Utilising Claude CLI and LLMs to expediate service design
That production work can take days, and every round of feedback means redrawing it. Connecting Claude Code, Anthropic’s command-line coding tool, to Figma through Figma’s MCP server changes that.
Anyone who’s built a service blueprint knows the slow part isn’t the thinking, it’s the drawing. After weeks of research, you still have to turn interview notes, process documents and workshop outputs into swimlanes, touchpoints, pain points and back-stage processes, box by box and arrow by arrow. That production work can take days, and every round of feedback means redrawing it. Connecting Claude Code, Anthropic’s command-line coding tool, to Figma through Figma’s MCP server changes that. Claude Code can now write directly to the canvas, creating and updating native content in both Figma Design and FigJam, which means service design artefacts can be generated rather than hand-built.
Anyone who’s built a service blueprint knows the slow part isn’t the thinking, it’s the drawing. After weeks of research, you still have to turn interview notes, process documents and workshop outputs into swimlanes, touchpoints, pain points and back-stage processes, box by box and arrow by arrow. That production work can take days, and every round of feedback means redrawing it. Connecting Claude Code, Anthropic’s command-line coding tool, to Figma through Figma’s MCP server changes that. Claude Code can now write directly to the canvas, creating and updating native content in both Figma Design and FigJam, which means service design artefacts can be generated rather than hand-built.
Setup is straightforward. Figma recommends its remote MCP server and suggests installing the Figma plugin for Claude Code, which comes with the server settings and ready-made skills for common workflows. You authenticate once, and from then on you can work in plain language. Point Claude at your research synthesis, a spreadsheet of process steps or a transcript of a workshop, then ask it to build a current-state customer journey in FigJam with stages, actions, thoughts, feelings and pain points, or a service blueprint with front-stage and back-stage swimlanes. Because the output is native FigJam content, not a static image, everything stays editable, so the team can move sticky notes, rename stages and keep working on the same board.
Setup is straightforward. Figma recommends its remote MCP server and suggests installing the Figma plugin for Claude Code, which comes with the server settings and ready-made skills for common workflows. You authenticate once, and from then on you can work in plain language. Point Claude at your research synthesis, a spreadsheet of process steps or a transcript of a workshop, then ask it to build a current-state customer journey in FigJam with stages, actions, thoughts, feelings and pain points, or a service blueprint with front-stage and back-stage swimlanes. Because the output is native FigJam content, not a static image, everything stays editable, so the team can move sticky notes, rename stages and keep working on the same board.
It works in the other direction too. The MCP server lets Claude Code read FigJam content as well as design files, so a journey map your team has refined in a workshop can become the input for the next step. Claude can read the agreed pain points from the blueprint and draft opportunity statements, generate a future-state journey alongside the current one, or turn a mapped user flow into first-draft screens in Figma Design. It can even check a set of journeys for gaps, such as a stage with no touchpoint or a hand-off with no owner. What used to be several separate production tasks becomes a connected flow, from research to journey to blueprint to interface.
It works in the other direction too. The MCP server lets Claude Code read FigJam content as well as design files, so a journey map your team has refined in a workshop can become the input for the next step. Claude can read the agreed pain points from the blueprint and draft opportunity statements, generate a future-state journey alongside the current one, or turn a mapped user flow into first-draft screens in Figma Design. It can even check a set of journeys for gaps, such as a stage with no touchpoint or a hand-off with no owner. What used to be several separate production tasks becomes a connected flow, from research to journey to blueprint to interface.
The value isn’t that AI does service design for you; it’s that it gives you back the time to do it properly. The judgement still sits with the designer: which research to trust, which pain points matter most and how to frame a problem so stakeholders can act on it. What changes is speed. Instead of spending a week drawing a blueprint and a day discussing it, teams can generate a first draft in an afternoon and spend the week testing, challenging and improving it with the people who use and run the service. For service designers, especially in government, where journeys are long, complex and owned by many teams, that shift from production to conversation is where the real efficiency lies. Sources: Figma: Claude Code and Figma, set up the MCP server Figma: Guide to the Figma MCP server
The value isn’t that AI does service design for you; it’s that it gives you back the time to do it properly. The judgement still sits with the designer: which research to trust, which pain points matter most and how to frame a problem so stakeholders can act on it. What changes is speed. Instead of spending a week drawing a blueprint and a day discussing it, teams can generate a first draft in an afternoon and spend the week testing, challenging and improving it with the people who use and run the service. For service designers, especially in government, where journeys are long, complex and owned by many teams, that shift from production to conversation is where the real efficiency lies. Sources: Figma: Claude Code and Figma, set up the MCP server Figma: Guide to the Figma MCP server
William BVG
Founder