My journey through journey mapping

A journey map is a visual picture of someone’s journey through a service, stage by stage: what they are doing, how they feel, and what moves them forward or holds them back. Journey mapping, user journey mapping and service blueprinting are all different flavours of the same process.

Creating a journey map fosters a shared understanding of the user’s journey, uniting siloed teams and highlighting their impact on the user experience. It encourages collaboration, empathy, and problem-solving, while identifying new opportunities. I find journey maps most effective in a “divergent space,” when exploring and seeking alignment on opportunities, typically after conducting qualitative research early in the design process.

Here are some principles I’ve developed when considering a mapping exercise with clients:

Be clear about the intent

Are you clear why you are creating a journey map? Is it alignment, to communicate at a high level, find areas for innovation? Being really explicit with your intent can ensure you actually get the outcome you’re looking for.

It’s the journey, not the destination

While the thought of having a shiny PDF of a journey map or a big wall may be enticing, I’ve found the magic happens in the collective creation of the map. It’s the conversations that are sparked, the ‘aha’ moments that can only happen when people witness the assembly of the map rather than the finished output.

Always co-create with people who talk to (or are) the people you are mapping

A big fail I had early on was to assume that senior leaders would know a lot about their customers. The richest insights come from people who have day-to-day contact with end users: call centre staff, social media, shop floor, logistics and returns teams. That said, having a few senior stakeholders to witness the assembly of the map can be very powerful.

Come up with your own swim lanes

Swim lanes are the rows of prompts you work through at each stage. There are some common ones that work on most maps, but liberating yourself to make your own swim lanes can superpower your map towards your intended outcome.

Some typical swim lanes I’ve used:

• What’s happening
• What do I feel
• What moves me forward
• What moves me backwards
• How do we measure this?
• What’s the opportunity here?
• How might we?

Some less usual ones:

• Why is this challenging for the organisation?
• What key decisions am I making?
• What influences me?
• Behavioural bias
• Business value
• What do we need to know now for the next stage
• What’s important to me?
• What are highs/lows

Sketch the rough stages before the session

I’ve tried many times to get a group to map the stages, and yet it always seems to take ages. People who’ve not done journey mapping generally find this a strange concept, as they are being asked to cut horizontally rather than in the silos of delivery they are used to. I suggest having a rough go at the first, middle and last steps yourself, then getting the group to tweak them and asking if they are ‘good enough’.

Always start with empathy mapping

Kicking off with an empty journey map template is too cold. Start with an empathy map of the core user or groups. This drops people into the right mindset and makes the mapping much easier. Just 10-15min max will do.

Make time for this: how long a session takes

How long a map takes depends on a lot of variables, from the complexity of the mapping to group dynamics, the level of knowledge in the room and the energy in the room. I would put aside at least 2.5 hours, with follow-ups if needed. Any more and you will burn people out.

Don’t map with a group bigger than 6

Mapping can be tricky with a group larger than 6. The loud voices take over and the quiet ones withdraw. Best to separate them and do more journey maps in smaller groups and compare and converge them later.

Keep the pace going, take breaks, give lots of space for reflection

Mapping is tiring and people get sleepy quickly. Take breaks, but also check in. You can ask: How do you feel this is going? What are you learning? What has changed for you?

Don’t write the post-its yourself, make the team do it

By writing the post-its yourself you are immediately limiting the bandwidth of what can be captured. You’re also limiting the conversation to a certain format, which can be quite un-inclusive for neurodivergent people and for people who need quiet space to reflect and think. It also lets some people ‘check out’ and not fully engage. So if you can, insist that people write their own post-its, virtually or in the room.

Encourage the group to write clear post-its (no single-word post-its!)

The temptation for people writing on post-its can be to put one word or, if writing by hand, to do it quick and sloppy. This stops other people from reading or understanding. If in person insist people keep it clear and legible. Each post-it should have enough on it to make sense on its own.

In my experience, it’s the conversations, disagreements, negotiations, and “aha!” moments during the map creation process that shift mindsets, create buy-in, and establish consensus for change. The end map usually becomes outdated within a few months, having already fulfilled its purpose: to align and co-create a shared understanding of users’ experiences.

In some cases, I’ve created maps on my own as a researcher to communicate with a broader audience. This approach works well for simple maps that highlight key moments.

Journey mapping has been invaluable to me, unlocking numerous stalled ideas and shifting the mindset from solutions-first thinking. It will continue to be a pivotal process in my work with clients.

Oh, and one more thing With some audiences I map in a spreadsheet. Here is a template you can use, copy or steal: journey map template in Google Sheets