Process map

A process map documents how one particular thing gets done, step by step: how a refund is approved, how a new supplier is onboarded, how a fault report reaches an engineer. It is a deliberately narrow tool. Where a journey map covers a whole relationship, a process map covers a single procedure.

Three common shapes

A plain flowchart: steps and decisions in a chain, good for logic and branching.

A swimlane diagram: the same flow, but with horizontal bands for each actor or department, so you can see every handover. This is the one to choose when the problem is that work falls between teams.

An HTA diagram: a tree that breaks a goal into tasks and subtasks, good for understanding what a user must do rather than what a system does.

What it is for

Mapping the process as it really runs, not as the manual says. Sit with the people who do the work and ask them to walk you through the last time it happened. The real version has workarounds, spreadsheets and a phone call somebody always makes. Those are the design opportunities.

Process map, service blueprint

A process map is flat: it shows steps. A service blueprint adds the customer’s view above the staff’s view and the systems underneath. If the question is purely internal, a process map is lighter and quicker. If the customer experience depends on it, move up to the blueprint.