<p>Let's be real for a moment...</p><p>In the corporate context, what's the thing that usually gets rewarded the most?</p><p>It’s often the person who "just" grinds through the chaos, works overtime to fix a broken process, and absorbs all the organizational friction without complaining.</p><p>From very early on in our careers we are taught to treat ourselves like machines that just need to carry more weight.</p><p>But as Kara Snyder points out in our conversation, that is treating resilience as output. It’s performing professionalism when you are completely depleted. And it is a fast track to burnout.</p><p>Instead, Kara challenges us to think about resilience as capacity. </p><p>What do you actually need to sustain yourself so you can stay in this deeply human and emotionally demanding work?</p><p>Because at the end of the day, the most important tool in your service design toolkit isn't a journey map or a blueprint... well, it's you.</p><p>In this episode of Inside Service Design, I sit down with Kara and Siddhartha Saxena to talk about the inner game of being an in-house service design professional. </p><p>We step away from the frameworks and talk about how to actually survive and thrive in this beautifully complex role.</p><p>This conversation touches on topics like:</p><ul><li>How to stop measuring your worth by how much stress you can carry.</li><li>How to create a "liminal space" between you and your work.</li><li>And how to get to Friday and actually feel a sense of accomplishment, even when the work is messy.</li></ul><p>So if you’ve been feeling the weight of driving positive change using service design, take a deep breath, slow down, and tune into this one.</p><p>How do you protect your own capacity? Have you found any specific rituals particularly helpful? </p><p>Let me know, I’d love to hear how you're dealing with this.</p><p>Be well,</p><p>~ Marc</p><p><br /></p><p>--- [ 1. GUIDE ] --- </p><p>00:00 Welcome to the January 2026 Round Up!</p><p>03:30 Kara’s Journey: From Accounting to PWC</p><p>06:30 Facing Burnout and Personal Loss</p><p>09:00 Sidd’s Journey: From Architecture to Startups</p><p>11:30 Discovering Service Design as a Business Bridge</p><p>12:30 Remote Healthcare in India</p><p>14:00 Designing the "Nervous System" of an Organization</p><p>15:45 Navigating Complexity</p><p>19:00 Why Service Design Feels Like the "Wild West"</p><p>19:50 Tool Spotlight: Using the Emotional Culture Deck</p><p>21:30 Moving from Doing to Being</p><p>24:00 Resilience in Startups vs. Corporate Safety</p><p>26:15 How Personal Grief Shapes Professional Perspective</p><p>31:15 The Gap Between Self and Work</p><p>34:30 Why Service Designers are Natural "Absorbers"</p><p>38:30 Building a Protective Layer Against Burnout</p><p>41:15 Mapping the Invisible Organizational Nervous System</p><p>44:45 Managing Design at Scale</p><p>48:15 When to Say "No" to the Machine</p><p>52:30 The Power of Invisible Labor</p><p>56:15 Measuring the Value of What Can't Be Seen</p><p>59:00 Protecting Your Design Culture from Company Culture</p><p>1:00:15 Final Takeaways</p><p><br /></p><p> --- [ 2. LINKS ] --- </p><ul><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/karamartinsnyder/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://www.linkedin.com/in/karamartinsnyder/</a></li><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddhartha-saxena-37a41022" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddhartha-saxena</a></li><p><br /></p></ul><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&amp;utm_medium=podcast&amp;utm_campaign=episode_description&amp;utm_id=10&amp;utm_content=inside_service_design" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">⁠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-10-youtube" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://go.servicedesignshow.com/inside-service-design-10-youtube</a></li><li>Spotify ~ <a href="https://go.servicedesignshow.com/inside-service-design-10-spotify" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://go.servicedesignshow.com/inside-service-design-10-spotify</a></li><li>Apple ~ <a href="https://go.servicedesignshow.com/inside-service-design-10-apple" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://go.servicedesignshow.com/inside-service-design-10-apple</a></li><li>Snipd ~ <a href="https://go.servicedesignshow.com/inside-service-design-10-snipd" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://go.servicedesignshow.com/inside-service-design-10-snipd</a></li></ul>