This study identifies critical success factors and important approaches that service companies can utilize in the design of products, services, and programs.

It is common for service companies to have design teams that are responsible for facilitating the innovation process. However, these design teams might not benefit from a systematic training and knowledge transfer process.

Therefore it is important to translate critical success factors and important approaches into a model that will serve as a common framework for both training and facilitating the innovation process.

The research process investigated a diverse group of organizations to identify challenges and key factors for implementing innovation. The findings suggest that innovation principles, methods, and tools have a broad application for service organizations in the design of products, services, and programs.

These key findings were used to construct a service innovation framework comprised of design phases, design processes, analytical and ideation methods, critical success factors, and environmental factors.