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Five questions for Fredrik Bäckson

In his role as Service Designer, Fredrik works on ensuring customer centricity, efficiency, and cross functionality among the different departments within Polestar.

Fredrik Backson looking into the camera, standing in front of a set of stairs.

How does the reality of your job compare with what people think you do?Very good question! It’s quite hard to describe Service Design and what I do in one sentence. It is such a broad role with so many different levels and perspectives. In some scenarios, I’m sure people think I might be crazy when I work/talk as I can be in a few different levels of details at the same time, but the thought usually has a very process-like and clear story behind it.

So, the reality is that I want to act and be in many places, so that I can connect the dots and have a clear holistic view not only for myself, but also for the initiatives I work with. To always push for a customer centricity, efficiency, cross functionality of teams, cost-effectiveness, and input from business strategy, I know that this it leads to better products and/or services that will improve the experience for our customers.

What is the best part of your job?

Might sound cheesy, but the best part is starting a new day seeing what possibilities that lay in front of us as team Polestar! And always knowing I will learn many new things during the day, either from people using our products and services, working in other areas or just have another way of thinking than myself.

What job would you have if you didn't have this one?

I would be a pilot or a mountain guide.

Are there any current trends that are shaping the area that you work with?

Yes, there are trends all the time in the field of design. Some are just quick touch downs, and some are here to stay. When it comes to putting more strategic thinking in to design thinking, such as Systems Design, I think that is here to stay. We have many thoughts and are doing some initiatives to get this type of perspective into the organisation. A quick summary of what it is, and how it can complete Service Design (and business design) is that systemic design thinking is an approach to view issues more broadly. It is based on the thought that the component parts of a system can be understood in the context of relationships with each other and with other systems, rather than existing in isolation. Working with and changing one part of one system affects other parts of the whole system.

What is your favourite invention?

The multitool and the cheese slicer. I love cheese.

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