The commissioner of the thesis was HAMK University of Applied Sciences. The aim of the thesis was to create a strategy for developing the service business of the Degree Programme in Design. The service business consists of educational services and developing services aimed at working life.

The theory applied in the thesis deals with customer-oriented service business and strategic business planning. The Ansoff Matrix was used to find the most promising solution to increase sales. The four growth strategies of the Ansoff Matrix were compared by using the SWOT-analysis. The theory of productization provided a theoretical framework for improving the profitability of the service business. An understanding of the principles of customer-oriented business as well as strategy process were utilized to build a case-study and to choose the most useful methods for this study.

The business environment was analyzed through external and internal factors. The external factors studied were the national developing program for the design field as well as the service business provided by other higher education institutions. Clients’ needs became clear when analyzing the material of the research on in-service training provided by The Finnish Association of Designers Ornamo. The internal factors were studied by interviewing teachers. The goal of the interviews was to understand the current service business and to get ideas for developing it. Further information was gained by interviewing two experts that worked close to clients in the design field. The main conclusion of this study was the knowledge that designers need in-service training to improve their business skills and to enhance their entrepreneurial capabilities. Another conclusion was that design thinking is a skill that could be sold to other fields too.

As a result of this thesis, a new customer strategy and a model for the strategic business areas of the renewed service business was created. One of the strategic business areas was described in detail.