I will be showing you how to create customer journey maps.

Journey maps are a visual interpretation of an individual's relationship with an organization,

service, product or brand, over time and across channels.

A journey map helps us explore answers to the “what ifs” that arise during research

and conceptual design.

They should include items like personas; a timeline; the emotions being felt by customers;

touchpoints, and channels—where the interactions are taking place.

So how does one create a customer journey map? There are nine key steps.

Number 1. Review goals for the product or service.

Number 2. Gather our research. Some of my favorite research methods include customer

interviews, contextual inquiry, customer surveys, customer support logs, web analytics, social

media, and competitive intelligence.

Number 3. Generate a list of customer touchpoints, and the channels on which those touchpoints

occur. For example, the touchpoint could be “pay a bill”, and the channels associated

with that touchpoint could be “pay online”, “pay via mail”, or “pay in person”.

Number 4. Conduct an exercise called an Empathy Map. Empathy maps depict the various facets

of a persona and his or her experiences in a given scenario. The goal of the Empathy

Map is to get a sense of how it feels to be that customer in this experience.

Number 5. Brainstorm with what we call “lenses”. This means we generate ideas in a short period

of time with words representing key concepts, brand attributes or mindsets that help us

look at a problem in a different way.

Number 6. Complete an affinity diagram, where we organize ideas and find cohesion in the

team's concepts. It helps us focus on the right solutions for this audience.

Number 7. This is the part you've been waiting for … sketching the journey. This is where

we put together all the ideas the team generated for how to improve the future customer journey.

Get creative with how you lay it out – there is no one way of sketching a customer journey.

Number 8. Refine and digitize. If visual design isn't your strong suite, consider collaborating

with someone who can turn your journey map into an impressive artifact.

And lastly, Number 9 is to share them with zeal. Shout from the rooftops and display

them prominently in common areas.

That's all—I hope you've found this useful, and best of luck in creating your

own journey maps.