<p>Here is a hot take, empathy is becoming &quot;theater&quot;...</p><p>I mean, it&#39;s that feeling you get when you receive a &quot;hyper-personalized&quot; yet clearly automated email saying &quot;We are so deeply sorry to see you go&quot;.</p><p>To me, it just feels insincere. Actually, it even feels manipulative. </p><p>Instead of a genuine connection, it’s a performance designed to &quot;manage&quot; me, not help me.</p><p>As every business out there is in a race to automate and integrate AI, the actual human connection is often the first thing to get outsourced.</p><p>And when we try to paste humanity back onto technology, we often end up in a digital uncanny valley.</p><p>So, how do we push back? </p><p>How do we remain &quot;stubbornly human&quot; when the systems around us only care about efficiency?</p><p>That is the battle we explore in the latest episode of our Inside Service Design series.</p><p>In this conversation, I sit down with two service design professionals from very different worlds: ​Jeff​, who works in the highly digital fintech space, and ​Emilie​, an Innovation Partner at a faith-based nonprofit.</p><p>Despite their different contexts, they share some great insights on keeping the &quot;human&quot; in human-centered design.</p><p>Jeff breaks down the concept of Empathy Theater and challenges us to spot when a friendly tone in a digital interface crosses the line into manipulation. And Emilie walks us through a future scenario where VR headsets are the default for education, forcing us to ask: how do we design for belonging when we are physically apart?</p><p>So, if you are tired of seeing the human element get optimized out of existence, this conversation will give you some strong arguments you need to stand your ground.</p><p>Quick question: Have you received an email recently that felt like &quot;Empathy Theater&quot;? If yes, send me a quick reply with &quot;Guilty&quot; (bonus points if you can share the example)!</p><p>I&#39;m trying to get a sense of how widespread this is becoming.</p><p>Enjoy the conversation and keep making a positive impact.</p><p>Be well, </p><p>~ Marc</p><p><br></p><p>--- [ 1. GUIDE ] --- </p><p>00:00 Welcome to October Round Up</p><p>05:00 Emilie&#39;s Service Design Journey</p><p>07:30 Jeff from Interior Design to FinTech</p><p>12:30 Jeff&#39;s Biggest In-House Design Challenge</p><p>15:00 Challenges in Non-Profit Design</p><p>18:00 Emilie&#39;s True Measure of Success</p><p>20:00 How Jeff Measures Success in Long-Term Projects</p><p>25:00 Emilie&#39;s topic: Education in 2038</p><p>29:00 Jeff&#39;s topic: Keep Things &#39;Stubbornly Human&#39; </p><p>33:45 The Circle Reacts to Insincere Digital Tone</p><p>36:45 How Emilie&#39;s group responded</p><p>39:00 Emilie&#39;s Hopeful Reflection on the Future of Design</p><p>40:00 The Practical Tweak Jeff Made</p><p>43:00 Emilie&#39;s #1 Hard-Won Career Lesson</p><p>45:30 Jeff&#39;s Hard-Won Lesson in Service Design</p><p>46:30 When Jeff Stopped Focusing on Deliverables</p><p>51:00 Why Beautiful Artifacts Don&#39;t Impress Executives</p><p>53:00 How to Stop the Treadmill</p><p>54:30 Emilie&#39;s Question to the Audience</p><p>55:30 Jeff Answers the Question He Wants to Ask</p><p>57:30 Emilie Answers Her Own Deep Question</p><p>59:00 Final words of wisdom</p><p><br></p><p> --- [ 2. LINKS ] --- </p><ul><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilie-moravec-/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilie-moravec</a></li><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffhoekwater" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffhoekwater</a></li></ul><p><br></p><p> --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] --- </p><p>Join our private community for in-house service design professionals. </p><p><a href="https://www.servicedesignshow.com?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=episode_description&utm_id=07&utm_term=inside+service+design_oct" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle</a></p><p><br></p><p>--- [4. FIND THE SHOW ON] ---</p><ul><li>Youtube ~ <a href="https://go.servicedesignshow.com/inside-service-design-07-youtube" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">https://go.servicedesignshow.com/inside-service-design-07-youtube</a></li><li>Spotify ~ <a href="https://go.servicedesignshow.com/inside-service-design-07-spotify" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">https://go.servicedesignshow.com/inside-service-design-07-spotify</a></li><li>Apple ~ <a href="https://go.servicedesignshow.com/inside-service-design-07-apple" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">https://go.servicedesignshow.com/inside-service-design-07-apple</a></li><li>Snipd ~ <a href="https://go.servicedesignshow.com/inside-service-design-07-snipd" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">https://go.servicedesignshow.com/inside-service-design-07-snipd</a></li></ul>