Lufbra Service Jam London

Organised by our staff and student volunteers, last month we hosted the inaugural Lufbra Service Jam London. The jam was sponsored by Deloitte Digital UK and formed part of a Global Service Jam that takes place in over 100 locations worldwide.
All jammers have one common ingredient: a secret theme that is released on the day of the jam which they need to interpret in order to prototype services. This year the theme was ‘splosh’ (yes, it was a sound!).
Lufbra Service Jam London saw over 70 students, community members and design industry partners come together in the spirit of friendly competition. In just 48 hours 11 teams were formed, a secret theme was interpreted, and service ideas were developed and prototyped. Services sought to address topics, which ranged from access to water and mental health. These projects are now accessible to the whole world via a Global Jam platform where projects from other jams may also be found.
We shared our experiences with teams around the world via social media and were even challenged to an international dance off by Service Jam Dundee and NYC Service Jam!
“I had an amazing time learning about design thinking methods to generate insights, and recognise opportunities. It was a pleasure to learn from all the participants in the Design Jam”, Pedro Lucas Cavalcanti, Msc Managing Innovation in Creative Organizations.
Throughout the jam, teams received valuable input from speakers and mentors at various points of the design process:
- Kate Greenstock from Pancentric Digital gave an inspiring keynote speech, about a service design journey
- Matt Pettitt from Deloitte Digital UK provided participants with the useful tips on how to carry out a quick user research
- Michelle Freeman and Mark Grace from NorthHighland UK encouraged participants to think about how to move from a vision to a real value proposition with their services
- Chris Mactaggart from Deloitte Digital UK shared the power of prototyping and iterations within the design practice. Teams were not only armed with these presentations but also with one or sometimes even two mentors from the design industry. These included mentors from Deloitte Digital UK, Pancentric Digital, Foolproof, NorthHighland UK, Design Thinkers UK and Vanea Cera, a freelancer
Final presentations were judged around the criteria of: user-centeredness, innovation, business case and social impact by the representatives from the business, design and the community.
Our finalists were team ‘Redsloth’, whose service Feals helps people to cope with mental illness and ‘Six shots of cider’ whose service Floaty enables the community to make better use of canals and canal spaces, bringing together different members of the community for all.
For future events and updates follow us on: @LufbraJamLondon