Service systems in the smart living domain integrate a multitude of heterogenous data sources and affect the most private area of human lives. Therefore, particular challenges for service systems engineering arise in terms of interoperability of Internet-of-Things (IoT)-devices, privacy concerns and creating truly smart value propositions. By applying a promising approach, this paper examines smart service systems engineering and reveals the potential for extensions and adaptations of existing methods. A need for the integration of data science and software engineering approaches as well as a focus on acceptance, usability and the business perspective within a holistic smart service systems engineering method is discussed. This enables smart service systems to reconcile their human-centered and data-driven qualities.