The JourneyOps Blueprint: Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up Approaches

I recently had an enlightening conversation with a fellow Journey Management consultant on how to succeed in transforming an organisation into JourneyOps. We identified two distinct methodologies: one that originates from the top, and another that grows organically from a singular journey. If you're unsure which approach is best for your organisation, read on for more information.

Starting from the Summit: The Top-Down Approach to Journey Management

If your organisation values customer experience and you have C-suite support for JourneyOps, a top-down approach can be highly effective. Here’s a methodical route to take your customer journey management to new heights.

Steps to Follow:

1. Establish a Cross-Organisational Project Team:?Don't confine the process to one department. Include voices from across the organisational spectrum.
2. Nominate a JourneyOps Lead:?Choose someone who can align teams and guide the ship toward common goals.
3. Inventory of Existing Journeys & insights:?Take stock of the journeys and customer insights you already have in various formats
4. Gather Requirements:?Consult various departments like marketing, product management, and customer service to understand their specific objectives and requirements.
5. Define a Journey Hierarchy:?Structure your identified journeys in a cohesive hierarchy to ensure that they align with overarching business goals.
6. Standardise a Journey Template:?Create a template to ensure consistent and easy-to-use journey maps
7. Personas & Groups:?If not done yet, define customer personas or groupings
8. Select a Pilot Area:?Choose an area to run an end-to-end pilot and nominate a journey owner for it
9. Macro-level Journey Mapping (pilot):?This process involves aligning overarching, goal-oriented customer journeys, like planning a family holiday, with your established hierarchy.
10. Micro-level Journeys (pilot):?Evaluate the necessity of smaller, targeted journeys within the macro-framework.
11. Company-Wide Governance Model (JourneyOps):?Outline routines, roles, and responsibilities that will govern how journeys are managed.
12. Education & Evangelisation:?Keep your organisation informed and enthused about the changes.

Starting Small: The Ground-Up Approach to Journey Management

If JourneyOps isn't on your C-suite's radar yet, starting small might be your best bet. This ground-up approach prioritises practicality over scale and aims to demonstrate value before seeking a wider organisational commitment.

Steps to Follow:

1. Choose a Strategic Journey:?Pick a journey that directly impacts customer satisfaction and has significance for the underlying business.
2. Assemble a Cross-Organisational Team:?Even if you’re starting small, it's crucial to involve multiple departments.
3. Map Journey Steps:?Identify the key steps your customers go through during this journey.
4. Personas:?Define your target customer groups.
5. Qualitative Insights:?Layer the journey with emotional and practical needs, pain points, and gains.
6. Integration:?Sync existing products and developmental backlogs within the journey structure.
7. Metrics & KPIs:?Establish benchmarks and key performance indicators.
8. Vision Experience:?Define a long-term vision for your journey experience
9. Optimise & Prioritise:?A continuous improvement approach is vital; hence, optimise today's experience towards the vision
10. Run the Pilot:?Evaluate its performance over a quarter.
11. Celebrate and scale:?Once you can show success after the first journey, it's time to upsell and scale it to full-blown JourneyOps.

Conclusion:?

In an ideal world, your organisation would immediately recognise the unparalleled value of JourneyOps. But reality often throws curveballs. Choosing between a top-down and ground-up approach is not about right or wrong; it's about situational appropriateness.

Remember, whatever approach you choose, the endgame is to ensure that you have a cross-organisational team. JourneyOps isn't a solo quest; it's a collaborative expedition that calls for the involvement of every department to truly elevate the customer experience.

So, whether you're scaling the heights or building from the ground up, take heart—both roads lead to the same destination: a phenomenal customer journey.?

If this resonates with you and you're keen to dive deeper into the transformative power of Journey Management/Ops, follow me on LinkedIn, where I post weekly on this topic. Let's journey together towards CX excellence.

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