Building on the original blueprint
We originally created a service service blueprint to help support decision making and communicate changes to stakeholders. However, we now needed to expand and evolve the blueprint to reflect the progression in our work since beta.
Our goals were to:
- evolve the blueprint in line with our user research
- build a clearer understanding of both the as-is and to-be internal process steps and external provider user journey
- include more recently introduced features such as the funding index, access to guidance and calculation factors
We decided to keep all versions of the blueprint in one board, making it easier to compare changes between iterations.
Mapping the updated journey
We made 2 key updates to the blueprint.
Mapping the internal steps: as-is and to-be
We built out our understanding of the steps that Funding Operations carry out to ensure that allocation statements are released on time. Mapping out how these steps fit into the to-be journey helped us to clearly communicate upcoming ways of working and process changes for operational and product teams.
Contextualising the external user journey
We explicitly called out on the blueprint where our data-driven pattern sits within the full end-to end-journey, demonstrating how the new experience coexists with the existing one on manage your education and skills funding (MYESF).
We showed how users might navigate between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ and which pages may be temporary during this transition period.
Layering insights with 'lenses'
Once we had established and mapped the updated journey, we were then able to create a set of ‘lenses’ - versions of the blueprint to communicate more detailed insights.
User needs and assumptions lens
Working with the user research team, we were able to map out which assumptions we wanted to test, and where they sat in the user journey.
We then used a red, amber, green (RAG) system to rate the assumptions after each round of research on whether they were met, partially met, or not met – allowing us to see our confidence levels at a glance.
We were able to use this lens, along with our more detailed user research recommendations to directly inform iterative design decisions between rounds.
Opportunities lens
This layer was designed to capture opportunities for future development and features across different disciplines (design, tech and product) and how we might be able to address them.
These are all opportunities that we have so far deprioritised or have been unable to address due to technical, time or other constraints. However, they we may be able to implement them in a future phase of work (or hand over to another team to look at longer term).
Seeing how these opportunities fit into the overall process journey helps to identify where they might add value to users and also gives useful context to other teams that may be involved in this work in the future.
Metrics lens
This layer details our recommendations for performance and success metrics, highlighting where in the end-to-end journey these metrics need to be tracked.
Next steps
We’ll be using the blueprint:
- to inform design decisions as we look to implement our next feature
- to facilitate conversations around scalability and onboarding of other funding streams beyond adult skills fund and advanced learner loans
- as an essential handover document and asset as we move towards the end of the project