Journey Maps should be research-based

An effective journey map is rooted in a solid understanding of your subject. (By subject, I mean the “actor” in your map - a segment, archetype, persona, etc.) How? Ideally, from a range of sources, including:

• Qualitative research (bespoke, journey-focused research...keep reading!)
• Quantitative survey data
• Behavioral data (site logs, etc.)
• And any other data you can get your hands on (e.g., customer support metrics, sales data, etc.)

Minimally, you need insights from qualitative research. That's your best bet for the depth of insights you need to characterize a journey. (And ideally, you get quant insights, too. More on that soon.) Without bespoke qualitative research, you'll likely have gaps in your knowledge or a shallow understanding of people's experiences.

Using qualitative research to understand people's journeys

Bespoke qualitative research is best for understanding people's journeys. In-depth interviews will help you understand people's experiences with your product/service/thing over: the highs, the lows, and how things change over time.

Most of the time, 1:1 interviews are best for understanding journeys. In rare circumstances pairs or groups make sense, because the journey is truly a group thing (like people planning a vacation together, team members collaborating); even then it may work better to interview people individually first.??

How? Use a Journey Worksheet

How do you get those insights? Use a Journey Worksheet to structure your discussion & your note taking. I learned this approach from Google UXR Beverly Freeman. It’s very widely used and works great. The X axis represents time, with the timeline differing based on the journey (longer for macro journeys, shorter for micro journeys, and likely varying by person). The Y axis represents the range of emotions, from positive to neutral to negative.

How do you use this in an interview?

• Use tiny stickies to record your notes on the worksheet. Why? People’s stories about their experiences are rarely linear. You'll likely jump back in time to fill in the gaps; stickies make that much easier.?For video interviews, use a digital whiteboard like Miro or Mural.
• First, build the timeline. Complete the X-axis (timeline). This is the What and When part of the journey. Ask: “Where does this start for you?” “and then what” “and then what?”? (Realistically, people don't only give you the "what" before they jump into more detail...they'll likely jump into story telling mode & give you lots of details about high & low points of the journey too. Let that happen! Focus more on the conversation, less on your worksheet.)

• Fill-in the high & low points. “Where there any high points for you?” “low points”? "What was it like at this moment? How would you label that emotion?" Also ask how they feel at the end. (Why? Check out the Peak End Rule of Behavioral Economics).

• Use a conversational approach. Avoid getting too structured or steeped in journey-mapping-nerd-verbiage. Your participant does not think of their life as “step 1 & step 2.” What they’ll have is impressions & stories to share. They can answer questions like “Where does (this) start for you?” “What happened next?” and “What was that like?”?
• Before you end the interview, make sure you understand what happened along their journey, the peaks (high or low), the end, the timeframe, etc. You should understand what, when, why, how, where. If you have gaps in understanding, fill them in! And validate what you heard with your participant: "Let me make sure I've got this. First this, and then that, followed by this other thing. At the highest high point, A happened and you felt B. At the lowest low X happened & you felt Y. And now ____. Did I get that right? Anything else you want to add?"
• Make it longitudinal, if you can. One of my former Meta colleagues conducts a follow-up interview. Jamal Zayyad shares his understanding of their experience as a simple journey and asks for the participant's input: "What did I miss?" "What did I get wrong?" "Is there anything missing?" ?
• Consider a diary study as part of your study. Ask people to share glimpses into their experiences over time: screenshots, videos, photos, whatever. That works great before an interview. (Note: this works better for micro journeys than for macro journeys, and does not work well on its own!)?

What if there are gaps in your knowledge? (or gasp, there's no time/budget for research?)

I'm a researcher, and here's my bias: You need research! But, this is the real world. What if you can't do research? or if you haven't done research yet? What if you discovered gaps in your understanding during your analysis? It happens! Just call it out in your map.

Create a Rev0 "strawman" map before you conduct research. Use stakeholder interviews, secondary market research, past research, team wisdom, etc. Call out that your map is “assumptive" and that research is coming soon. Evolve your map over time as your understanding expands. One of my colleagues at Meta shipped 6 iterations of his map; the first was based on secondary market research & team hunches; the 6th represented a very solid understanding of the landscape. High impact maps evolve over time, because the team wants to keep learning & improving the map.

There are lots of benefits to a Rev0 “strawman” map. It can help build buy-in with stakeholders by communicating internal beliefs and/or lack of alignment. It can help build buy-in for future research by highlighting knowledge gaps. It can help you structure your qualitative interviews (if you believe there's a phase in the journey or "moment of truth" that participants don't mention, dig into it!).

If there is truly no time or budget for research, include a clear call-out that your map is an “assumptive map" (based on best-guess assumptions and not defendable insights). Own it!?Don't pretend your map is based in solid insights when it isn't.

Keep it low polish: If you put design polish on an assumptive map you risk inaccurate or incomplete information being accepted as "fact." People conflate design polish with confidence in insights, and you want to avoid that.?

Triangulate your data

“For higher level visibility and credibility, triangulate your data.”

(Ignacio Contreras Pizarro, Senior Researcher, Netflix)?

Your map is most likely to be accepted & acted upon if people accept the insights. People are far more likely to accept the insights if they've been involved in the research. So, invite them to your interviews! Use other research (past qual or quant studies.

Triangulate your data: are there data analytics or sales data that can validate your findings? Once you characterize the journey can you field a quant survey to confirm phase/step sequences and size moments of truth? (Stay tuned for an article about quantitative approaches for journey mapping.)

I'd love to hear from you! What insights have you found most helpful for journey mapping? How do you conduct your qual interviews? Got tips & tricks to share wit others?

How to maximize the impact of your journey maps (and mapping)

This article is part of a series about maximizing the impact of your journey maps. The 5 best practices for Journey Mapping are: ?

1. Collaboratively created
2. Focused (with very clear objectives)?
3. Research-based
4. Customized to your audience
5. Integrated into your org/team

Want to dig deeper into any of these best practices? Check out my Udemy Course! Or, book a private workshop for your team.

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