There is a common saying: you cannot really understand someone until you have walked a mile in their shoes. In government services, ask staff to step into the shoes of a citizen and try to complete a common task end-to-end and watch what happens:

• Enroll a child in school after moving cities.
• File for financial benefits after a natural disaster.
• Replace a lost ID card while working two jobs.
• Apply for a business license as a newcomer with limited local language skills.

On paper, these processes look straightforward. They expose dozens of hurdles: contradictory information, unclear language, multiple trips, repeating documents, unexplained delays. The moment staff and leaders experience this firsthand is the “aha moment.” That is when they see how different the citizen’s reality is from the tidy diagrams and timelines they rely on internally.

It is tempting to think that process maps already capture how services work. But process maps and journey maps answer very different questions:

• Process Maps describe the steps inside government systems. They track inputs, hand-offs, and outputs. Useful for efficiency, but blind to how things feel for citizens.
• Journey Maps trace the service as people live it. They reveal what citizens actually do, where they hesitate, how long they wait, when they feel frustration, and when they succeed.

Process maps show the system’s perspective. Journey maps show the citizen’s perspective. Both are important, but only journey maps create empathy and uncover blind spots that block transformation.
Service designers consistently report that journey maps bring discoveries they would never see otherwise: unnecessary loops, repeated requests for the same document, or confusing messages that cause citizens to abandon the process altogether. Have you ever heard witnessed a celebrated online service launch but then was surprised by the backlash and customer complaints. Journey mapping offers “the moment the service finally make sense from the outside in.”

Transformation starts with seeing the current reality clearly. Without mapping the “as-is,” governments risk improving the wrong things.

• Empathy as a driver: When staff see the journey through citizen eyes, reforms stop being abstract and become urgent.
• Evidence instead of assumption: Real journeys expose drop-off points and hidden costs that no internal report captures.
• Alignment across teams: A single map creates shared understanding across agencies, replacing competing versions of “how it works.”
• Realistic priorities: Once the pain points are visible, it becomes clear where investment and redesign will have the biggest impact.

With xqual, governments can go from “as-is” reality to “to-be” design faster, and with evidence.
How it works:

• Analyze Journeys: AI reconstructs the “as-is” journey from real cases and citizen interactions as well as staff input.
• Detect Gaps: The system flags friction points, drop-offs, and frustrations, ranking them by impact.
• Propose Enhancements: AI generates practical “to-be” scenarios that simplify, remove duplication, and improve clarity. They usually are not final but they provide a great and inspiring start.
• Refine Interactively: Teams can test, adjust, and customize recommendations among themselves or with an integrated AI assistant, ensuring the “to-be” design matches context and priorities.

• 1. Empathy at Scale
  Leaders and staff step into the customer’s shoes, creating urgency and a shared vision for change.
• 2. Evidence-Driven Reform
  Decisions are based on real interactions, not assumptions or abstract process charts.
• 3. Faster Path to Better Design
  AI accelerates the move from analysis to solution, freeing staff time for meaningful redesign.
• 4. Continuous Improvement
  Journeys are updated as feedback and data evolve, so governments are always ready to re-imagine the “to-be.”

As the tool evolves, governments can go further:

• Scenario Testing: Simulate changes before implementation to predict impact.
• Performance Integration: Link journeys directly to metrics that matter, tracking improvements over time.
• Cross-Agency Mapping: Connect journeys that cut across agencies, such as starting a business or supporting aging parents
• Service Definition + Performance Layers: Link changes to the Catalogue Module [add link] to redefine each service after redesign, then connect it to outcomes and KPIs for accountability.

Governments that step into citizens’ shoes gain more insights and are more empowered to transform. xqual helps make that step practical, data-driven, and scalable.
Join our waiting list for a demo today and meet an associate who will show you how xqual can help your team experience the “aha moment” and design better services.