When Diagrams Become Expensive Wallpaper

Yesterday at Service Design Drinks Berlin I had a short but wonderful chat with Juan about diagrams like service blueprints or customer journey maps. Too often, these tools are nothing more than decoration. Expensive wallpaper for us designers to admire, rather than working instruments that drive change.

Because what’s the point of an ecosystem map – or some other random diagram – if we don’t know how we want to use it? If we don’t argue with the insights? If we don’t communicate them effectively and efficiently? If we never let them shape decisions?

I’m not against doing the thinking – quite the opposite. But those thoughts need to be communicated in ways that are simple, accessible, and usable. We love to map out every single step in detail, but in the process we often lose sight of the whole. Try turning such a massive tapestry of details into an elevator pitch. Not so easy.

Think of the Bayeux tapestry: beautiful, detailed, endless — but hardly the tool you’d use to brief a decision-maker. And let’s not forget: diagrams themselves are output, not outcome. It does not matter how beautifully they are crafted — what matters is how they enable shaping decisions and move the product or organisation forward.

I reckon alignment-diagram nerds like Martina and Peter would absolutely argue in favour of diagrams — and I’d back them on that. But let’s be honest: they only work when paired with pragmatism.

Provocative thought: Maybe gold leaf is the cheaper wall decoration than a diagram tapestry. (Not necessarily the prettier one, though.)

Originally posted on LinkedIn.