Service Blueprint : French Company Creation
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Building the foundational operating system for French company incorporation from scratch.
Problem
Launching Candosa in France presented a unique challenge: we had to digitalize a notorious bureaucracy from scratch.
French administration is synonymous with density, delays, and anxiety and we had no existing documentation or flow for how to digitally incorporate a company. Our mission was to take a process known for its friction and transform it into a moment of celebration.
Solution
As the founder designer, I designed a comprehensive Service Blueprint that acted as a 360° central engine for the entire company.
This Blueprint served as the "Master Spec" that dictated the design of three parallel products:
The Client App: A step-by-step interface guiding the entrepreneur in the process of company creation.
The Back Office: A custom dashboard for our internal Agents to manage the cases.
The Communication Layer: A system of automated transactional emails triggered by status changes.
By architecting the logic first, I ensured these three outputs were perfectly synchronized.
Step 1: Mapping the Ecosystem (Research & Logic)
As the Founding Designer, I couldn't jump straight into designing screens; I had to decode the entire administrative lifecycle. I started with a "Deep Dive" discovery phase.
The Research:
The "Undercover" Audit: I personally registered a company through the traditional manual process to experience every step, the friction, and the waiting times firsthand.
Expert Analysis: I interviewed accountants to understand the rigid legal requirements behind the "Happy Path" and analyzed competitor flows to spot patterns and gaps in the market.
From Research to Architecture:
First, I synthesized these insights to map the "standard" administrative flow. Then, I identified areas for improvement to ensure our MVP was feasible to build while still guaranteeing a fast, stress-free customer experience (e.g. Activity screen).
This led to the creation of the Master Blueprint. It needed to act as a "Source of Truth" for the whole team, covering every layer of the ecosystem: the customer system, the agent system, automated communications, the unhappy paths… I delivered this mapping alongside complete documentation, explaining the rationale and business choices for every step.
Key Logic I Implemented:
The "Order Status" Protocol: I realized Devs, Ops, and Design were speaking different languages. I established a standardized "Order Status" system to force alignment (e.g., ensuring everyone agrees on what FR_ORDER_PROCESSING means).
The Triplet System: I defined the logic for every legal step using a rigid structure to manage the workflow:
Waiting: The user acts.
Processing: The agent reviews.
Validated: The system unlocks the next step.
Step 2: The 360° Execution (Design)
With the logic locked, I moved to the visual design. This was my first major initiative as Founding Designer, setting the visual and functional foundations for the entire company. My goal was to create a "Mirrored Ecosystem" where the Client App, the Back Office, and the Emails felt like one continuous experience.
1. The Client App - Hiding the Complexity:
The French administration requires 20+ data points, but I didn't want to overwhelm the user.My goal was to hide the complexity I found during research, offering users a reassuring step by step "hand-holding" experience through the anxiety of incorporation.
Example : Guided Choices: For complex legal decisions (like choosing between SASU or EURL), I designed comparison cards that highlight key differences (Tax, Status) to help users decide without leaving the flow.
2. The "Foxhole" (Back Office) - Designed for Speed:
I designed our internal tool to be the operational twin of the client app.
Data Symmetry: The interface mirrors the user’s journey step-by-step. If the user is at the "Capital Deposit" stage for example, the Agent sees the exact corresponding validation block.
Action-Oriented UI: Unlike the spaced-out client UI, the Admin view is dense and utilitarian. The goal was to allow agents to access all useful information at any time in the process in order to efficiently validate the process states we defined in the blueprint.
3. The Communication Layer - The Invisible Interface:
The system didn't stop at the screen. I designed a system of automated transactional emails to act as the "glue" between the user and the platform.
Status-Triggered: Using the "Order Status" protocol, every major status change triggers a specific email template. For example, the Welcome email wasn't just a greeting—it was a functional confirmation that the user's data had successfully entered our FR_ORDER_DRAFT state.
The Impact
This project went above just a launch, it defined the way the whole company organized around a common process. By investing time in the architecture before the pixels, we achieved:
Engineering Velocity: The Blueprint and Documentation became the "Bible" for the tech team, drastically reducing scope creep and clarification meetings during the build.
Operational Efficiency: Agents didn't need extended training to understand the user flow, the Back Office tools were intuitive because they mirrored the client journey exactly.
Scalable Foundation: This architecture allowed us to onboard our first hundreds of French entrepreneurs with a lean team, proving that we could tame the most notorious bureaucracy in Europe with good design logic. It also highly influenced how we entered other markets in the following months, such as Spain that followed a similar process.
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