoints.
  • Analyze the organization’s view of CX; the difference between CX and UX and why it matters; customer gains and pains and organizational maturity.
  • Understand a seamless, positive customer journey with touchpoints across all digital platforms engages customers and improves customer satisfaction.
  • Understand key customer experience analysis techniques for effective business service design.

Design thinking is a creative, human centred approach to business innovation. It’s about applying the design mindset to business challenges, making sure solutions are customer-centric and focused on meeting the needs of all stakeholders.

The A4Q Design Thinking certification assesses an individual’s ability to:

  • Understand the theory and application of the Design Thinking creative and iterative process.
  • Investigate and resolve business challenges, identify options and test proposed solutions using the Design Thinking innovative customer-centric approach.
  • Empathize with the customer, unlock key insights, question assumptions, explore strategies and test ideas.
  • Find innovative and relevant solutions.

Elective Modules for the A4Q Certified Service Designer

The A4Q Business Service Architecture certification will focus on the service architecture and its component elements, within the context of enterprise, business and solution architecture.

Topics covered include architectural principles; service definition; value stream modelling and analysis; capability requirements and modelling; the T shaped professional; service measures and controls and a framework for service agility.

The A4Q Business Acumen certification covers the knowledge, skills, understanding and perspective needed to develop good business acumen.

Topics covered include types of business model; leadership and decision-making skills; the importance of a growth mindset for senior leadership teams; available business models and financial and data literacy.

The A4Q Service Design Consultancy certification covers the key skills required to deliver effective business design consultancy, including the consultancy lifecycle and service portfolio, the consultancy mind set, stakeholder engagement, investigation and negotiation techniques, and situation diagnosis.