There are lots of different approaches to creating customer journey maps. The templates and techniques used to create them range from the very simple and high level to detailed and insight-rich. You can spend hours, weeks or even months generating a journey map. But as retired NFL running back Ricky Watters (not to be confused with Ricky Bobby) once said: “For who…..for what?”
In this blog we offer some insight into what a journey map is and how you might put it to work for you when developing products and services.
At Hard Yards, we tend to see journey maps in one of two ways. They can either be used as a discovery tool or a planning tool. In discovery mode, we use journey maps to describe the current state of a given journey in order to empathize with the user, identify pain points, and expose potential solution ideas or areas for further research and testing. In the planning mode, journey maps can be used to map out a new experience from the ground up. This is often useful when launching a new product or service. By spending time detailing out the phases, tasks/actions, and proposed emotional journey we can begin with the end in mind. This can be a great starting point for the creation of an initial backlog and can easily be transitioned into a story map for more detailed planning.
Regardless of purpose, all journey maps tend to share some common characteristics:
Actor – Journey maps focus on a specific actor or persona. This allows us to go deep into the user’s perspective and really immerse ourselves in understanding what it feels like to go through the journey of using some product or service
Scenario – Journey maps are built around a specific scenario in the life of the actor. The more broad the scenario the more chaotic the maps become and ultimately less useful. Narrowing down the scenario allows us to go deep in understanding the experience
Expectations – The Actor is usually based on a persona that was previously created. We want to use the research we did in creating the persona to bring realism and depth to the journey map. Users will have different expectations based on their demographics and psychographics.
Phases – It’s often quite useful to begin the construction of the journey map by thinking about the high level phases of the journey. This gives some structure to the map and allows us to progressively elaborate on details in the context of a larger user experience.
Tasks/Actions – Journey maps capture specific tasks that a user is trying to achieve and/or actions they take along the way.
Emotions/Mindset – Emotion maps allow us to visualize where the pain points exist in the journey. These insights are typically collected based on user interviews, observation, surveys, and user testing.
Opportunities – Often, journey maps record ideas on what pain points we may want to address or generally where there may be ways to improve the user experience
While most journey maps share these characteristics or basic bone structure, they will vary greatly in terms of the way they are laid out and the level of detail they contain. This first example shows a very simple journey containing all the characteristics mentioned above.
Figure 1
If you just searched for “Customer Journey Map” you might find this one (Figure 1). This could be a great start if you are just getting started with journey maps and still aren’t sure about what is important to map for your organization. However, they can be much more detailed and comprehensive.
Figure 2 is an example from Uber. This example also contains the core characteristics but has been enhanced with visuals. The team has added a picture of the user, wire frames of the mobile experience, and more depth in terms of the opportunities for improvement. Not all journey maps follow the same recipe.
Figure 2 - Uber
Figure 3
Figure 3 is an example of how we can use a similar approach to map out an experience more broadly. In this case the journey map is based on an entire customer segment not just a specific persona. The use of a touch point map describes how the segment interacts broadly with health insurance. In this example they have also included some survey data to ground their insights on how the customer feels about the various aspects of the experience.
We have used journey maps in many different contexts with great effect. We work with clients to help them create journey maps to aid in product development and we have also used them as an empathy building tool in our strategy facilitation events. No matter which style, level of detail, or approach you take, we have found that there are some simple rules of thumb that you should consider whenever you decide to use a journey map:
This isn’t a check the box exercise – these artifacts should create enduring value and help influence what and how you build
This is a collaborative exercise – by engaging the team and stakeholders in the creation of a journey map we can create alignment and build buy-in to solve specific problems and develop meaningful solutions.
This is something you should iterate on – whatever you think you know about the journey and how the customer perceives it currently is only partially accurate. You will continue to learn and should expect to refactor your journey map based on these insights. Additionally, as you deliver solutions, the journey should change. These changes should be reflected in your map.
As you can see, these tools can have multiple purposes and be constructed in different ways. As long as your group is aligned on the Ricky Watters checklist “For who? For what?” we think you’ll find Journey Maps an incredibly useful visualization tool for generating insights.