Development of a novel set of criteria to select methodology for designing product service systems

•This paper proposes eight groups of twenty nine scoring criteria that can help designers and practitioners to compare and select an appropriate methodology for a certain problem in designing product service system (PSS).•This paper enables a “step by step” process to identify the most appropriate design methodology for a company’s PSS problem. An example is also introduced to illustrate the use of the proposed scoring criteria and provide a clear picture of how different design methodologies can be utilized at their best in terms of application.•An example is also introduced to illustrate the use of the proposed scoring criteria and provide a clear picture of how different design methodologies can be utilized at their best in terms of application.

This paper proposes eight groups of twenty nine scoring criteria that can help designers and practitioners to compare and select an appropriate methodology for a certain problem in designing product service system (PSS). PSS has been researched for more than a decade and is now becoming more and more popular in academia as well as industry. Despite that fact, the adoption of PSS is still limited for its potential. One of the main reasons is that designing PSS itself is a challenge. Designers and developers face difficulties in choosing appropriate PSS design methodologies for their projects so that they can design effective PSS offerings. By proposing eight groups of twenty nine scoring criteria, this paper enables a “step by step” process to identify the most appropriate design methodology for a company’s PSS problem. An example is also introduced to illustrate the use of the proposed scoring criteria and provide a clear picture of how different design methodologies can be utilized at their best in terms of application.