MethodsService blueprint
What
A visual representation of the start-to-finish experience of both using and supporting the delivery of a service, including staff interactions and user experience.
Why
To clarify relationships between intertwined systems and processes. By communicating the full complexity of a service, service blueprints help teams find opportunities for improvement.
How to do it
- Gather information on the service through desk research and interviews with users, frontline staff, and support staff.
- Create a diagram with four rows:
- User steps: the primary action someone takes when interacting with the service
- Frontstage actions: the online and offline interactions that users have with the service, including people, places where interactions occur, and physical or virtual objects that users interact with, like forms
- Backstage actions: activities in the systems and processes that support the frontstage experience, but are not visible to users
- Support processes: activities executed by the rest of the organization or external partners — such as ongoing data management or software licensing — that don’t fall into the other rows
- Map the flow of each user interaction through the service. Note critical points and interactions in delivering the service, as well as any opportunities to handle interactions more efficiently or that would result in a better user experience.
Examples
- 18F created this example of a service blueprint for getting fast food.
- Centers of Excellence and the U.S. Department of Agriculture created a service blueprint as part of the OneUSDA ecosystem project.
Considerations for use in government
No PRA implications. No information is collected directly from members of the public.
18F
18F
