How to build a Customer Journey Map in a day

Remember the last time you designed a feature? Did you have much time to investigate the problem it solves?

Perhaps, you did as usual and skipped over the research. Feature factory environment, big delivery batches, deadlines due yesterday, HIPPOs are swarming all around. This hurts me as well. I've been there earlier in my career.

The source of this frustration is a widely held belief that we must be at least 80% confident that we are solving the right problem. But it takes months of extensive research to reach that level of confidence.

However, the hard truth is that most of what we ship is expected to be "good enough." Thus the research we are doing should also help us become “confident enough.”

I developed a 3-step process to quickly draft users' personas and journeys. In a nutshell, it looks like this:

• Step #1: Write down all assumptions about the users;
• Step #2: Draft hypothetical user journeys maps;
• Step #3: Investigate what the business already knows about its users.

But let's take a closer look.

Step #1: Write all assumptions about the users

The whole point of personas is to keep in mind the audience’s needs for whom we are developing a product. Such activities require extensive research, but I take the opposite approach.

I write down all of my assumptions about user segments, but no more than two or three at first. For example, it could be individual and business users. Then I pick up one segment, say individuals, and ask myself three questions:

• Who are these users???
• What needs are they trying to meet [with the product or service]?
• What is keeping them from meeting these needs? Any problems or obstacles on their journeys?

The goal is to put all assumptions, stereotypes, and beliefs on paper. I call the artifact a proto-persona because I don't do any research at this stage.

Step #2: Draft hypothetical user journeys maps

At this step, I don’t have to create a research-based CJM. What I need is a framework to organize my thoughts and foster empathy.

Bob Moesta's Purchase Progress Framework is ideal for this purpose. So I take some time to go through the five stages and put all my assumptions about the user's hypothetical journey.

I prefer to organize my thoughts in a table with seven layers:

1. Scenario or answer to the question “What do I, as a user, do [at each step]?”
2. Touchpoint or “Where do I do it?”
3. Expectations or “What can I, as a user, expect [from this step]?”
4. Problems or obstacles or “What difficulties or obstacles do I, as a user, face [at each step]?”
5. Solutions or “What improvements can I make to that journey as a designer?”
6. Metrics or “What quantitative data about a product's performance can I find for this step?”
7. Mocks/user flows, or “How does my solution fit into the overall journey?”

Note: I prefer questions over statements because they are easier to use. However, half of them reflect an inside-out perspective. I wrote about it in a previous post.

Everything I've written above about users is fictitious. But it usually takes me about an hour to draft 1-2 proto-personas and their hypothetical journeys. So I'll spend the rest of the day confirming these assumptions.

Step #3: Investigate what the business already knows about its users

Every business has a ton of data about its users. Even businesses without a swarm of data analysts and user researchers. Unfortunately, such data is often scattered throughout the organization, with no centralized place to store it.

But how do I confirm my assumptions within a day? For this, I focus on two touchpoints: customer acquisition and support.

Touchpoint #1: Customer acquisition

Sales and marketing teams are on the front line interacting with users. They know much about to whom they sell or advertise the product.

So asking what audience they have been targeting within the last six months provides many insights. As well as a Google Analytics report to get quantitative data about website visitors. If an SEO marketer is on board, I could also ask for keywords we optimize the website.

Designing for b2b businesses, I focus on sales and accounting managers to get insights about prospects and clients. Moreover, a CRM system report is also helpful to see how the design can help with the sales funnel.

Touchpoint #2: Customer Support

CS is a repository of insights about the users' problems. They interact with them daily and collect a lot of data. So a quick chat about the most common complaints is eye-opening.

After I'm done with what I call an internal investigation, I update the proto-personas and their CJM drafts to design improvements.

However, often I have zero to no influence over most of the customers’ steps. That’s fine. But knowledge of the larger context allows me to pick up better solutions.

As a result, I have become more confident in:

• the users by comparing my assumptions to demographic data from marketing or sales;
• users' goals based on search requests and keywords;
• obstacles that prevent users from achieving their goals by comparing my assumptions to complaints from CS.

I hope you find this tactic helpful in designing a "good enough" product.

How do you create Customer Journey Maps? Please share your experience in the comments.