Plan your approach
Service blueprint can sometimes be challenging to fit into a timed workshop because the scope of the project and the complexity of each blueprint can vary widely. For example, the service blueprint for a simple product may be relatively straightforward and require less time than one for a complex service or a long-term relationship.
The scope of the project can also impact the level of detail included in the journey map, front stage and backstage sections. When running this play you should balance sacrificing important details or oversimplifying the process. To address this, it might be necessary to break the process into multiple sessions.
Tip
If you need more information or support to estimating and managing the efforts needed for this play feel free to contact the Digital Service Design Office.
Set up your space
Decide if you are going to run the workshop in person or virtually. You can then start to gather the customer and supporting data in one place ready for your session. If running the workshop virtually, use the Miro template provided and start to prepare it in advance.
Collect evidence from customers
Before you use this play, you will need to make sure you have done the appropriate user research that you will base your service blueprint on. The service blueprint is meant to be supported by evidence, not assumptions.
User research is a critical step before creating a service blueprint because it provides a solid foundation of understanding about the users connected to a service.
Here are some key reasons why user research is essential before creating a service blueprint:
- User research will represent users much more accurately when mapping a service, than by basing it on assumptions.
- User research can uncover pain points or areas where users may face challenges or frustrations with an existing service. Understanding these pain points early on can help you address them in your service blueprint, resulting in an improved service experience and higher user satisfaction.
- User research reduces the risk of creating inaccurate or ineffective service blueprints, saving time, effort, and resources.
- By basing your service blueprint on user research, you can create holistic service solutions with maximum impact for your target users while also considering organisational stakeholders, systems and processes.
There are many ways to collect the evidence you need around a target user. Before moving forward with this activity, consider doing these plays to make sure you have the supporting research:
Contact us if you want advice on what kind of research best suits the situation.
Synthetic users vs real users
You might have heard of something called “synthetic users” - a synthetic user is an artificial representation (also known as bots or automated scripts) of a user that is created for various purposes, such as user testing or user research.
We strongly oppose the use of synthetic users because they do not fully replicate the complexity of real human users. Real users can have diverse characteristics, behaviours, preferences, and experiences that may not be accurately captured by synthetic users. This can lead to incomplete or biased results when conducting research, as the nuances of real human behaviour and interaction will be missed.
To be certain you have collected information that will help create true value to your customers, you will need to engage with real people from the Australian population.
Identify the key user
Defining the key user is a crucial step before creating a service blueprint. It helps ensure that the blueprint is tailored to map the journey, needs and expectations of the intended customers that are using a service.
Define the research goal
Choose a scope and focus for the service blueprint. Identify one scenario (your scope) and its corresponding key user.
Decide how granular the blueprint will be, as well as which direct business goal it will address. A high-level blueprint can be more abstract while a more granular or low-level blueprint can be very detailed. For example, a high-level blueprint for paying a fine might only have a few customer steps and a few business steps, but a low-level blueprint might include many steps including detail such as making choices about payment method or work process detail for the TMR side (backstage) of the blueprint.
Tip
There are no hard and fast ways to decide if your blueprint is, or should be, high or low level. It should be as detailed as needed to help you make more informed decisions.
Customer scenario
Whether you’re mapping an existing process or creating one from scratch, it’s crucial to start with the customer service scenario that you’d like to investigate.
For example, you might investigate how people pay fines from Mobile Phone and Seatbelt cameras. This would involve looking at all the steps involved from committing the offense to receiving the infringement notice, to making the choice of how to pay including in person at a Customer Service Centre or on the TMR website. You also need to consider how the resolution is communicated to the person depending on how they pay. As a service blueprint looks at how those processes are delivered, your investigation would also involve how those infringement notices are generated and the processes followed inside TMR that record payment and update demerit points.
Current or future state?
Are you mapping the current state or potential future state? A current state blueprint gives insight into an existing service, while a future state blueprint gives you the opportunity to explore future services that do not currently exist.
Mapping the current state is a great place to start if there is misalignment on what the existing process is or if there are gaps in your knowledge about the process. A service blueprint can be a great tool to create a common understanding of what a process is.
If the service already exists, you need to make a current state blueprint before making a future state, even if your focus is on the future.
Find support
Pull together a multi-disciplinary team that each have responsibility for a part of the service and establish stakeholder support for the blueprinting initiative. The composition of your blueprinting team should directly map onto the context, scenario, and goal of your blueprinting initiative.
For example, the broader the scope of your blueprint, the more cross-divisional involvement will be required. Think of your blueprint as a checklist; enlist a knowledge holder from each phase (stages of your service) and from each swim lane (customer journey, front stage and backstage), to ensure you have well-rounded participants and you don’t leave out key parties.
In general, it’s best to include a subject matter expert (SME) for each phase of the customer journey as well as each 'swim lane'. The swim lanes are made up of the customer journey, frontstage and backstage.
These SME's might be:
- Project officer or project manager
- Business analyst
- Designer
- Communications officer
- Solutions architect
- Developer
- Policy SME
- Operational SME (e.g. vehicle inspection unit for WOV)
- Customer service SME
You can also run the Create a multi-disciplinary team play.
Invite your participants
It’s important to give enough notice to ensure participants are able to come along to the session. Aim to send invitations about 2 weeks in advance.
You’ll want to make sure when you send an invite for the session, that you clearly explain the goal, how long it’ll take, and why people’s participation will be beneficial.
Use this calendar invitation template to give your attendees an idea of what to expect. It’s important they understand the importance of the play, if any preparation is required, and how long it will be.
Calendar invite for service blueprint workshop
Subject:You're invited to help create a service blueprint for [project name]
Meeting description:Hi [team name if sending a group invitation, or participant name if sending individual invitations],
As part of our ongoing work for [project name], we'd like to get everyone together to draft a service blueprint. A service blueprint is a diagram that visualises the relationships between different service components (people, infrastructure, communication, and materials) that are directly tied to touchpoints in a specific customer journey.
In this session we’ll work together through stages to create a service blueprint draft that will then be refined throughout the project.
The session will take about 2 hours and there is no preparation required on your end.
The session will be recorded so we can refer back to any discussions for notes if required. If you do not consent to being recorded, please respond by email to let me know.
I look forward to your contribution to the session.Kind Regards,
[Facilitator name]