Improving communication and efficiency with service blueprint mapping
The EE Service Design team took a decision to deliver training to 600 colleagues this year on the value of service blueprint mapping. We are facilitating two training sessions a week, one face-to-face and one remote, rotating across all our major offices. That sounds like an exhausting effort on top of other work, so why are we doing it?
There have been a few blog posts recently questioning the value of service blueprint mapping: they can take a long time to create, hard to maintain, and sometimes overkill for the goal of the teams. But these arguments miss the point of the real value. Facilitated in the right way, service blueprint maps are a vital communication tool to help teams rise above their organisational boundaries and gain a shared understanding of what needs to be done.
How often have you experienced lost time in meetings going round in circles? The relief when someone asks a question by chance about something they don’t understand but feel they should. Colleagues with cameras off feeling excluded from conversations or confused about what is happening now and next. It’s hard to measure, but that is a lot of waste. Well-facilitated mapping activities can help to remedy all those things and help us to be more efficient.
Our organisational structures often create silos that can get in the way of effective communication across squads, disciplines and departments. It’s important for everyone that has a role building a digital service to understand the end-to-end journey, and front to back of the customer and advisor experience and technology, whether a designer, developer, product manager, solution architect or marketing colleague. They all make decisions about the service.
When individuals understand the intricacies and value of mapping, they can engage in meaningful discussions, share insights, and align their efforts toward a more cohesive and seamless customer experience. This approach reduces duplicated efforts and lets us function more efficiently. It reduces miscommunication and the risk of re-doing work unknowingly. It helps us to be clearer on insights and how to make evidence-based decisions.
We are committed to creating an environment where everyone can take part in the design of services. Equipping individuals with knowledge through mapping empowers them to actively participate in the design process. When colleagues understand the value of service blueprint mapping, they are more likely to engage wholeheartedly, contribute ideas, and collaborate effectively with their colleagues.
So far, we have had a great reaction to the training from leadership and peers. In the first few weeks we trained several directors from Digital, demonstrating commitment from the top as well as 120 colleagues across all areas representing product managers, solution architects, engineers, designers and user research.
As service designers, we are measuring whether the training is achieving the desired outcomes. So far, every attendee improved their understanding of different types of mapping activities, as well as their understanding of the value of and how to contribute to service blueprint mapping.
Our decision to train everyone on service blueprint mapping is driven by recognising the immense value of collaboration when building customer-centric services. Doing the hard work to make things simple can be time-consuming and takes maintenance, but the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.
By creating an environment conducive to design, we’re expanding mapping skills and knowledge, breaking down barriers, and enabling technology teams to grasp the bigger picture. We’ll unlock the full potential of our amazing colleagues, enhance collaboration, streamline processes, and ultimately deliver outstanding experiences to our customers.
What is your experience of service blueprint mapping? Let us know below.
