Here is a fantastic article explaining differences between the two, when to use each, along with a free practical guide to get started. Kindly put together by Morgan Miller and Erika Flowers.
As Morgan and Erika write, mapping experiences is a key part of a human-centered business. We need to look at both perspectives — what the person experiences (UX, front stage), and what went on outside of their view to make it happen (Service Design, backstage).
With user journey maps, we visualize and document the user’s experience. We interview customers to capture their insights, then map patterns. We list steps and actions they go through to meet their goals — sometimes with storyboards, or Jobs-to-Be-Done, or emotional responses. The outcome is an aggregate, real-world experience (front stage) — framed as a narrative.
Those user journeys often start way before users start interacting with your product — so we need to include non-digital touch points as well. Customer journey maps are just like user journey maps, just for a different persona: e.g. in B2B, customers might not be end users.
Service blueprints are not about documenting the user experience. They apply user experience as a starting point, and unpack it to expose how it is *internally* created — with technology, people, operations, processes involved (backstage).
Journey maps and service blueprints highlight different sides of the experience story. But they have one thing in common: they help us understand the broken parts. The outcome, then, is better UX and better internal processes that shape and enable it.
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Useful resources (+ Figma Templates)
Guide to Journey Maps + Templates, by Stéphanie Walter
UX Mapping Methods: Cheat Sheet, by Sarah Gibbons
Guide to Experience Mapping, by Josh Zak, Justin Tan, Peter Komierowski, Mackenzie Mitschke
Guide To Journey Mapping (+ template), by Taras Bakusevych
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✤ Service Blueprints
Service Design Methods Library (54 activities, PDF), by Marc Stickdorn
Service Blueprint System (Figma), by Jacopo Sironi
Service Blueprint Template (Figma), by Telepass
Service Blueprint Kit, by Julien Fovelle
A Guide to Service Blueprinting (PDF), by Nicholas Remis