Service Blueprint

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A service blueprint is a visual representation of the entire service experience from the customer's point of view. It outlines all the touchpoints and interactions involved in the service delivery process and the people, processes, and technology required to support them.

G. Lynn Shostack described a service blueprint in her HBR article in 1984: Designing services that deliver

A blueprint is more precise than verbal definitions and less subject to misinterpretation. It illustrates W. Edwards Deming's dictum that workers are never to blame for process flaws. Process design is management’s responsibility.
A service blueprint allows a company to test its assumptions on paper and thoroughly work out the bugs. 
A blueprint encourages creativity, preemptive problem-solving, and controlled implementation. It can reduce potential failure and enhance management’s ability to think effectively about new services.

Service Design Tools provides a comprehensive explanation of Blueprints.

A blueprint will usually have a few key elements:

  1. The customer journey or story, which normally will have stages
  2. Visible Actions the user might do in a touchpoint or channel
  3. Physical evidence: what results from the interaction with the service in each step or stage
  4. Line of interaction: Boundary that shows what is presented to the user by the organisation
  5. Line of visibility: splitting what is visible to the user and what is visible to employees (front-stage versus backstage)
  6. Actions by the employees
  7. Supporting processes
  8. Technology

Here is a screenshot of a service blueprint:

Screenshot 2023-09-24 at 11.20.16.png

The blueprint above was designed by former Adaptive Path's CEO Brandon Schauer. It shows the customer journey of someone attending an event and currently illustrates the definition of service blueprint on the wikipedia

You can create a service blueprint using any diagramming or collaboration tool (Figma, Figjam, Miro, Mural). However, due to accessibility issues, some organisations will use Excel or Google Sheets.

Service blueprints are not the same as Customer Journeys or Experience Maps

Check more Tools for service designers

Or you can find more about Lynn Shostack.