Service Blueprints: what I learnt when coaching my colleagues
Service Design working group notes
Is it just me or does every Service Designer roll their eyes slightly when someone talks about service blueprints?
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the act of visualising complex ideas. But I’m always a bit scared to talk about blueprints specifically because many people seem to think that all Service Designers do is map things and do blueprints. I get worried about feeding that misconception.
But, putting my fears aside, here I am. Let’s talk about blueprints.
Our current team mission at K+C is to raise internal awareness of service design and to enable people to have a service design mindset. Talking about tools and explaining the Service Design role are therefore very important items on the agenda. As service blueprints are relatively high profile, I decided to share my experience in a workshop, and to demonstrate how maps (having something visual in front of people) in general help to create a shared understanding.
It was a fascinating session. Not only were my colleagues inquisitive and engaged, but I learned too. Talking things through with those with strong technical backgrounds but little experience of my field built my own understanding and empathy. Here are three of the key insights I got from the discussion:
1- Mapping is a skill that needs to be developed. We aren’t born writing blueprints. I always assumed that mapping is the easiest activity in the world, because it seems so natural to me. It turns out that this isn’t how everyone thinks or works. Blueprints can be daunting if you’re not familiar with their complex structure. They also require us to switch between perspectives, from high level and strategic to granular and operational, which might stretch people:
“Service designers operate on these different levels so they can find various ways to intervene and improve the service” Martin Jordan and Annie Streater
Tip: If you are about to make your first ever service blueprint: ditch the service blueprint structure or template for a second! Focus on what are you are trying to achieve — What are you going to use the blueprint for? Have you defined the scenario and the use case you are trying to map? When that’s clear, start mapping the customer journey. Start thinking what each customer action is triggering. Write this down and slowly connect the dots. Now you have your basic journey, you can start layering. Move things towards the service blueprint format by placing your lines of visibility and line of interaction (if needed). Now step back and see what other information is missing. Most important, remember that this is collaborative process, so don’t try to blueprint by yourself.
See the guide from Erik Flowers and Megan Erin Miller for more tips on how to do blueprints.
2- To be valuable, service blueprints need to be actionable. Some people struggled to see the value in doing a blueprint. They thought it was just a time consuming activity that would end up in a drawer somewhere and grow outdated. And to be fair, this probably happens a lot. Try to avoid this scenario at all costs. Creating a blueprint is not the end in itself, its true value is the actionable insights generated with your team during the blueprinting session. If you don’t see the blueprint as a deliverable or an outcome then it won’t be something that will be so easily outdated or dismissed a couple of weeks later.
Tip: Make sure your blueprint helps to communicate actions. For example, clearly annotating the blueprint with critical moments and noting ideas for improvement will demonstrate how the blueprint flags ways to improve the service. Try to create lanes at the bottom of the blueprint to capture pain points, questions, ideas and so on…
“The bottom set of layers — questions, critical moments, and ideas — are really the goal of the blueprint. These are the insights generated from the blueprinting session that will lead to actionable service improvements.” — Erik Flowers & Megan Erin Miller
3- Service blueprints will sometimes be your way in. Because they are tangible and represent information so well, blueprints are a powerful gateway to Service Design. This has pros and cons. It’s something people can exercise, put into practice and start playing with straight away. On the flip side, some will believe that service design equals service blueprints.
Tip: If colleagues are already hooked on service blueprints, you can work with them to broaden their understanding of Service Design and expand their practical skills. They already know they need to visualise things and see things more holistically — this is a positive. But, they might not know when other approaches could be more effective: they might not need a blueprint, but an ideation workshop, for example.
Creating a service blueprint remains an activity many people expect from Service Designers, and their ubiquity can drown out other valid methods to deliver results. Yet, they remain an engaging collaboration tool. Above all, whatever processes we use, we must focus on delivering outcomes for our clients. This means generating actionable insights and practical ideas, not just elegant artefacts.
Keep learning
My perception and understanding of service blueprints has changed and matured over the years. We should never stop learning. The fact that simply talking about blueprints triggered new ideas for me is powerful in itself.
What have been your biggest learnings about service blueprint?
Some brilliant people have shared some amazing thoughts on maps and service blueprints, check it out: Alessandra Canella, Shahrzad Samadzadeh, Linn Vizard and Megan Erin Miller
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