Dffrnt

Unlocking the Power of Service Blueprints: A Recipe for Success!

In the world of service design, "Service Blueprints" are the secret sauce that can take your customer experiences from good to exceptional.

🍔 Analogy: The Recipe for a Perfect Burger 🍔

Imagine you're at a restaurant famous for its mouthwatering burgers. What makes their burgers stand out? It's not just the quality of ingredients or the chef's skills; it's the meticulously crafted recipe. The recipe not only lists the ingredients but also provides step-by-step instructions on how to assemble and serve the burger to ensure every customer gets a consistently amazing experience.

Now, think of your service as that burger. The ingredients are your processes, people, and technology, while the recipe is the Service Blueprint.

📋 Example: Improving Customer Onboarding 📋

Now let's say you're in charge of a fintech company, and you want to enhance your customer onboarding process. Without a blueprint, you might make changes here and there, hoping to improve things. But with a Service Blueprint, you have a structured plan that maps out every touchpoint and interaction in the onboarding journey.

1. Ingredients (Processes): You identify the steps involved, such as account setup, KYC verification, and tutorial access.
2. Recipe (Service Blueprint): Your blueprint visualizes the customer journey, highlighting pain points, bottlenecks, and opportunities for improvement. It also specifies who's responsible for each step and which technology is involved.
3. The Result: Armed with this blueprint, you can make targeted improvements. You streamline the process, reduce customer wait times, and ensure that every interaction is seamless.

🔑 The Value of Service Blueprints 🔑

Service Blueprints are your recipe for success in the world of service design:

1. Clarity: They provide a clear, bird's-eye view of your service, helping you understand how everything fits together.
2. Alignment: They align your team, ensuring everyone understands their role in delivering exceptional customer experiences.
3. Continuous Improvement: By pinpointing pain points, you can continuously refine and optimize your services.
4. Consistency: Just like that perfect burger, Service Blueprints ensure a consistent experience for every customer, every time.

So, whether you're in fintech, healthcare, hospitality, or any other industry, consider adopting Service Blueprints to fine-tune your services and create memorable experiences for your customers. It's the recipe for success that can take your business to the next level! And, if you need help? We'd be happy to chat!

In an era when a two-year old smartphone is out of date, we have 50- and 60-year-old IT systems supporting Canadian benefit programs.

Two-thirds of the federal government’s digital applications are in poor health and in critical need of upgrades, according to the Auditor General’s report on IT modernization.

In addition to the considerable risk associated with the state of our nation’s digital infrastructure, Canadians are missing out on the benefits of digital transformation. Our citizens are not being served as well as they should because we have not modernized the systems of government.

What can we learn from this? The report points the finger at lack of oversight, inflexible funding structures and prioritizing budgets and schedules over functionality.

Digital transformation can be challenging, especially for large, decentralized organizations. Managing a large-scale modernization or business transformation is not the core competency of most departments and it’s not just an IT function.

Digital transformation is our core competency. If you want some expert input to make the most of your migration to new systems, talk to us.

Twenty years ago, you could get into any car and find the heating controls and the volume k**b. There was a little slider or k**b marked with red and blue for heating and cooling. All these things were tactile. They were visible. They had more or less the same structure, no matter what car you got into. So, you could pretty much intuitively figure out what you were supposed to be doing.

Today, with Tesla and other high-end automobiles, there's just a blank screen. You have to figure out how it works. What kind of interactions does it take? Can I speak to it? Can I do gestures? Is it capacitive? Is it resistive? How do I interact with this thing to get what I want out of it?

Unless you read an instruction manual, there’s a lot of trial and error because the interface is more simplified and because more of the structures are invisible on the interface. In many ways, an AI-structured or an AI-powered SaaS application is similar. It’s very powerful and can do many things, but it doesn't have the equivalent of those tactile haptic interface elements that an old car stereo did.

And so, for the user to get proficient will involve a lot more trial and error and pushing of the boundaries


There is no shortage of AI “experts” ready to assist product designers, but the real need will be for user experience experts to maintain users’ agency, access and ease of use - while leveraging the power of AI.

(And if you'd like to chat with user experience experts following the AI trend, get in touch!)

Servus Credit Union (smartly) leaned on user research to support future product and service design decisions, including an upgrade to their mobile and online banking tools.

Using one-on-one interviews and an online survey, we developed a comprehensive set of member banking personas to guide the development of Servus’ digital banking products.

Read the full case study here: https://dffrnt.ca/project/servus-credit-union

What makes one product take off and another one flop? The tech industry calls it “stickiness.” We call it good design.

Dominira Saul explored what makes digital products “sticky” in an interview with Authority Magazine, drawing on his years of UX experience. He discusses the importance of knowing your user plus tips to encourage retention and facilitate product adoption.

Check out the full article and see if you recognize any of these qualities in your favorite digital tools: https://medium.com/authority-magazine/dominira-saul-of-dffrnt-on-5-tricks-for-creating-sticky-tech-products-42860daf5429

It might sound counterintuitive - but hear us out...

⚖️ Less is more when it comes to adoption and stickiness. At least in the beginning.

We've all experienced a moment of overwhelm when opening a new website, app or tech toy that has a million buttons, links or options right out of the gate. For some users that's enough to get them to walk away and never come back. And for others, if they quickly scan and the option they're looking for doesn't jump out at them they quickly give up.

➡️ Make it easy and painless for users to get started.

Avoid the temptation to put the full depth of power and features on display for the user. Focus on their core tasks and allow those to be a doorway to other features. This way the core features of your product are clear and simple for your users to get started with and when they get good at the basics, they can integrate the more advanced features.

🧭 How do you facilitate that? Plan a path to transition users from novice to expert.

Whether that's tutorials, gamification, challenges, or Clippy-like pop up tips that start later in the onboarding process, you can still get more advanced features to the users that will use them - without traumatizing anyone along the way.

(Need help with top task optimization and experience design? Let's chat!)

Your data is only as good as your inputs. This means the design of survey questions has to facilitate quality data collection. This can get tricky when you are trying to collect personal demographic data - you want as much accurate data as your can get, but your respondents want to maintain their privacy, dignity and authenticity.

Asking closed ended, specific questions like specific age, specific medical conditions, specific job titles or specific dates and times of activities might make respondents feel your questions are too identifiable and personal (thus risking their privacy) and abandon or provide misinformation for the question or survey entirely. Alternatively, if your question is multiple choice and your options are not inclusive enough (for example, providing female and male only as options to a gender question) respondents could feel unrepresented, disrespected and again abandon or provide misinformation for the question or survey entirely.

So how do you account for these challenges and still collect the data you need?

For questions that may be too specific, opt for multiple choice groups instead of exact answers. For example, instead of a specific age, allow respondents to select from a list of ranges like 26-35, 36-45, etc. Adjust the ranges so you still get the level of data you need while protecting the respondent's privacy.

For questions where you can't anticipate all possible variations a person might respond with, list out the main options to select but also provide a text field for other entries not listed. However, avoid labelling this as "Other:" to avoid quite literally "othering" all other possible responses. Opt for a more neutral label like "Not listed:" or "Custom answer:".

Before finalizing a list of questions for any survey review it with an eye for inclusivity, accessibility, privacy, compassion and empathy. You'll get better quality data and your respondents will feel better about sharing their information.

Have questions or want help with user or customer research, behavioural research, or survey design? Let us know!

Read Dominira Saul’s 5 tips for creating sticky tech products, plus more about user onboarding and product adoption in this interview from Authority Magazine.

Thanks to Rachel Kline and Authority Magazine for a great discussion and letting Dom talk about some of DFFRNT’s most rewarding projects.

Dominira Saul Of DFFRNT On 5 Tricks for Creating “Sticky” Tech Products An Interview With Rachel Kline

The Canada Revenue Agency interacts with millions of Canadians. It has a substantial workforce, spread from coast to coast. The agency collects taxes, administers tax law and delivers benefit programs for the federal government and many provincial and territorial governments as well.

But, how do you harness the creative energy of more than 40,000 workers dispersed across the country?

Read how here: https://dffrnt.ca/project/innovation-at-government-agencies-making-it-work-2/

Modernization and digital transformation are not the same.

The Auditor General’s report on IT modernization in the Government of Canada makes an important distinction between modernization and transformation. Modernization is bringing IT systems up-to-date; transformation is about making systems better for users. They should go hand-in-hand, but too often we see the transformation component – the improvements for users – get scaled back when budgets and timelines get tight.

When the upper levels of management prioritize budgets and timelines over functionality and features, the imperative becomes “Get it finished, even if it’s not good, even if it doesn’t check all the boxes, just get it done.” Sound familiar?

We think the measures of success for digital transformation should include functionality and user experience, in addition to schedules and budgets. Where does your organization fall on the budgets vs. functionality spectrum? Tell us in the comments.

Do you need strategic or tactical UX research? While some of the methods may be similar, strategic and tactical research have different goals.

Strategic UX research is used when you’re trying to determine “Is this the right product?” It is long-term, enterprise-level, goal-setting research, delivered to C-suite executives. It is not “How do we fix the problem?” but more “Is this the right problem to fix?”

Field studies, competitive analysis and persona building are likely to provide insights for strategic decisions.

We’re vigorous advocates of strategic UX research, but there are times when all you need is tactical research. If you’re introducing a new feature or just tweaking the interface design, tactical will do.

Tactical user experience research methods include interviews to understand what users want from the product, and usability testing to ensure your digital product or service will do what it’s intended to do.

Tell us in the comments which your organization needs right now: strategic or tactical? Bonus: We can help with both.

There’s no trick to creating sticky tech products – just follow good design principles. In this interview with Authority Magazine , our founder Dominira Saul talks about how to create “stickiness” plus best practices for user onboarding, product adoption and user retention.

It’s not about the visual interface or the trendy features. As always, good design comes down to solving your user’s problem, in a way that works seamlessly for them.

Read the interview, “5 Tricks for Creating Sticky Tech Products” in Authority Magazine, and let us know your thoughts: https://medium.com/authority-magazine/dominira-saul-of-dffrnt-on-5-tricks-for-creating-sticky-tech-products-42860daf5429

What is the biggest mistake you can make if you want to make a “sticky” tech product?

Too much emphasis on the aesthetics.

That’s what our co-founder Dominira Saul told Authority Magazine in a recent interview.

Visual design is often about first impressions. Over time, if something is overly reliant on aesthetics, it can get boring or conversely, annoying, if there are too many animations, micro-interactions, or garish colour schemes. In terms of long-term value, from a “stickiness” perspective, the mechanics of the product have to work.

For more insights on digital product design, read the full interview: https://medium.com/authority-magazine/dominira-saul-of-dffrnt-on-5-tricks-for-creating-sticky-tech-products-42860daf5429

We’d love to chat about improving adoption and retention for your products. Book a meeting through our website or give us a call.

Dominira Saul, speaking in Authority Magazine about the value of user research:

“UX researchers and designers understand user workflows and pain points. We know where there are opportunities for improvement and innovation.

I believe that being able to paint a data-backed, actionable picture of who your users are and what they’re actually doing — instead of what the salespeople wish they were doing or the marketing people hope that they’re doing — is strategic business intelligence.”

Have you ever considered user research as a business intelligence tool?

At DFFRNT, we provide user research and sector insights that inform C-suite decisions. It’s a different view of UX, but one that we embody every day as we work with government, finance, healthcare and mobility companies.

To see how user research can be used strategically, check out our projects page: https://dffrnt.ca/projects

The CRA wanted to tap into the potential of employee-generated ideas and guide them from the idea stage to the concept and pitch stages and maybe even to prototype. So, they enlisted DFFRNT.

We embarked on a three-pronged strategy to help CRA scale up their innovation incubation program, and empower employees to implement their own.

Explore this compelling case study shedding light on the journey of change and progress in the public sector. Read it here - https://bit.ly/4ay8kih

The Canada Revenue Agency interacts with millions of Canadians. It has a substantial workforce, spread from coast to coast. So how do you harness the creative energy of more than 40,000 workers dispersed across the country? The innovation process designed and taught by DFFRNT did just that.

See how our three-pronged strategy to help CRA scale up its innovation incubation program created a new generation of employees managing “big I innovation.” Read the case study here - https://bit.ly/4ay8kih

What was the DFFRNT approach to this challenge? How did we help the CBSA foster a core group of employees who know the innovation process so that they can generate, conceptualize, and refine ideas into tangible, demonstrable experiences before investing millions of dollars in development costs?

Read the case study here - https://bit.ly/4bb5W0Y

Some of the emerging voice technology trends in healthcare, as identified by Gartner, include AI for emotional recognition, ambient digital scribe tools, experiential wayfinding and clinical communication and collaboration.

So, beyond text-to-speech, is there a way that voice technology can be leveraged to support nurses? DFFRNT’s principals leveraged their decades of experience designing for healthcare settings to learn just that.

Discover their findings, and the major pain points nurses faced in the case study - https://bit.ly/4a7uEzv

Beyond speech-to-text, how can voice technology support healthcare workers? That was the question asked by a leading US-based non-profit hospital system when they approached DFFRNT.

Nurses carry a heavy cognitive load in their day-to-day work. They are constantly multitasking and being interrupted, and their active memory is overloaded. So, could there be a way for voice technology to make a difference?

Read the case study to learn what a DFFRNT approach uncovered - https://bit.ly/4a7uEzv

The customer journey is at the heart of innovation design. So, if this quote from one of our recent projects resonates with you, see the DFFRNT approach to the problem that turned customer insights and usability testing into an actionable guide that three entrepreneurs could run with.

Read the case study here - https://bit.ly/3wdySqt

Three entrepreneurs have an idea for a tool that would make it easier for consultancies and consultants to find, apply, and capture knowledge within their organizations. But they encounter a wicked problem.

With a clunky proof of concept that users struggled to navigate, the founders struggled to build something usable.

What was the DFFRNT approach to giving these three entrepreneurs the customer insights they needed to build a functional product that gives actionable knowledge and insight into the workflow of people and teams as they work on projects?

Read the case study to find out - https://bit.ly/3wdySqt