We did a journey map for Northwind Insurance's home claims. The two worst moments were "uploads photos, then gets asked for the same photos again by phone" and "waits with no update after the assessor visit". Can you blueprint what happens behind that? What we know: customers report on the app or by phone to the contact centre. Claims go into ClaimDesk (our claims system). A desk assessor reviews the claim and decides whether to send a field assessor; field assessors are a third-party firm, Acme Loss Adjusting, who email their report back. Photos uploaded in the app land in a shared inbox, not in ClaimDesk. Payment goes through the finance team in a weekly batch. Our SLA is to contact the customer within 2 working days of the claim.

Service blueprint: home-insurance customer claims for a burst pipe, from reporting it to being paid

Evidence level: [documented], from the team's description and the journey map. Durations without an SLA are [estimate]. Built on: Northwind home claims journey map (the two pains above). Variants not shown: claim declined; emergency repair needed first; customer reports by phone (it differs at steps 1–2 only). Assumptions to confirm first: desk assessors work only in ClaimDesk and don't watch the shared inbox; Acme's report arrives as a PDF attached to an email.

Blueprint

Diagram

flowchart LR
    subgraph EV["Evidence"]
        direction LR
        e1["Confirmation email"] ~~~ e2["Photos received screen"] ~~~ e3["Phone call"] ~~~ e4["Assessor visit"] ~~~ e5["Nothing"] ~~~ e6["Settlement email"]
    end
    subgraph CU["Customer actions"]
        direction LR
        c1["1. Reports claim"] --> c2["2. Uploads photos"] --> c3["3. Call from desk assessor"] --> c4["4. Hosts field assessor"] --> c5["5. Waits and chases"] --> c6["6. Gets paid"]
    end
    subgraph FR["Frontstage, below the line of interaction"]
        direction LR
        f1["App submits claim"] ~~~ f2["App confirms upload"] ~~~ f3["Desk assessor calls"] ~~~ f4["Acme inspects"] ~~~ f5["Contact centre takes chase call"] ~~~ f6["Claims sends settlement"]
    end
    subgraph BA["Backstage, below the line of visibility"]
        direction LR
        b1["Claim created in ClaimDesk"] ~~~ b2["Photos to shared inbox ⚠1"] ~~~ b3["Desk review, no photos ⚠3"] ~~~ b4["Acme emails report"] ~~~ b5["Report attached by hand ⚠6"] ~~~ b6["Finance weekly batch ⏱7"]
    end
    subgraph SU["Support, below the line of internal interaction"]
        direction LR
        s1["ClaimDesk"] ~~~ s2["Shared inbox"] ~~~ s3["Policy system"] ~~~ s4["Acme Loss Adjusting"] ~~~ s6["Payment batch"]
    end
    c1 --> f1 --> b1 --> s1
    c2 --> f2 --> b2 --> s2
    c3 --> f3 --> b3
    b3 --> s3
    c4 --> f4 --> b4 --> s4
    c5 --> f5
    b4 --> b5 --> s1
    c6 --> f6
    b6 --> s6

Fail points and waits

Pain → cause

Ranked fixes

Not prioritised now: ⏱7 weekly payment batch (a finance process change with wider impact; revisit after fixes 1–2); ⏱2 first-contact SLA (met today, and fix 1 makes the first call shorter).

Open questions

• How many claims a month arrive through the app vs by phone? This sizes fix 1.
• What does Acme's contract say about report turnaround? It may already have an SLA nobody tracks.
• Who owns the shared inbox today? The blueprint found no owner.

Hand-offs: fix 1 becomes committed work → prd-draft. The ClaimDesk integration design → architecture-diagrams.