Blueprinting

The Blueprint Model is practical, fun, inspiring and daunting all at the same time! After creating your blueprint you’ll have a much clearer sense of what you can do next, and who you need to speak to, what you need to find out or who you need to get to do something for you.

Describe the process of your business

Download the sheet using the link below. Let’s look at the various aspects of your business and how they fit together: the process of your business. To do this, we use Blueprint Modelling. The activity is in two parts, so let’s look at Part A first.

The above sheet is from NESTA’s Creative Enterprise Toolkit

Part A: You have two areas on this sheet – the areas in grey are what happens ‘behind the curtain’ – things your customers won’t see. Then the other boxes are ‘on stage’.

Be careful – you don’t want your customers to find you too early. You’ll give away your idea and lose precious development time. You want to focus on making the best first impression.

Just like a stage performance – would you want to see the auditions before the main act?

Part B: Now for part B. Here we will create a blueprint. Below are some examples of how this will look. It’ll be messy, and that’s fine. You might find it easier to start at the end of the process (Imagine you are working with a finished product) and work backwards.

Some blueprints are really simple, others are complicated. It depends on how many different aspects you need to control or hand over, and what sort of service or product you intend to deliver.

For now, if you have aspects which you envisage will be handled by other people, highlight them on your blueprint as we can use them in the next task.

Use your sheet from part A to fill in the flow chart on the right hand side (Part B). If you prefer to do it on the back or want more space, great – the messier the better. Remember, this is a ‘living’ task that will always be changing and need editing. As such, do it on a big piece of paper and stick it on the wall.