Michael Fua
He/Him
Head of Innovation
SDN Young Talent Board
As the newest member of the SDN Young Talent Board, Michael is obsessed with designing experiences that help emerging service design talent bridge the gap from education to professional practice. He believes that now, perhaps more than ever, the world needs not just great designers, but good people in design roles. Helping young people guided by service design and human-centered principles find a seat at the table is his way of making a positive dent in the world.
For nearly 15 years, he has run programs that support emerging talent across Asia and Europe realize their potential. Now, he's leading an effort to rethink, for the first time in five years, how the Board creates opportunities for emerging designers through partnerships and community building.
Along the way, Michael has collected some of the vaguest job titles: strategy and execution manager, organization development consultant, innovation lead, community manager, and, you guessed it, service designer. All notoriously difficult to explain at parties, but share a remarkable core - solving the problems that matter most, with people at heart and the systems around them in mind.
He recently completed his Erasmus Mundus master's in Service Design Strategies and Innovations, spending two years across Latvia, Estonia, and Finland. Now, like hundreds of emerging service designers, he finds himself asking: "How do I find my place in the professional world of service design?"
This winter, you'll also find him in Finnish Lapland, trying to minimize his screen time while guiding people on Northern Lights photography tours.
Talk
The Service Design Village: Raising the Next Generation of Service Designers Together
Breaking into service design has never been simple. Today, emerging designers are entering a profession being reshaped by AI, tighter job markets, and changing expectations of what designers need to know, do, and uniquely contribute.
So what actually helps someone make the leap from learning service design to practising it in the real world?
In this interactive 30-minute session, the SDN Young Talent Board brings together perspectives from emerging designers, practitioners, educators, and the SDGC community to explore what the next generation needs beyond skills alone: meaningful practice, mentorship, community, feedback, networks, and access to opportunity.
Designed for service design leaders, practitioners, educators, and anyone who hires, teaches, mentors, or works with emerging talent, the session will help participants:
understand the realities emerging designers face today;
reflect on how our current pathways into the profession could work better;
exchange perspectives with others across the service design community; and
identify practical ways they can open doors through mentorship, learning, projects, introductions, and real-world opportunities.
Because if it takes a village to raise the next generation, the future of service design is something we must build together.
This is a co-presented talk with Lea Sevšek.