What is it? A journey map is a visualization of a process someone goes through to accomplish a specific goal. It typically contains actions, emotions, and touch points plotted along phases that relate to the journey of a representative sample.

When is it best used? It is best used for organizations to gain insight into their customers’ product or service experiences in completing defined tasks. It helps identify disconnects during the journey, common pain points, and areas needing improvement (often used to understand and optimize the sales cycle experience.

What does it entail? Journey mapping starts by plotting experiences and touch points onto a defined journey line with a starting point and an endpoint. Next, specific phases are added with the sample’s thoughts and emotions in order to create a visualisation of the full experience of their journey. Their narrative is synthesized and refined into graphical representation, ultimately leading to a clearer, shared and holistic understanding compared to disjointed data points. 

Interchangeable term: User Journey Map

Related Terms:  Evaluative research, qualitative research, co-creation, observation, ethnography

Used in a Sentence:  A customer journey map reveals how well the customer experience aligned with their expectations of the brand.

Related Words: Customer Journey Map, Experience Map, User Stories, Personas, Archetypes 

Visual: YES - https://www.nngroup.com/articles/journey-mapping-101/

Additional Resources

Books

Articles

• Journey Mapping is Key to Gaining Empathy by Tiffany Eaton

• 7 Ways to Analyze a Customer-Journey Map

Videos

• The Customer Journey Map, Champion Persona

• How to improve UX through Journey Maps, Aparna Das of Expedia

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