ISS 2020 Vision Future of Service Management | Page 78

Gender bias and how not
understanding your user group can
impact your service delivery
There is a growing realization for the need of design and managing services specifically
geared towards women. Service managers and designers have a natural tendency to build
services and products for problems they know and understand. Many of the service start-ups
being launched right now are designed by men to handle services that their mothers and
partners used to do. According to Tamara Sword, tech adviser and founder of Infltr, “This
explains why so many male-led start-ups create platforms to deliver food, clean homes and
do laundry – essentially creating technology solutions to do what Mum used to do.” 105
One challenge is that designers often struggle designing for groups and users they do not
relate. This can lead to embarrassing instances of gender bias. Two cases that illustrate
this challenge well: Car makers used to use crash test dummies that were based on the
dimensions of the average man — which meant that female drivers were 47% more likely
to be seriously injured in a car crash. This challenge was first rectified in 2011, when female
crash test dummies became legally required for testing. Another example comes from Apple
and its Health App, which was launched in 2014. The Health App claimed that it tracked
everything that you need to know about your health; but it did not perform period tracking
– one of the most important indicators for women’s health. 105
105 Wallman, J., The Future of Gender Equality, 2016.
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