What is Journey Mapping?

One of the key tools in the Customer Experience toolbox is journey mapping. During my tenure as Senior Manager of CX Strategy at Verisk Analytics I found its application an effective weapon in the search for gaps and opportunities in workflows and efficiencies.

A well executed journey mapping exercise is a true deep dive that involves multiple teams, in-person observations, interviews and close collaboration. In short it is not a single person observing click events or other user behavior actions.

How does it work?

Step 1: Initial Analysis

Customer feedback and observed behavior anomalies can help guide or illustrate potential opportunities for improvement. This initial analysis should be used to report to stake holders and gain buy in from decision makers and senior leadership which is required before any resources or effort is committed to the exploration.

Step 2: Collaboration

• Employ white board sessions and other collaborative exercises to identify and capture pain points as well as potential challenges or risks.
• Be sure to include in-Person observations and internal interviews with involved parties and teams to gain insight directly from the those emersed in the day to day workflow.
• It is important to maintain recurring progress updates and reporting cadence to stake holders and decision makers.

Step 3: Documentation

After acceptance of observations and proposals final documentation should be made public to a wide audience within the organization. This documentation should include solution proposals, journey map diagrams, observations, success metrics, action ownership, proposed governance, challenges and risks. Shared and reviewed with project team.