Service Design – Blueprinting of Customer-facing and Back-office Services
A collaborative approach to service design blueprinting achieved objectives across service improvement, stakeholder engagement, and IT procurement within challenging timescales.
Project Type
Business Transformation
About The Project
As part of broader changes to its operating model, our client aimed to fundamentally reassess core service delivery. This decision included procuring new housing management and finance systems. Working collaboratively, we engaged with various business stakeholders (including junior and senior operational staff, service improvement, and data design colleagues) to develop service blueprints of core activities.
The service blueprint combined customer experience, business processes, policy and regulatory rules, IT systems, and data flow into a single artifact illustrating the interrelation between these different aspects of the same service. Using draft blueprints in a co-design workshop enabled stakeholders to shape the high-level customer journey and business process (ahead of detailed design) and inform the specification for new IT systems.
Much of this work focused on the future shape of our client’s operating model, incorporating sector and industry best practices to define principles and support the design to achieve operational excellence.
Challenges
The client faced the challenge of redesigning core service delivery within a tight timeframe while preparing to procure new housing and finance systems. There was a need to align diverse stakeholder perspectives, including operational staff, service improvement teams, and data designers. Additionally, the absence of a unified view of customer experience, business processes, and IT systems made it difficult to plan effectively for future service improvements.
Solution
We adopted a collaborative service blueprinting approach that integrated customer experience, business processes, policy rules, IT systems, and data flows into a single visual artifact. Draft blueprints were used in co-design workshops to engage stakeholders in shaping the future service model. This approach enabled early consensus on high-level design and informed the specification for new IT systems. By incorporating sector best practices and working closely with internal teams, we ensured the blueprint reflected both strategic goals and operational realities.
Outcomes
The project successfully met three key objectives. First, it informed the specifications for new housing and finance systems within the required deadline. Second, it facilitated consensus among operational, strategy, IT, finance, and data teams on the future design of core services. Third, it provided a powerful engagement tool for strategy and transformation teams to communicate with colleagues and customers ahead of detailed design. Our co-creation approach, combining consultancy expertise with internal insights, enabled rapid delivery of service blueprinting workshops and laid the foundation for operational excellence.
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