In order for your team to design for your users, it’s important to think like your users. And that’s where the User Journey Map comes in. As the name implies, it involves mapping out a user’s journey as they encounter and interact with your product. This not only enables your team to get into the mindset of your users, but can illuminate pain points and help you identify opportunities to create new and improved experiences for your users.

You’ll often create a Journey Map for a specific type of user, also known as a persona. If you have a lot of stakeholders or players involved in your business problem, you may need to create multiple journey maps.

How you start a Journey Map depends on where you are in your product cycle. If you’re doing a sprint for a new product and/or you’re in the early stages of the product cycle, you may want to explore a certain use case for your product. So, you’d start your Journey Map with the user’s initial entry point into that use case.

If you have an existing product and are further along in the cycle, you may want to start your journey map when the user is first introduced to your product, when they’re searching for your product, or when they're onboarding and set up an account.

Directions:

Time: 30 - 60 minutes
Activity: Group

1. Start with the user’s first step or entrance into your product experience.
2. Add each step in the journey until the user’s goal has been reached.
3. Include descriptions for each step and highlight pain points along the journey.