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Service analysis

Last updated on September 21, 2022

Analyze your current service to better understand what might need to change or be created.

On this page:

Understand context

Research review

A research review gathers all the previous research done related to your service. Projects should build on the work that has been done in the past to identify user behaviours, priorities, satisfaction, measures of success, and existing metrics. Research reviews can also look at research findings from secondary sources, such as academic sources or industry leading blogs, that align with your service.

 

Research review steps

  1. Gather any reports and metrics information you can find about your current service

  2. Use this information to inform your future research or to identify metrics that can be used to analyze the effectiveness of your new service

Research reviews are a good first step in the Discovery phase to avoid duplication of research work. Be aware of the user segmentation and the research methods used to gather the findings from past research.

Comparative analysis

A comparative analysis is a review of how similar services are delivered within the public or private sector. This analysis will help your team identify best practices, potential challenges, and key activities necessary when updating or developing a new service experience.

 

Comparative analysis steps

  1. Create a list of 4-5 similar services that are offered by public or private sector organizations

  2. Define the set of criteria (ie. delivery channels, tools, target audience, tone of voice) you’ll use to analyze each service

  3. Capture the similarities and differences between the services based on your set of criteria

  4. Identify areas of opportunities or things to avoid based on your analysis

Look beyond your sector to see how other organizations might handle similar challenges. To identify the wider context your service operates in you can expand the scope of your analysis to look at larger external influences such as political, environmental, economic, technological, social, or legal factors.

Visualize

Business model canvas

The business model canvas helps to describe how your program area currently operates or how you’d like it to operate in the future. Outlining the elements of your business model can help you have strategic conversations about what your service offers and how it creates value for citizens. If a service does not exist yet, the canvas can help plan a potential business model and identify what activities are required to move the service forward.

 

Business model canvas steps

  1. Print out the blank Business Model Canvas template

  2. Start by filling in the middle box of “Value Propositions”. This is what value your service provides to citizens or other stakeholders

  3. Continue to fill in the other boxes with the information you know

  4. Identify the information about your business model you don’t know. Use this information to guide further research to help you fill in the remaining information on the canvas

Use sticky notes to fill in the canvas so you can add or remove information easily. Colour code your sticky notes if dealing with multiple user groups. This exercise may need to be completed over a period of time as you learn more about your business.

Stakeholder map

A stakeholder map identifies stakeholders and their influence and impact on your service. During stakeholder mapping, the research team identifies and maps stakeholders such as front-line staff, other areas of government, and industry associations. Specific individuals with deep influence and investment may also be identified. This information can help define who needs to be involved, consulted, or managed closely throughout the project.

 

Stakeholder map steps

  1. Write down stakeholder names, types, or groupings individually on separate sticky notes

  2. Put up all the stakeholder names on a wall and cluster similar stakeholders

  3. Create one sticky note for each stakeholder group

  4. Draw a graph on a whiteboard or flip chart paper

  5. Label the x-axis as the involvement of the stakeholder group (A combination of the number of those stakeholders and how often they rely on the service)

  6. Label the y-axis as the importance of the service to the stakeholders

  7. Place the stakeholder group stickies on the graph based on your team’s consensus

  8. Draw a circle around the sticky for each stakeholder group to represent the level of influence it has on the project

Colour code your stickies to indicate internal, external, and client stakeholders.

Content and usage

Web analytics

Web analytics measures the activity of users on your website and allows you to analyze and report on that behaviour. This data can be used to set benchmarks to measure how improvements or changes to your website impact user behaviour and identify what changes are, or aren’t working. This reporting is done through web analytics software and can show things like number of visitors to your site, which pages they visited, how they moved through those pages, and many other measures.

 

Web analytics steps

  1. Get your site added to the central government Snowplow analytics system if it isn't already added. Contact GDX.ServiceDesk@gov.bc.ca for more information about Snowplow Analytics in the B.C. public service

  2. You will be provided with instructions for implementing the Analytics system on your site 

  3. When the analytics system has been implemented on your site, you will be provided with an analytics dashboard containing traffic and content metrics over time, including visitors, sessions, assets, clicks, referrers, and search terms

  4. Attend the GDX Analytics Introduction to Analytics Dashboards Webinar to get familiarized with the use of your new analytics dashboard

  5. Establish regular reporting intervals to review data analytics and compare against changes to the website

Remember that analytics can tell you "what" happens on the site, but not "why." Use other research tools such as interviews or usability testing to get a more complete understanding of user behaviour.

Content inventory and audit

A content inventory is a spreadsheet listing all the individual pages on a website. This is often the first step when you are redesigning a website because it helps a team know what content they are working with. It can also include information such as update frequency, keywords, content owner and contact information.

A content audit uses the content inventory to review each page to determine if it should be updated, replaced, archived, merged with other content or kept as-is. An audit may also identify where new content is needed.

 

Content inventory steps

  1. Create a content audit worksheet in Excel

  2. List the pages of your website or the area of the site that you need to inventory and audit

  3. Assign an ID number for each page (often reflecting the position in the site hierarchy, such 1.1, 1.1.1, 1.1.2) and record the URL, title, last updated date, content owner, keywords, taxonomy terms, audience, and other metadata such as links and if the page contains images or attachments

  4. Work through the site to record all pages

  5. For an audit, review the pages to determine if they are redundant, out of date, trivial (and so should be archived), or in need of rewriting or updating, and to determine if new content is required

List the site pages one section at a time to keep track of your location.

Heuristic evaluation

A heuristic evaluation is an assessment of a website or service based on a set of guidelines. This is a quick way to improve usability or the service experience by identifying common design problems without investing in extensive user research.

 

Heuristic evaluation steps

  1. Choose a set of guidelines to use for evaluation. For example, Norman’s usability heuristics or Service heuristics

  2. Evaluate the pages of the website or service using each guideline one at a time

  3. Capture your notes in a document and provide rationale as to why something doesn’t meet the identified standard

  4. Repeat this process with a few other people to ensure a majority of the usability issues are identified and agreed upon