Faced with a Complex, Multilayered Problem? Try a Process Map

by Lan Nguyen and Emily Wright-Moore

As service designers, it’s our job to take a fresh look at complex service systems. These systems often involve long, messy processes with several actors in a multitude of interaction channels across long periods of time.

We’ve found that a process map can be a valuable tool for synthesizing what we’re learning about a system. And longer-term, it’s a tool that partners can refer to as they work to improve the process or system.

Why We Like Process Maps

It’s hard for any one actor in a complex system to see the full picture well enough to identify the best opportunities to improve it — or even whether improvement means reducing wait times, increasing throughput, or producing higher quality results.

Process maps allow everyone to view the whole experience from start to finish.

We judge the success of programs based on their outcome, or a series of outputs. Mapping the whole process is an effort to know what’s happening between the starting point and the end point. Rather than examining just the final result, we break it down into many smaller actions and interactions. We look upstream to evaluate where the service delivery is getting slowed down, blocked, or…