Refining service blueprint for composable digital services

Abstract

When the services have expanded to digital platforms and the number of concurrent actions has increased due to the use of the APIs and external integrations, the service blueprint framework has reached its limits and the ability to handle complex digital services is not enough any more to withstand digital service needs. This thesis focuses on the following questions: What is the current state of the service blueprint, are there viable options to satisfy customers’ and service providers’ needs, and can the service blueprint be used to efficiently visualise modern digital services? There are many other approaches and frameworks that are very good at explaining and visualising certain parts of digital services, such as Unified Modeling Language(UML) diagrams, system architecture diagrams, and user flow charts. None of these provide a good representation of the whole service and the interactions between the user and the technology. These diagrams and graphs are often too complex and too detailed for the stakeholders to understand. The service blueprint is a great alternative to these charts and diagrams especially for visualising traditional physical services, such as a mobile phone repair or a customers hotel visit, because it shows all the interactions between the user and the service. The aim of the thesis is to provide a good overview of how the services have changed their physical form during the digital transformation and whether the service blueprint keeps its position for digital services.