A service blueprint is a living artifact which gives us the big picture view of our service as experience by focusing on key user scenarios as a lens through which to view how our organisation delivers the service being offered. Blueprinting shows us both what is happening that is visible to the user (the front stage), as well as all the things going on behind the scenes that are invisible to the user (the backstage).
Gain a big picture view of the state of the service experience from the user perspective. • Capture and document the end-to-end, surface-to-core service and its interfaces, holistically. • Build team alignment – we embed and share knowledge and we create a “shared vocabulary”. • Identify critical moments in the service, breakdowns, and ask and capture questions to drive next steps. • Generate ideas and identify opportunities for improvements, both tactical and strategic. • Create a living artefact which forms the basis for conversations, investigations and alignment going forward..
& SOLVE FOR... • Broken, painful, or inconsistent user experiences. • Inefficiencies in “backstage” processes, performers, systems, policies. • Breakdowns between business silos. • Service problems that originate “upstream”. • Areas that are “fuzzy” where our teams are not aligned.
JOURNEY MAP, RIGHT? In short, a journey map is a story of an user’s experience end-to-end, and it shows what they are doing, thinking, and feeling. It does not really capture what is going on behind the scenes in the service organisation, it simply focuses on the experience of the user over the course of the their journey. A blueprint however, takes that story and uses it as a lens through which to look at how the organization is operating - we are including all the things that are happening backstage as well as front stage and this gives us the big picture view of everything that’s happening behind the scenes that is contributing to the overall service experience.
BUILDING OUR SCENARIO The top layer of the blueprint is where we have our scenario, broken down into specific steps. This is the end-to-end view of what is happening in our service during this particular scenario from the users perspective.
ADDING OUR PHASES Next, we divide our blueprint into phases, like “awareness” and “incident” to help us and our stakeholders understand at a higher-level, what is happening across our scenario.
ADDING THE TOP LAYERS The layers that go below our scenario are the surface-to-core of how our organisation delivers the service. Step definition: A plain-words, short description of what is happening in the step. Touchpoint: A description of what’s happening written from the user’s perspective. Performer: Who is involved in this touchpoint? Enabler: What are the systems, documents, processes, technology, hardware, infrastructure, or processes that makes this touchpoint work? Policy / Constraints: The regulations or constraints that dictate why something is a certain way at this touchpoint. Information: Facts or observations relevant to the step. Metric: Data / statistics that help us understand this touchpoint better e.g. bounce rates for email.
ADDING THE BOTTOM LAYERS These bottom layers help us identify gaps in our understanding, pull out actionable insights and to call out evidence, all of which points at next steps. Question: What outstanding questions do we have about this touchpoint? Critical moment: Potential or actual breakdowns of the service experience that are sources of pain for the end-users. Opportunity: Ideas or “ah-ha” insights about how we could improve the service experience or service delivery. Evidence: Any quotes or observations collected through research which are relevant and which point at user needs.