Blog
6 min read
Why start journey mapping?
While working on the discovery process for our internal products, I encountered varying interpretations of the same parts of our workflow. Each team member had a different understanding of their process, resulting in inconsistencies.
Our process was segmented, and so was the client's final experience. Every team member focused on their own specialty, which meant we lacked a holistic vision of the overall experience.
Consequently, assumptions were made about other parts of the journey, leading to misalignments and gaps in the flow—reflections of the silos between each step of the journey.
We needed a document to align everyone and, at the same time, a way to highlight these divergences and eventually resolve them. The solution, in this case, was to create a service blueprint.
Now, let's discuss some terminology that I find confusing, and I believe others might too. Journey mapping is a group of different methods used to create a simplified representation of a complex process or experience.
There are various ways to represent it, such as through service blueprints, experience maps, and user journey maps.
In the end, all of these are artifacts that help you communicate within the organization. The one you choose depends on what you need to focus on, the level of detail required, and who needs visibility into the experience.
In the case of service blueprints, you can show the different internal teams involved in the journey, when they impact the end-user experience, and how they interact with each other, their systems, and supporting tools.
How to start?
So, how do you start? By talking to people. I spoke with team members and leads from every part of the organization to learn about their processes, the tools they use, the teams they interact with or depend on, the kind of information they need from the client to proceed with their work, and so on.
Then, all of this information was laid out visually so we could all see and understand the building blocks of our services.
This exercise allows everyone on the team to view the flow together. This creates an opportunity to highlight the differences and interdependencies in their processes, and identify their needs and pain points and most importantly, we can agree on a strategic direction and solution.
While it may not always be possible to prioritize all the opportunities and changes that emerge, at least now that the issues in the flow are visible and mapped out, so we know what we can work on in the future.
These initiatives are also great for creating connections and new bridges between technology and business.
They allow us to better understand each other, which leads to better solutions for both our users and the organization. Additionally, they foster collaboration and partnerships for future projects.
Once the document was assembled, the most important part of the process was sharing it within the company. Visibility and knowledge sharing are essential aspects of our design culture at Alraedah, and this blueprint was no exception.
It was shared company-wide in an easily accessible format so everyone could refer to it as needed.
In our case, our company service blueprint is a living document, constantly evolving as our services and processes change according to user needs and market dynamics. This gives us the freedom to suggest new processes and solutions to the current flow.
Service blueprints are visual tactical tools that help coordinate action by aligning everyone on a single process and document.
Since it is a living document, we don't need to worry about it being pixel-perfect; we can add new post-its, comments, and markers in a way that's easy for people from different teams to see and understand.
Every service blueprint is unique to its use case and the moment it was created within the company. The same service being mapped can have different levels of detail according to the company's current needs. There is no one way to do it.
During the mapping process, you might get stuck on a particular part of the journey. In these instances, consider that unhappy paths and exception cases might be separate journeys on their own—not every journey is linear.
These are the main challenges when creating service design blueprints, but they are also what make them valuable. You can abstract or detail them just enough to meet your needs and unify or separate journeys according to your reality.
The takeaway
Journey mapping as an artifact helps us communicate complex structures in simplified ways, tailored to the audience's needs. It is a great resource to get everyone on the same page, whether onboarding new joiners or having an in-depth meeting about a specific part of the flow with C-level executives and company veterans.
It creates a shared understanding while providing a holistic perspective of the process. This enables us as a company to better understand our own services while also gaining insight into the pains and processes our users experience with our products.
With service blueprints, we can understand what is happening right now and use them as a tool to plan and design for the future as well.
Need any help mapping your service blueprints or want to talk more about it with us? Feel free to message us or come see us at the next Riyadh Design Nights. 😊
