Services Strategic Planning Journey mapping

Journey mapping

This is an exercise we run either with stakeholders in a live workshop, or one which we conduct off the back of User Research to understand a person’s feelings across the various touchpoints on their journey.

Mapping the whole user journey

Journey mapping or Experience mapping as it is also sometimes called, is a beneficial way of visualising an end to end customer/user experience and understanding how the person feels across the different touch points they come into contact with and where the opportunities to make a difference might be.

Journey mapping is an effective way of breaking down the customer’s journey into their key touchpoints where they might interact with a product or service. Across each touchpoint, the user’s feelings towards specific aspects of their journey can be understood. Hence exploring all aspects of the user’s relationship with the product or service from their first interaction to accomplishing their end-goal. Understanding the users feelings across each touchpoint and the questions they will be asking enables us to identify what interventions we need to make and where, to ensure a great customer experience across the users whole journey.

Creating user scenarios

A successful customer journey map is created around a specific user and scenario. Providing this solid foundation helps to understand individual feelings and attitudes towards their journey. Basic elements of a Journey Map can include:

Specific persona / user story
Specific scenario
Journey stages / touchpoints
Questions they may be asking
Actions
Feelings (positive / negative)
Opportunities

Need help with your user journeys?

Customer journey maps fuel conservation and provoke debate within a team. This process results in the alignment of thoughts and therefore eliminating divided opinions of key issues. Once all thoughts and emotions are fleshed out, a thoroughly calculated narrative has been created.

We have used journey maps on several of our projects, and we have found them an invaluable tool in understanding and extracting key insights into how users think, feel and behave.

Please get in touch, if you are looking for a company to help with your user journeys.

Some questions you might have

How do I make sense of the data I have collected?

Once thorough research has been conducted, you are often left with a large bulk of data, which can be daunting to make sense of. With a persona and scenario, customer journey maps allow you to breakdown data such as needs, feelings, goals and pain points into focused touchpoints. This will give you a full journey which helps understand the users thought process when using the product or system.

How can I synthesise my data for valuable insights?

Customer journey maps are usually concluded by listing insights and opportunities which can be anticipated from the user’s feelings and pain points. This means you will be left with focused elements, ready to proceed with the design process.

How many journey maps do I need to do?

Using one persona and one scenario per journey map will create a focused and clear story. Some products or systems have multiple different users who will come into contact at varying touchpoints. Each user will have a different way of interacting with the product, resulting in different feelings and opportunities to be found. Therefore, per user it is recommended to do one journey map so you can focus on their individual feelings and experiences.