How do you communicate and collaborate with your team and stakeholders using customer journey maps?

1 Identify your audience and purpose

Before you start creating or sharing your customer journey maps, you need to identify who your audience is and what your purpose is. Your audience could be your internal team members, such as designers, developers, marketers, or managers, or your external stakeholders, such as clients, partners, or investors. Your purpose could be to inform, persuade, inspire, or co-create. Depending on your audience and purpose, you will need to tailor your customer journey maps to suit their needs, expectations, and preferences. For example, if you want to inform your developers about the customer pain points and opportunities, you might want to focus on the technical aspects and solutions of your customer journey maps. If you want to persuade your clients to invest in your product or service, you might want to highlight the benefits and outcomes of your customer journey maps.

2 Choose the right format and level of detail

Customer journey maps can be presented in different formats and levels of detail, depending on your audience and purpose. Some common formats are slides, posters, videos, or interactive dashboards. Some common levels of detail are high-level overviews, detailed breakdowns, or specific scenarios. You need to choose the right format and level of detail that will help you communicate and collaborate with your team and stakeholders effectively. For example, if you want to present your customer journey maps to a large group of stakeholders, you might want to use slides or videos that provide a high-level overview of the key insights and recommendations. If you want to collaborate with your team members on refining your customer journey maps, you might want to use posters or interactive dashboards that allow you to zoom in and out of the details and scenarios.

3 Use clear and consistent language and visuals

Customer journey maps are visual tools that rely on language and visuals to convey information and meaning. You need to use clear and consistent language and visuals that will help your team and stakeholders understand and engage with your customer journey maps. You need to avoid jargon, acronyms, or ambiguous terms that might confuse or alienate your audience. You need to use simple and concise words that describe the customer actions, thoughts, feelings, and needs. You also need to use consistent and relevant visuals that illustrate the customer journey stages, touchpoints, channels, and emotions. You need to use colors, icons, images, or graphs that support your message and enhance your customer journey maps.

4 Solicit and incorporate feedback

Customer journey maps are not static or final products. They are dynamic and iterative tools that require feedback and validation from your team and stakeholders. You need to solicit and incorporate feedback from your team and stakeholders to ensure that your customer journey maps are accurate, relevant, and useful. You need to ask open-ended and specific questions that invite constructive and actionable feedback. You need to listen actively and empathetically to the feedback and acknowledge the different perspectives and opinions. You also need to incorporate the feedback into your customer journey maps and show how you have addressed the issues or suggestions.

5 Align your customer journey maps with your goals and actions

Customer journey maps are not only descriptive but also prescriptive tools. They help you identify and prioritize the goals and actions that will improve the customer experience and the business performance. You need to align your customer journey maps with your goals and actions and communicate and collaborate with your team and stakeholders on how to implement them. You need to define the objectives and metrics that will measure the success of your customer journey maps. You need to assign the roles and responsibilities that will execute the tasks and deliverables. You also need to establish the timeline and budget that will guide the process and resources.

6 Review and update your customer journey maps

Customer journey maps are not one-time or fixed tools. They are ongoing and flexible tools that need to be reviewed and updated regularly. You need to review and update your customer journey maps as you learn more about your customers, your product or service, and your market. You need to communicate and collaborate with your team and stakeholders on how to monitor and evaluate the impact and outcomes of your customer journey maps. You need to collect and analyze the data and feedback that will inform your customer journey maps. You also need to adapt and improve your customer journey maps as you discover new opportunities or challenges.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?