Journey Mapping - A Template for the Journey AND the Destination
I thought everyone understood Journey Mapping. This has been a tool in my arsenal since the late 2000s and, until 3 days ago, I used to take for granted that all Product employees at almost all companies understood how and why a customer would consume or interact with their product.
I was wrong. According to the CSPO (Certified Scrum Product Owner) Class that I just finished, most Product employees do not understand Journey Maps, their importance, how to create them, and how to utilize them to effect change in their product.
Like all Journeys, let’s start from the beginning.
What Is It?
Journey Mapping is, simply put, a visual representation of every step and touchpoint that a customer encounters while trying to complete a given task with a specific product or company.
It is the Map of the Customer’s Journey across one or multiple phases. It may include the predecision and research phase as well as closing the loop, or just the steps taken once the customer has decided to complete the task using a specific solution. Though many solutions may get the customer to the same outcome, or result, the customer will have a specific journey unique to each solution.
Why is the Journey Important? Why Map It?
How can you fix a customer’s problem if you don’t know about it or understand it? You can’t. By visualizing every decision, or point of contact, a customer has with a solution we are able to see the reality of what customers see when dealing with the brand. This clear vision helps uncover hidden pain points.
'Cause I tell it how it is and you tell it how it might be
- Diddy (Victory Lyrics)
Most companies think they understand the steps a customer takes to achieve a desired outcome, but usually employees of those companies do not recognize the actual state of the journey, and instead hold a bias to the ideal journey. Since most employees are so close to the product, and therefore the journey, they do not experience the same trials and tribulations along the way that an actual new customer, or returning customer would face.
The map gives company employees a step by step visual showing who, what, and how the customer interacts with the company. Usually also adding color to who at the company is responsible for those interactions, and if they are positive or negative helping create empathy for the customer.
How to Create Them?
There are many different types of journey maps, varying in complexity, design and amount of information conveyed. The Template provided here is a very complex, research and information heavy, current state journey map. We will get into the difference between current state, future state, and comparison journey maps in a different post, but for now the important information is that the attached template is a Current State map and therefore it visualizes the current process and the current steps that the customer actually has to go through to complete a goal.
In order to accurately get the current state of the Customer Journey, the current state, without improvements or changes, must be what is represented. In order to get the current state, there are many viable research methods, but my favorite 3 are Shoulder Surfing, Screen Sharing, and Goal Discussion. We will go into each of these in more depth later but in general:
Shoulder Surfing - I am not talking about snooping behind someone at the ATM or any of the other criminal conotations of the term. Though the practice may be similar, here I am talking about the consensual viewing of a customer while they achieve a goal. The best way to do this is to physically occupy the same space as the customer. By sitting next to, or standing directly behind the customer, as they complete their tasks on the way to achieve a goal, the researcher gets the most realistic example of the time and emotions that go into completing that goal. By being next to the customer while they are mid journey, the researcher is able to ask clarifying questions when the customer begins to struggle or not follow the predicted path. While shoulder surfing, it is beneficial for the researcher to record the customer’s screen and face simultaneously. These simultaneous recordings allow the researcher to see the customer’s location in the journey and the emotional reaction that task elicits. These recordings are priceless artifacts both for research and later presentations.
Screen Sharing (and Recording) - This really took off in 2020, I won’t explain why, but think social distancing, WFH, and the proliferation of Zoom meetings. There are many companies and softwares that researchers can use to help with screen recordings. Some solutions use heat maps to track the customer’s cursor, while others use more elaborate, multiple-camera, setups to record eye tracking data, while still others record and analyze the customers facial expressions for sentiment and feeling. No matter the software or service the researcher chooses to use, the important part of Screen sharing is Recording.
During a Screen share test, the customer actually completes a task on screen, using the live site, or a very high quality prototype, however, unlike in their day-to-day, when Screen Sharing the customer speaks every thought, steps, and decision aloud as they are making it. See the below video for an example of a screen share.
An example of a screen share recording
Goal Discussion - This is just what it sounds like, a discussion. Here the customer will talk the researcher through their journey. Though less archival than the recordings from shoulder surfing and screen sharing, it is possible to voice record the discussion. During Goal Discussion the researcher will talk the customer through the journey, at each step asking:
What is the goal of this step?
Then what do you actually do?
How do you feel when this happens?
What did you expect to do?
Any other advise for this step?
What do you do next?
By repeating the same questions the researcher is led down the same path as the customer, looking for stumbling blocks, vague areas, or customer pain points that may need to be addressed.
Research is done, Now what?
Now that the journey has been researched, the researcher can analyze the steps and plot them out in map format. While mapping the journey it will become apparent that a Journey Map is more than a Flow chart. A Journey Map does visualize steps, but it also helps create empathy for the actual customer. Unlike a standard list of steps put together by engineers, doc writers, or other members of the product team, the Journey Map is a representation of the Journey from the Customer’s Perspective, and as such most Journey Maps include the customer’s Thought and Feeling. This is where the empathy comes in and can be expressed to the company. Journey Maps can be added to presentations, or printed large scale and hung directly in the office. Visibility and familiarization is key to learning the customer’s journey, and working to improve it. It is great to research and create artifacts such as Journey Maps, but this exercise does not end with creation, by continually referencing, showing, and referring to the Journey Map while in meetings with engineers and stakeholders the customer is forced to stay top of mind, and it makes it easier to maintain Customer Centric Design across the organization.
It is time for your Journey to begin.
The Template - Visualizing the Journey
As mentioned above, journey maps come in a variety of styles, states, and complexities. The Template provided here is a very complex, research and information heavy, and is intended as a current state journey map.
So what is included? ( Minimum Required fields *)
Summary of journey map findings as well as the research methods used to gain information
Phase of Decision *
Purpose of Phase ( Plain text Phase specific goal of a customer)
Step in Phase *
Actual Touchpoints *
Goal (of this Step from the business’s perspective)
Customer’s Goal (of this step) *
Data Input or Exchanged
Customer Reaction, Thoughts, and Feelings *
Business Unit / Departments in charge of Executing each step
Business Unit / Departments providing input to each step (sometimes these can be different and include Sales or Marketing even though those departments may not have anything to do with the execution of each step.)
Template Download here
Blank Customer Journey Map Template , please Contact us for a Sketch File Template