A field-research deep dive into Blue Lagoon Iceland: nine journey moments, 35 processes and 69 improvement concepts to raise guest satisfaction and revenue.
Blue Lagoon tasked us with a comprehensive study to enhance the customer experience across every touchpoint, physical and digital, by understanding employee workflows and internal processes, with the goal of increasing satisfaction and boosting revenue.
With over 1.3 million annual visitors, Blue Lagoon Iceland is a premier travel destination and a complex ecosystem spanning transportation, accommodation, food and beverage, retail and skincare. In 2012 National Geographic named it one of the 25 Wonders of the World; in 2018 the company opened the Retreat, a luxury hotel with a subterranean spa.
The work was grounded in extensive field research by three pairs of designers, each owning one stream: Customer Experience (before and after the visit), Processes (the entire on-site experience) and Data, with digital culture as a cross-cutting theme. I led the Processes stream and facilitated cross-collaboration.
The Processes stream targeted the “during” phase: everything from the moment guests arrive at the parking lot to when they return to their cars. Within it we identified nine key moments: arrival, check-in, the changing room experience, bathing in the lagoon (itself a cluster of sub-experiences: mask bar, water bar, indoor bar, steam bath and sauna, massage area), the return to the changing rooms, dining at the indoor bar and Lava Restaurant, shopping at the store, and departure.
Each moment ran as a self-contained three-week sprint, following a Double Diamond focused on Discover and Define. Week one gathered evidence in the field; week two turned it into analysis, journey maps and process flows; week three shared and validated with employees and closed with a report. Nine moments, nine reports.
Discovery and delivery ran as two parallel tracks feeding each other continuously, so the work stayed aligned with real user needs throughout. Knowledge transfer and co-ideation sessions ran alongside, and the Blue Lagoon team grew into the method sprint after sprint.
Understanding behaviors, needs, interactions with space and digital systems, and pain points in the natural environment, at different times of day, without interfering. Each session prepared with hypotheses and documented in a shared template.
One-on-one semi-structured sessions with employees, following a protocol of general and moment-specific questions per role: sequence of actions, barriers, data usage and improvement opportunities.
Following employees closely through real tasks. We dressed in staff uniforms, often as trainees: experiencing tasks firsthand and receiving questions and feedback directly from guests in real time.
Stakeholder mapping across Business Units, frontline managers and employee roles guided who to involve; observation guides, shadowing guides, journey maps, process flowcharts and report templates were made available to Blue Lagoon team members, who joined the research alongside the designers.
We adapted the classic SWOT into a custom SWOt, where the lowercase “t” stands for security threats, to flag potential safety issues at each stage. Every finding was categorized into four areas: Space & Flows, Communication, Products & Devices, Processes & Data.
For every sub-moment we scored strengths, weaknesses, short and long term opportunities and security threats, then translated the weaknesses into concrete opportunities to act on.
Employee journeys AS IS. Each of the nine moments mapped in detail, including employees’ mood at every sub-moment, connecting tasks, guest interactions and pain points.
Process analysis. All 35 processes and sub-processes mapped and validated directly with the employees who run them, with an analysis layer of data issues, inefficiencies and CX challenges, plus a “what if?” section of forward-looking ideas.
Improvement concepts. 69 improvements across communication platforms, space and flow optimization, data-driven dashboards, safety and security measures, and product and device upgrades. Each with defined KPIs and a priority ranking favoring pressing, quick-to-implement, high-impact solutions.
The three deliverables built on each other: the employee journey exposed where the experience broke down, the process analysis explained why, and the improvement concepts proposed what to change. Below, an example from a single moment.
Employee journey AS IS. Every sub-moment mapped with the tasks, roles and the staff mood at each step, here comparing a single-ticket guest with a group arriving on multiple tickets.
Process analysis. Each process validated with the people who run it, overlaid with an analysis layer that flags issues by type (processes, customer experience, data) and pairs them with what-if ideas.
Improvement concepts. The 69 ideas mapped back onto the lagoon so each one is tied to the place and moment it improves.
Each concept written up as a card: the issue to solve, a how-to, and the KPIs to measure whether it worked.
The concepts were developed into business cases and presented to management for evaluation; approved cases proceeded to implementation.
Approved ideas moved through a seven-step pipeline, from collection and business model canvas to a design phase and, finally, activation.
Observation, interviews and shadowing together, plus detailed process mapping, surfaced inefficiencies that no single method would have caught.
Cross-functional teams of designers, process experts and line managers raised the quality of solutions; validating processes with employees grounded them in reality and eased adoption.
Changes aligned with the organization’s values, and employees empowered through involvement, are what make a transformation stick.
