How to create a Service Blueprint

A five step process for creating service blueprints.

Oscar de la Hera Gomez
Written by Oscar de la Hera Gomez
First published on 01/18/2024 at 11:49
Last Updated on 02/22/2024 at 12:42
<p>A flower that represents Strategy with the text “Service Blueprint” beneath it.</p>

A five step process for creating service blueprints.

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Service Blueprints expand on Customer Journey Maps (i.e. Journey Maps) and are visualizations that companies or individuals use to illustrate a holistic representation of their service that details all the relationships, components and processes that describe the service.

What is a Service Blueprint?What is a Journey Map?

Examples of Service Blueprints

<p>An example service blueprint from the Nielsen Norman group.</p>

An example blueprint for an appliance retailer by the Nielsen Norman Group.

Nielsen Norman Group: Service BlueprintsInteraction Design Foundation: Service Blueprints

How to create a Service Blueprint

Our process goes deeper than that described by the Interaction Design Foundation which can be assessed using the link below.

Interaction Design Foundation: Service Blueprints

Before starting we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the structure of a service blueprint.

What makes up a Service Blueprint?

Step One: Write a Hypothesis

In order to create a service blueprint, you must create a service. This begins by defining the problem that you are trying to solve or the idea that you want to validate.

Please note that this hypothesis could relate to an existing feature, product, service or experience and could pertain to an entirely new creation or an addition to an existing creation.

What is a Hypothesis?How to write a Hypothesis

Step Two: Define the target audience

Service Blueprints are intended to help you gather an in-depth understanding of how a member of your target audience uses your service and the story that unravels around it.

In order to know who to map, you must define your target audience.

What is a Target Audience?How to define a Target Audience

Step Three: Carry out the Research

Perform user research, desk research and carry out interviews.

What is User Research?What is Desk Research?What are In-Depth Interviews (IDI's) and how do I conduct them?How to plan and conduct Focus Group interviews?

Before you interview the individuals make sure to keep in mind that you will create personas for each of them and that you will map their journey into a shared structure to be able to draw common conclusions and insights that belong to the target audience when using your service.

What is a User Persona?What is a Journey Map?
<p>An example service blueprint from the Nielsen Norman group.</p>

An example blueprint for an appliance retailer by the Nielsen Norman Group.

When interviewing users its also important to keep track of all the key touchpoint that will be considered as part of your service blueprint (i.e. customer actions, frontstage actions, backstage actions and processes).

To remind yourself of what these are consult the link below.

What makes up a Service Blueprint?

Step Four: Create the Service Blueprint

<p>Interaction Design Foundations Service Now, Service Blueprint Example.</p>

Using the research from Step Three, create personas, journey maps for each of the participants.

Then use these to create a service blueprint.

What is a User Persona?What is a Journey Map?

Step Five: Evaluate the Results

Use your journey map and service blueprint to create a SWOT Analysis (i.e. identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) and brainstorm features, products, services or experiences to prototype and test that result in a return on investment by enhancing the life of your target audience.

What is a SWOT Analysis?

Additionally, we recommend that you consult our Methods for Synthesizing User Research article linked below to learn about design thinking products that could come out of the research that you have conducted.

These products are created using popular design research methodologies which are intended to help you and your organization innovate effectively.

What is Synthesis in Research?

Always remember, the work is never done

A visual that demonstrates a circular iterative process that goes from define, which is symbolized as a document, to clarify, which is symbolized as a geometric alignment, through creation which is symbolized as a nucleus.
delasign's process

When creating a service blueprint, it is important to note that they are neither a start nor an end.

Service blueprints should serve as a means to learn more about your target audience, your service, what works and what does not and should ultimately help refine the hypothesis or service as you progress.

It is more than likely that if you transform your target audience's life that the service blueprint will change.

This is the result you're looking for and will likely mean that you will have to update the service blueprint to reflect new requirements when the time comes, with the vision of further enhancing the lives of your target audience.

Service blueprints are also capable of demonstrating that you should not pursue a feature or a product, service or experience - and that's OK.

Learn more about our processInnovation and Design Thinking Processes and ModelsWhat is a Product-Market Fit (PMF)?

Looking to learn more about Research and Strategy?

Search our blog to find educational content on research and strategy.

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Any Questions?

We are actively looking for feedback on how to improve this resource. Please send us a note to inquiries@delasign.com with any thoughts or feedback you may have.
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