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Service design · Guide and template

Map a journey across teams and channels

Use a simple worksheet to connect a person’s steps with the handovers that support them.

Go to the template

Before you start

A problem continues across a website, phone call, email or another team's process.

You’ll have: A shared view of the journey, its evidence gaps and one handover worth improving.

How to use it

  1. 1. Start with the person’s goal

    Choose whose journey you are mapping and where it starts and ends. Begin when the need arises, even if that is before someone reaches your website. Use research to describe what actually happens.

  2. 2. Connect visible steps with supporting work

    For each step, note the channel, information needed, responsible team and handover. Distinguish observations from assumptions. Include waiting, repetition and the work people do to recover when something fails.

  3. 3. Choose one point to investigate

    Review the map with the people using and delivering the service. Pick a consequential gap, name who can help investigate it and decide what evidence or trial would be useful next.

An example

Illustrative example: a resident submits a request online, then calls because there is no update. Map the submission, internal assignment and status communication together before redesigning the form.

Keep in mind: A workshop map is a starting hypothesis unless it is grounded in research. Label assumptions and avoid presenting one person’s journey as everyone's experience.

Use the template

Copy it into your own document or download the Markdown file. Fill it in with your team, using the guide above. No account or email is required.

Download .md

Preview the blank template
# Service journey worksheet

## Frame the journey
- Person and goal:
- Start and end:
- Research or operational evidence available:
- People involved in reviewing this map:

## Journey step (repeat in sequence)
- What the person is trying to do:
- Action and channel:
- Information they need:
- What they experience (with evidence reference):
- Team or process supporting this step:
- Handover to the next team or channel:
- Waiting, repetition or failure:
- Assumptions and unanswered questions:

## Choose a next step
- Handover or barrier to investigate:
- Why it matters to the person:
- Evidence still needed:
- Who needs to be involved:
- Small change or trial to explore:
- How we will judge whether it helped:

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Cumulative · Map a journey across teams and channels
Guide: https://cumulative.com.au/resources/service-journey

A workshop map is a starting hypothesis unless it is grounded in research. Label assumptions and avoid presenting one person’s journey as everyone's experience.