What are the different types of Service Blueprints?

My two cents

I would categorise the visual structure of service blueprints into three broad categories:
  1. Flow-like Service Blueprints
  2. Grid-like Service Blueprints
  3. Kanban-like Service Blueprints

To me, the kanban-like Service Blueprints are the ones that I tend to prefer as they are very fast to create and flexible without overwhelming the people who see them at the first time.

Then when it comes to content, I see that there are two main types of Service Blueprints:
  1. Current state service blueprints: such blueprints are an analysis and summary of how things work today. They are great for highlighting what works well and where improvements could be necessary, for example, by showing where customers or staff members have pain points.
  2. Future state service blueprints: such blueprints are a prototype of an imagined new service. They are great for showing how a new service could feel to the user while also showing what would be needed to turn this idea into a reality.

Flow-like Service Blueprint Example

These service blueprints look more look like a process diagram.

Blueprint for Discount Brokerage by G. Lynn Shostack, the mom of the Service Blueprint
The stages of the customer experience are shown in a horizontal line, and below that, the process used to create that experience is shown.
The advantage of a flow-like service blueprint is that it highlights the interdependencies, consequences and relations in a service. This form of blueprint best shows the complexity of service.

Grid-like Service Blueprint Example

These service blueprints look more like a spreadsheet.

Uber Service Blueprint Example by Studio WAT.R found on the Service Design Tools website.
Here again, you have all the stages of the customer experience on the horizontal line and the different touchpoints on the vertical axis. Usually, in this representation, the front and the backstage are clearly divided.
The advantage of a Grid like service blueprint is that it's pretty mechanical to build and helps you to think through every element of the experience.

Kanban-like Service Blueprint Example

These blueprints look more like a kanban, where you have different cards for each column. 
An example of a Service Blueprint for joining a Slack community using the Practical Blueprinting idea. Details here.

Here again, you have all the stages of the customer experience on the horizontal line. And below each stage, you can have multiple pieces of information stacked like cards. These can be touchpoints, ideas, inspirations, backstage elements, etc.
The advantage of a kanban like Service Blueprint is that it's super quick to create and can have different layers of information.

Service Blueprint resources

You can find all the Service Blueprint resources I've created here. This includes courses, templates and a library of external links and resources.

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