• visualize the experience of a person over time
• help to find gaps in CX & explore potential solutions
• structured as a series of steps
  • events, moments, experiences, interactions
• usually have various scales to represent different aspects of one experience i.e different zoom levels
• they help make "intangible" XPs visible and facilitate common understanding
• can be assumption or research based
• types
  • current state
    • looks to find problems or improvements in current service
  • future state
    • helps to imagine yet to be made service
• focus
  • product centered
    • map containing only touchpoints
      • steps representing an interaction between a customer & the product
      • everything out of the company is hidden
      • e.g. useful for mapping onboarding
      • might miss important contextual info e.g. signing up for new electricity provider might miss the stress of people moving houses
  • XP centered
    • reflect situational context and show how are touchpoints embedded in overall XP
    • sidenote - often using a service is not the goal of the user, the goal is to achieve the goal e.g. having electricity is the goal, signing up is the chore
    • often the design challenge shifts like from "What is the onboarding XP of our electricity provider" into "What is the XP of moving houses & where does electricity provider swap fits it"
• product-centered is often zoomed in deeper than XP centered
• It’s the proverbial canary in the coal mine. Using an Experience Map means you can identify:
  • New trends
  • Problems in the customer journey
  • Opportunities to advance or invest
  • Areas to distribute customer insights or training

Include

• main actor ^137075

  • usually Persona or multiple

• stages

  • main phases of actor's experience

• steps

  • sequence of steps from actor's perspective

• storyboards

  • illustrations of each step with sketches, photos to contextualize the story

• emotional journey

  • graphs representing actor's satisfaction on each step
  • often within [-2, +2] range
  • high rating does not mean good/bad bu rather (not) engaged - high value - thrill, low - chill

• channels

  • any means of communication involved in each steps

• stakeholders

  • helps to identify which actors should be included during research, prototyping & implementation

• dramatic arc

  • illustrates actor's engagement in each step

• 'what if?'

  • what could possibly go wrong on each step by asking 'what if?' questions

• Jobs to be done

  • describe what a service helps the actor to achieve on each step
  • helps to move away from current solution & create a new frame to look for new opportunities
• • objective

• actions – what clients do?

• required resources (human, tech, financial, …) on their side

• artifacts used / produced during that phase

• touchpoints – a specific interaction between a customer and an organization

  • https://www.productplan.com/glossary/customer-journey-map/

• opportunities – how could we help them succeed in that step?

• possible pain points – what is blocking them in that stage?

• anxieties that might decrease the demand

Concepts

• Channels: The methods by which your business communicates information or messages to the customer. E.g. an app, a website, print media, etc
• Touchpoint: Any point where a customer observes or interacts with your brand, from the on-boarding process to customer service chat.

Misc

• on proper endings