user journey maps examples

20+ User Journey Map Examples and Templates

13 min read

Looking at user journey map examples can help you come up with a visual representation of your customer’s journey.

Customer journey mapping research also allows you to identify areas of opportunity in your processes and plan to reduce those friction points. For instance, you might discover that you need user onboarding software to retain users after the first three months.

So, we’ve compiled 20+ examples and templates of customer journey maps to help you get inspired.

Let’s get started!

• A user journey map is a document that shares the steps a user must follow to accomplish a goal. It can also include sentiments, thoughts, and friction points.
• The terms user journey maps and customer journey maps are usually interchangeable. These are similar because they both tell the story of a customer’s journey . However, they vary in scope, definitions, and goals.
• For instance, a user journey map is usually reduced to a specific product or service; while a customer journey map shows the end-to-end of a customer’s activities involving your product or service, e.g., advertising.
• The touchpoints in a user journey map refer to in-app experiences, and customer touchpoints in a journey map refer to every interaction the customer has with your app.
• Usually, the user journey map influences product design, while the customer journey map informs business strategies.
• There are four types of customer journey maps:
• Current-state maps. To illustrate the customer journey in the present.
• Future-state maps. To speculate on potential user journeys in the future.
• Day-in-the-life maps. To show what a user does in relation or without any link to your product/service.
• Service-blueprint maps. To define everything that needs to happen internally to properly serve users.
• Examples of user and customer journey maps include companies like Hubspot, Zoom, Mailchimp, Dropbox, and Userpilot.
• Templates of user journey maps include service blueprints, customer empathy maps, user touchpoints, and effective journey maps.
• Did you identify friction points in your user onboarding? Try Userpilot , the all-in-one product adoption platform that’ll help you improve your onboarding experience and boost retention rates. Get a demo .

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What is a user journey map?

A user journey map is a document that shows the steps a user follows to reach a goal with your product or service. It’s usually used for UX visualization as it tells the story of a person navigating your product and their interaction with different touchpoints.

This document also helps you gather information about the user and the functionality they find most relevant.

In your first version of a user journey map, you may only add the user’s actions. But as you expand it, you should also add their emotions and thoughts.

User journey maps vs customer journey maps

User journey maps and customer journey maps are almost interchangeable terms. They both show the road a person takes to achieve goals and help improve the user experience .

However, these vary in scope, definitions, and goals:

• Scope. User journey maps usually showcase the way a user experiences and interacts with a specific product or service. On the other hand, customer journey maps visualize the end-to-end experience of a customer across various brand touchpoints.
• Definitions. The word ‘touchpoints’ has different meanings in each case. A touchpoint in a user journey map refers to interface interactions and in-app experiences. However, a touchpoint in a customer journey map means every moment a customer interacts with or becomes aware of your brand — e.g., advertisements, customer support, or at checkout.
• Goals. User journey maps are useful to influence product design improvements. The insights of a customer journey map , usually inform broader business strategies and customer engagement efforts.

Types of user and customer journey maps

Using customer or user journey maps for different purposes allows you to influence different aspects of your business. For instance, a day-in-the-life journey map lets you spot areas of your customer’s routine where you can participate.

Here are different types of user and customer journey visualization to implement in your business:

• Current-state map. Illustrates the critical user journey as it is now. It helps you visualize the current state of the user experience based on facts. This type of journey map allows you to identify the strengths and opportunities of your current process.
• Future-state map. Design how you wish the customers’ journey could look in the future. This type is aspirational and it’s useful when speculating potential customer paths. It’s mostly based on data from the current state map and creativity.
• Day-in-the-life map. Lists everything a customer does throughout the day despite those actions being related to your brand. A day-in-the-life map gives you an overall understanding of who your customer is, how they spend their time, and where your company falls. This map is based on user research data.
• Service-blueprint map. This is an internal document that states all the actions, policies, and processes that go behind customer-facing services. The service blueprint is usually for employees to know what they need to do to meet the customer across the journey.

User and customer journey map examples

Take a look at examples of user and customer journey maps from successful businesses and get inspired to draft your own.

1. Userpilot’s current user state journey map

To examine the user’s current state, you can use Userpilot to perform a path analysis .

With path analysis, you can identify and understand how users navigate through your product, pinpointing the key interactions and touchpoints they encounter.

For example, to optimize conversion , you can look into how enterprise users navigate toward the conversion point. Then you can use the discovered insights to replicate the experience for new users.

2. Spotify’s music-sharing user journey map

Spotify is a music streaming platform with various features. This example shows a detailed view of a Spotify user’s journey when sharing music with friends and family.

The image shows the steps the user takes to find and share music as well as their thoughts, emotions, touchpoints, and actors. It starts with a user opening Spotify to listen to music at work. They look up the different playlists and feel excited to see the suggestions.

Once they find a song that makes them feel happy, they share it with a friend by sending the link through WhatsApp. They follow up and wait for an answer.

This example is particularly interesting since it includes the actions, thoughts, and sentiments of two different personas.

3. Uber’s first experience user journey map

Uber is a popular transportation company for booking rides. This current-stage customer journey map shows all the steps a user takes from the moment they choose to use Uber as a new user, up to when they arrive at their destination.

It includes screenshots that show exactly what the user sees when they go through each of the customer journey stages.

This example includes goals from the persona on the side. It also includes verbatim thoughts and emotion tags that give you deeper insights into the target persona.

The bottom part of the map shares critical insights that help marketing and sales teams understand the user on a deeper level and improve their experience.

4. Dropbox’s customer journey map

This journey map includes the user persona’s jobs-to-be-done (JBTD) and the path they follow from the problem-awareness stage.

Since Dropbox is a cloud storage platform, using it for business affects the day-to-day of all workers. Hence, this map includes a clever section named “cast” which includes the profiles of everyone who’ll be affected by the decision to use Dropbox.

As you can see, Sophia starts her journey when she discovers Dropbox. She researches alternatives, books a demo, and signs up for the application.

This looks like a future state journey map as it seems quite simplified for a current state map.

5. Mailchimp’s day-in-the-life customer journey map

Mailchimp is a popular email marketing platform. The customer journey map captures everything a marketing worker named Dani does every two weeks.

This customer journey map compiles all the little tasks she does before, during, and after she sends a marketing email.

It’s considered a day-in-the-life map rather than a current-state one because it includes more detail than simply outlining the steps Dani takes to send an email. Instead, it includes the digressions she takes before actually completing the task, as well as emotions and areas of opportunity.

6. Hubspot’s customer journey map

This platform offers multiple services for managing a business. This is the current state of Hubspot’s customer journey . It shows everything a user does from the moment they become dissatisfied with previous tools.

This map explains in detail how customers interact with Hubspot until they become paying users. It also includes all the other actors involved, the factors that lead to a positive or negative experience, and the decision points.

This map also includes thoughts and sentiments, friction points, customer touchpoints, and internal actors involved.

7. Netflix’s customer journey map

Similar to the Mailchimp example, this customer journey map explains the macro steps a user like Jen takes to watch a movie on Netflix.

As a media streaming platform, Netflix’s algorithm comes up with movies and TV show recommendations. This map shows how Jen disregards those recommendations and searches for a different movie instead, making it an area of opportunity for the Netflix team.

As part of the analysis, this map also includes Jen’s pain points, motivators, and emotions. This is an example of how breaking the journey down into smaller goals can simplify spotting friction points by showing an end-to-end process on a single screen.

8. Canva’s user journey map

Canva is an online graphic design platform, mostly suited for non-designers. This user map tells the story of Laura, a woman who isn’t a designer but wants to build beautiful flyers to promote her hobby.

As you see, the map walks us through the process of building a new design. It starts with Laura creating a board and ends when she exports the design. Similarly to the Netflix example, this journey map is also restricted to one scenario.

This user journey also includes actions, pain points, goals, expectations, and thoughts across the phases.

9. Zoom’s user journey map

This popular online meeting platform serves different purposes. This example is about Zoom for teachers and it’s broken down into three main categories: Action, emotions, and thinking.

This user journey map explains what a teacher does to give online lectures. It’s separated into five main action buckets with a breakdown of the tasks that go into each bucket. For example, for a teacher to “Start teaching” they need to open Zoom and roll the call.

You can also see how the teachers’ emotions and thoughts vary throughout the session. Plus, the design of this map lets us quickly identify opportunities just by looking at the emojis.

10. HeartiCraft’s user journey map

HeartiCraft is an online store for people who want to buy handcrafted products. The experience begins when the user researches and finds the website and ends when they decide to buy again.

It’s an interesting view of a user journey map as it exposes where HeartiCraft shines but also where it fails to delight users.

This map highlights four different stages and includes all the actions, thoughts and feelings, pain points, and delights under each of them.

11. Say Yeah!’s customer journey map

This company helps businesses deliver products and services that better serve neurodiverse users. To analyze this customer journey , you need to place your eyes on the left side of the screen and skim through the stages.

As you can see, this is the journey of an adult child looking for health support for their parents. It starts at the moment they discover a problem and ends after they’ve made a purchase.

This map includes the tasks, actors, emotions, media, tactics, and the thinking process of the user across the stages. It also shows how relevant each of those moments is for serving the customer properly.

12. Gartner’s B2B customer buying journey map

As a consulting firm, Gartner has a deep understanding of the B2B sales process. You can see that in this example because it paints the B2B buyer’s journey as a non-linear path.

This is likely informed by historic customer behavior, journey analytics , and user research. In the map, you’ll see four main actions across the user’s journey that allow them to buy a product.

However, there are internal discrepancies that Gartner manages to capture in this map. For example, showing that the person meeting with the company isn’t necessarily the decision maker and needs to go back and get the CEO’s approval before agreeing to make a purchase.

13. Service blueprint map for technical support

As mentioned above, a service journey map helps employees know what needs to happen internally to power customer-facing tasks. In this example, we can see how systems are interconnected and linked to company policies.

This map also shows the actions employees take to provide service, including the invisible back-end tasks and the evidence that supports each action.

Templates for user and customer journey mapping process

Explore the different templates included on this list, and edit them to fit your customer journeys:

1. User journey map template in Figma

You can leverage this template on Figma for your customer journey mapping exercise and uncover user activities and emotions across different stages – from realizing their needs to becoming a paid customer.

It allows you to add what you expect the user’s emotions, experience, and expectations to be at each of the stages.

You can include as many ideas as you wish on this canvas or even invite your teams to work on this together.

2. User empathy mapping template in Notion

An empathy map compiles your target user’s feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.

This Notion template follows the classical approach by including the four main categories:

• Says. Direct quotes or statements that provide insight into the user’s thoughts and opinions.
• Thinks. Reflects the user’s thoughts, beliefs, and feelings.
• Does . Includes what the user does in real life or during their interaction with a product or service.
• Feels . Fears, frustrations, joys, and other emotional responses.

3. Future state customer journey map template from Xtensio

Use your creativity and your current state journey map to fill out this template. Explore alternative customer paths to offer a better customer experience.

This template includes space to add:

• Stages of the journey.
• User’s thoughts and feelings.
• Actions and touchpoints.
• How this map is different from the current journey.

4. Service blueprint customer journey map template from Miro

This is a typical service blueprint template. Miro lets you edit it to your liking by following these steps:

• Define the customer service scenario to investigate.
• Plot customer actions in chronological order.
• Lay out processes, actors, and support systems.
• Add roles and responsibilities by specifying interactions, visibility, and internal actions.
• Illustrate cross-functional relationships.

5. Customer journey map template from Mural

Use Mural’s customer journey map template to have a better understanding of your target audience’s touchpoints, needs, motivations, and barriers.

Here you can:

• Establish a customer scenario, e.g., buying a shirt online.
• Define the customer steps, including big and small actions.
• List all customer interactions with your brand, either in physical or digital touchpoints.
• Determine your customer’s goals and motivations.
• Highlight the positive moments at each stage.
• Define the negative or frustrating moments across the journey.

6. Customer journey map template from Canva

Find many different customer journey map templates on Canva. These all let you edit the customer actions across stages, and depending on the option that you choose, you’ll also be able to add the user’s:

• Emotions and feelings.
• Thinking process.
• Physical or digital touchpoints.
• Barriers or pain points.
• Solutions to barriers.

7. Customer touchpoint map template from InVision

Map out the customer touchpoints on this InVision template. Here, you’ll be able to list all the different interactions between the user and your business, as well as mention all the involved actors. You can break down the actions by stages and teams.

8. Customer journey mapping template from Slidesgo

Slidesgo provides you with 29 customer journey mapping examples. You can choose the design that piques your interest the most and add the different stages, touchpoints, actions, and sentiments. These designs are mostly suited for journeys of up to five steps.

9. B2B customer journey map template from UXPressia

UXPressia developed a set of B2B/B2C customer journey map templates for you to use. This mix also includes persona templates to guide you when creating personas for your journey maps.

You can use these templates as-is to guide your thinking or adapt them to fit your specific project needs.

10. Customer journey map template from Conceptboard

This customer journey map template is a classical one. Open the file with a clear understanding of your user persona.

There, you’ll be able to add customer data concerning each stage, more specifically regarding their:

• Touchpoints and channels.
• Overall experience.
• Pain points.
• Areas of improvement.

Exploring user journey map examples can inspire you to enhance your customers’ experience by pinpointing critical areas, such as better onboarding processes.

To create an effective customer journey map, you need a deep understanding of your user and a clear mapping path, i.e., via conducting user interviews and contextual research.

Userpilot is an all-in-one product platform that can equip you with actionable customer journey insights. Get a demo to explore our powerful analytics capabilities!

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How to create an effective user journey map

No matter what you’re working on, the key to customer satisfaction and business growth is understanding your users. A user journey map helps you uncover pain points, explore the touchpoints from their perspective, and learn how to improve your product.

Imagine you just launched a new ecommerce platform. Shoppers fill their carts with products, but they abandon their carts before checkout. With a user journey map, you can pinpoint where the customer experience is going wrong, and how to enable more successful checkouts.

Read on to find out:

• What is a user journey map, and how it captures user flows and customer touchpoints
• Benefits of user journey mapping to refine UX design and reach business goals
• How to make user journey maps in five steps, using FigJam’s user journey map template

What is a user journey map?

Think about the path a user takes to explore your product or website. How would you design the best way to get there? User journey maps (or user experience maps) help team members and stakeholders align on user needs throughout the design process, starting with user research. As you trace users' steps through your user flows, notice: Where do users get lost, backtrack, or drop off?

User journey maps help you flag pain points and churn, so your team can see where the user experience may be confusing or frustrating for your audience. Then you can use your map to identify key customer touchpoints and find opportunities for optimization.

How to read a user journey map

Most user journey maps are flowcharts or grids showing the user experience from end to end. Consider this real-life journey map example of a freelancing app from Figma's design community. The journey starts with a buyer persona needing freelance services, and a freelancer looking for a gig. Ideally, the journey ends with service delivery and payment—but customer pain points could interrupt the flow.

Start your user journey map with FigJam

5 key user journey map phases.

Take a look at another Figma community user journey template , which uses a simple grid. Columns capture the five key stages of the user journey: awareness, consideration, decision, purchase, and retention (see below). Rows show customer experiences across these stages—their thoughts, feelings, and pain points. These experiences are rated as good, neutral, and bad.

To see how this works, consider a practical example. Suppose a new pet parent wants to learn how to train their puppy and discovers your dog-training app. Here's how you might map out the five key user journey stages:

• Awareness. The user sees a puppy-training video on social media with a link to your product website. They're intrigued—a positive experience.
• Consideration. The user visits your product website to preview your app. If they can't find a video preview easily, this could be a neutral or negative experience.
• Decision. The user clicks on a link to the app store and reads reviews of your app and compares it to others. They might think your app reviews are good, but your price is high—a negative or neutral experience.
• Purchase. The user buys your app and completes the onboarding process. If this process is smooth, it's a positive experience. If not, the customer experience could turn negative at this point.
• Retention. The user receives follow-up emails featuring premium puppy-training services or special offers. Depending on their perception of these emails, the experience can range from good (helpful support) to bad (too much spam).

2 types of user journey maps—and when to use them

User journey maps are helpful across the product design and development process, especially at two crucial moments: during product development and for UX troubleshooting. These scenarios call for different user journey maps: current-state and future-state.

Current-state user journey maps

A current-state user journey map shows existing customer interactions with your product. It gives you a snapshot of what's happening, and pinpoints how to enhance the user experience.

Take the puppy training app, for example. A current-state customer journey map might reveal that users are abandoning their shopping carts before making in-app purchases. Look at it from your customers' point of view: Maybe they aren't convinced their credit cards will be secure or the shipping address workflow takes too long. These pain points show where you might tweak functionality to boost user experience and build customer loyalty.

Future-state user journey maps

A future-state user journey map is like a vision board : it shows the ideal customer journey, supported by exceptional customer experiences. Sketch out your best guesses about user behavior on an ideal journey, then put them to the test with usability testing. Once you've identified your north star, you can explore new product or site features that will optimize user experience.

How to make a user journey map in 5 steps

To start user journey mapping, follow this step-by-step guide.

Step 1: Define user personas and goals.

Gather user research and data like demographics, psychographics, and shopping behavior to create detailed customer personas representing your target audience.  In your dog-training app example, one key demographic may be parents. What’s their goal? It isn't necessarily "hire a puppy trainer"—it could be "teach kids how to interact with a puppy."

Step 2: Identify customer touch points.

Locate the points along the user journey where the user encounters or interacts with your product. In the dog training app example, touchpoints might include social media videos, app website, app store category search (e.g., pets), app reviews, app store checkout, in-app onboarding, and app customer support.

Step 3: Visualize journey phases.

Create a visual representation of user journey phases across key touchpoints with user flow diagrams , flowcharts , or storyboards .

Step 4: Capture user actions and responses.

For each journey stage, capture the user story: at this juncture, what are they doing, thinking, and feeling ? This could be simple, such as: "Potential customer feels frustrated when the product image takes too long to load."

Step 5: Validate and iterate.

Finally, show your map to real users. Get honest feedback about what works and what doesn’t with user testing , website metrics , or surveys . To use the dog-training app example, you might ask users: Are they interested in subscribing to premium how-to video content by a professional dog trainer? Apply user feedback to refine your map and ensure it reflects customer needs.

Jumpstart your user journey map with FigJam

Lead your team's user journey mapping effort with FigJam, the online collaborative whiteboard for brainstorming, designing, and idea-sharing. Choose a user journey map template from Figma's design community as your guide. With Figma's drag-and-drop design features, you can quickly produce your own professional, presentation-ready user journey map.

Pro tip: Use a service blueprint template to capture behind-the-scenes processes that support the user journey, bridging the gap between user experience and service delivery.

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User Journey Map Guide with Examples & FREE Templates

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Customer journey mapping is also a popular workshop task to align user understanding within teams. If backed up by user data and research, they can be a high-level inventory that helps discover strategic oversights, knowledge gaps, and future opportunities.

Yet, if you ask two different people, you will likely get at least three different opinions as to what a user journey looks like and whether it is worth the hassle. Read on if you want to understand whether a UX journey map is what you currently need and how to create one.

You can get the templates here:

Click here to download a high-resolution PDF of this template.

What is user journey mapping?

Imagine your product is a supermarket and your user is the person wanting to refill their fridge. They need to: 

Decide what to buy, and in what supermarket will they be able to find and afford it

Remember to bring their coupons

Park there 

Find everything

Save the new coupons for the next shopping trip

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3 ways to understand user journey maps

Now, there are at least three ways to look at the customer journey.

1. Workflow maps for usability optimization 

Some imagine a user journey map as a wireframe or detailed analysis of  specific flows in their app . This could be, for example, a sign-up flow or the flow for inviting others to a document. In our supermarket example, it’s a closer look at what they do inside your supermarket, maybe even only in the frozen section. Or you could define what you want them to do in the frozen aisle.

.css-61w915{margin-right:8px;margin-top:8px;max-height:30px;}@media screen and (min-width: 768px){.css-61w915{margin-right:38px;max-height:unset;}} The focus here is on getting the details of the execution right, not how it fits into the bigger picture of what the user needs.

It is more or less a wireframe from a user perspective. Such a product-focused understanding is not what we want to discuss in this article, though many examples for the best user journey maps you might come across are exactly this. There are good reasons to do such an analysis as well, since it helps you smooth out usability for the people who have already found their way into your supermarket because of your excellent ice cream selection. Workflow maps won’t help you notice that your lack of parking spots is one of the reasons why you are missing out on potential customers in the first place. By only looking at what they do inside the supermarket, you might also miss out on an opportunity for user retention: You could help them get their ice cream home before it melts.

2. Holistic user journey maps for strategic insights

With a more holistic view of what people experience when trying to achieve a goal, product makers gain strategic insights on how their product fits into the big picture and what could be in the future. Because this journey document covers so much ground, it is usually a linear simplification of what all the steps would look like if they were completed. Going back to our supermarket example, it would start from the moment the person starts planning to fill the fridge and ends when the fridge is full again — even if the supermarket building is only relevant in a few phases of this journey. Creating this version of a user journey map requires quite some time and research effort. But it can be an invaluable tool for product and business strategy. It is an inventory of user needs that can help you discover knowledge gaps and future opportunities.  Service blueprints   are the most comprehensive version of a user journey map  since they also lay out the behind-the-scenes of a service, usually called backstage. In our supermarket example, that could be:

the advertising efforts

logistics required to keep all shelves stocked

protocols the staffers follow when communicating with customers

3. Journey mapping workshops as an alignment method

In a user journey mapping workshop, stakeholders and team members share their knowledge and assumptions about the users. Some of these assumptions might need to be challenged — which is part of the process. The goal is not the perfect output, but rather to get everyone into one room and work out a common understanding of the users they are building products for. It forces everyone to organize their thoughts, spell out what they know and assumed was common knowledge — and ideally meet real users as part of the workshop. If done right, this establishes a more comprehensive understanding of what users go through and helps overcome the very superficial ideas one might have about the lives and needs of people outside their own social bubble.

Hence, such a workshop helps create aha moments and gives the consequences of great and poor product decisions a face. So at the end of the day, it is one of many methods to evangelize user-centricity in an organization.

What are the benefits of user experience (UX) mapping?

We already discussed the benefits and shortcomings of workflow maps, but what are the reasons you should consider a UX journey map and/or a journey mapping workshop ?

1. Switching perspectives

Empathy:  Like any other UX method and user research output, user journey maps are supposed to foster empathy and help product makers put themselves into the shoes of a user. Awareness:  It creates awareness of why users do all the things they do. And it challenges product makers to resist the temptation of building something because it’s feasible, not because it’s needed that way.

2. Aligned understanding

Given the team is involved in creating the user experience map (either as a workshop, in expert interviews, observing the user research, or at least as a results presentation), it forces a conversation and offers a shared mental model and terminology — the foundation for a shared vision. 

3. Seeing the big picture

Imagine the vastly different perceptions Sales reps, Customer Support teams, C-level, and backend engineers might have since they all meet very different segments at very different stages of their journey. Day-to-day, it makes sense to be an expert in the stages of a user journey you are responsible for. A journey map helps to step back from this and see the bigger picture, where your work fits in, and where assumptions about the majority of users were wrong. It might even help define KPIs across teams that don’t cancel each other out.

4. Uncovering blind spots and opportunities

A user journey map gives you a structured and comprehensive overview of which user needs are already tackled by your product and which ones are either underserved or solved with other tools and touchpoints. Which moments of truth do not get enough attention yet? These are the opportunities and blind spots you can work on in the future.

When is customer journey mapping just a waste of time?

In all honesty, there are also moments when creating a user journey map or running a journey mapping workshop is destined to fail and should better be put on hold. It’s a lot of work, so don’t let this energy go to waste.  User journey maps only make sense when there is an intention to collaboratively work on and with them.  Here are some of the scenarios and indicators that it’s the wrong moment for a journey map:

No buy-in for the workshop: The requirements of a successful journey workshop are not met, e.g., there is not enough time (60 minutes over lunch won’t do the trick), only a few team members are willing to attend, and/or key stakeholders refuse to have their assumptions challenged.

Isolated creation: The whole creation process of the user journey map happens isolated from the team, e.g., it is outsourced to an agency or an intern. Nobody from the team observes or runs the user research, or is consulted for input or feedback on the first drafts. There is no event or presentation planned that walks the team through the output. Finally, a very detailed, 10-foot-long poster appears in a hallway, and none of the team members ever find time to read, process, or discuss it with each other.

UX theater: For one reason or another, there is no time/resources allocated to user research or reviewing existing insights whilst creating the map (usability tests with non-users do not count in this case, though). Such an approach, also known as, can do more harm than good since the resulting user journey may only reinforce wrong assumptions and wishful thinking about your users.

Unclear objectives: The user journey map is only created because it is on your UX design checklist, but the purpose is unclear. If you are unsure what you or your stakeholders want to achieve with this journey map, clarify expectations and desired output before investing more energy into this. E.g., there is a chance you were only meant to do a usability review of a bumpy app workflow.

Lack of follow-through: Creating a user journey map is just the start. Without a plan to implement changes based on insights gathered, the map is merely a paper exercise. This lack of action can result from limited resources, lack of authority, or inertia. It's vital to establish a process for turning insights from the map into design improvements or strategy adjustments. This includes assigning tasks, setting deadlines, and defining success metrics to ensure the map drives real change and doesn't end up forgotten.

Overcomplication: Sometimes, to capture every nuance and detail of the user experience, teams can create an overly complex user journey map. This can make the map difficult to understand and use, particularly for team members who weren't involved in its creation. A good user journey map should balance detail and clarity, providing insightful and actionable information without overwhelming its users.

Failure to update: User expectations, behaviors, and the digital landscape constantly evolve. A user journey map that remains static will quickly become outdated. Regular reviews and updates are necessary to ensure that the map reflects the current state of user experiences. This requires a commitment to ongoing user research and a willingness to adjust your understanding of the user's path as new information becomes available.

The good news is: UX maturity in an organization can change rapidly, so even if you run into one of the obstacles above, it is worth revisiting the idea in the future. Once you’re good to go, you can get started with the user journey map examples and templates below.

User journey mapping: examples, templates & tools

There is more than one way to do it right and design a great user journey map. Every organization and industry has its own templates, tools and approaches to what elements are most important to them. The following examples and template will give you an idea of what a user journey map can look like if you decide to create one yourself. Make it your own, and change up the sections and design so they make sense for your product and use cases.

User journey map template and checklist

To give you a first orientation, you can use this user journey template and check the two fictional examples below to see how you could adapt it for two very different industries: instant meal delivery and healthcare.

Click here to download a high-resolution PDF of the user journey map template. 

While there is no official standard, most other user journey maps contain the following elements or variations of them:

Key phases (or ‘stages’) start when users become aware of a problem they need to solve or a goal they want to achieve and may end when they evaluate whether they achieved their goal or enter a maintenance phase. E.g., user journeys for e-commerce could be structured along the classic funnel of:

Consideration

Delivery & use

Loyalty & advocacy

2. Jobs to be done

Whilst some other user journey templates might call this section ‘steps’ or ‘tasks’, it can be very beneficial to structure the stages into ‘jobs to be done’ (JTBD) instead. This framework helps you distinguish better between the actual goal of a user vs. the tasks required to get there . For example, safe online payments are never a goal of a user, this is just one of many jobs on the long way to get new sneakers on their feet. Ideally, users ‘hire’ your product/service to assist them with some of the JTBD on their journey. Phrase your JTBD as verb + object + context . Examples:

Install app on phone

Tip delivery driver

Buy new shoes

Naturally, the stages closest to your current (and future) solution require a more detailed understanding, so you might want to investigate and document deeper what JTBDs happen there.

3. Needs and pains

Users have needs and pains every step along the journey. Use this section to collect the most important needs and potential pains, even if not all apply in all cases. Ask:

What are the repeating themes, even the ones you are (currently) not able to solve with your product?

Phrase pains and needs as I- or me-statements from the user perspective, e.g., ‘I forgot my login details, ‘I am afraid to embarrass myself’ or ‘My day is too busy to wait for a delivery.’ 

Which are the pains and needs that are so severe that, if not solved, they can become real deal-breakers for your product or service?

On the last point, such deal-breaker and dealmaker situations, or ‘ moments of truth ’, require particular attention in your product decisions and could be visually highlighted in your journey. In a meal delivery, the taste and temperature of the food are such a moment of truth that can spoil the whole experience with your otherwise fantastic service.

4. Emotional curve

An emotional curve visualizes how happy or frustrated users are at certain stages of their journey. Emojis are commonly used to make it easy to understand and empathize with the emotional state of the user across the whole journey. It can be a surprising realization that users are not delighted with your witty microcopy, but you already did a great job by not annoying them. It is also a good reminder that what might personally excite you is perceived as stressful or overwhelming by most other users. Strong user quotes can be used for illustration.

5. Brand and product touchpoints

Here, you can list current and planned touchpoints with your brand and product, as well as. Whilst the touchpoints when using your product might be obvious, others early and late in the journey are probably less obvious to you but critical for the user experience and decision to use or return to your product. This is why it is worthwhile to include them in your map. Make sure your journey does not get outdated too soon, and don’t list one-off marketing campaigns or very detailed aspects of current workflows — just what you got in general so there is no major revision needed for a couple of years.

6. Opportunities for improvement

As you map out your user journey, it is important to not only identify the current touchpoints and experiences but also opportunities for improvement. This could include potential areas where users may become frustrated or confused, as well as areas where they may be delighted or pleasantly surprised.

By identifying these opportunities, you can prioritize making meaningful improvements to the user experience and ultimately creating a more positive, long-lasting relationship with your users.

7. Other tools and touchpoints

This may seem the least interesting aspect of your journey or a user interview, but it can tell you a lot about blind spots in your service or potential partnerships or APIs to extend your service. E.g., Google Maps or WhatsApp are common workaround tools for missing or poor in-app solutions.

User journey map example 1: health industry

The following example is for a fictional platform listing therapists for people in need of mental health support, helping them find, contact, schedule, and pay for therapy sessions. As you can see, the very long journey with recurring steps (repeated therapy sessions) is cut short to avoid repetition. 

At the same time, it generalizes very individual mental health experiences into a tangible summary. While it is fair to assume that the key phases happen in this chronological order, JTBD, timing, and the number of sessions are kept open so that it works for different types of patients.

You can also see how the journey covers several phases when the platform is not in active use. Yet, these phases are milestones in the patient’s road to recovery. Looking at a journey like this, you could, for example, realize that a ‘graduation’ feature could be beneficial for your users, even if it means they will stop using your platform because they are feeling better.

This user journey map is fictional but oriented on Johanne Miller’s UX case study  Designing a mental healthcare platform . 

User journey map example 2: delivery services

What the example above does not cover is the role of the therapist on the platform — most likely they are a second user type that has very different needs for the way they use the platform. This is why the second example shows the two parallel journeys of two different user roles and how they interact with each other. 

Nowadays, internal staff such as delivery drivers have dedicated apps and ideally have a designated UX team looking out for their needs, too. Creating a frictionless and respectful user experience for ‘internal users’ is just as critical for the success of a business as it is to please customers.

User journey map example: meal delivery. Please note that this fictional journey map is just an example for illustrative purposes and has not been backed up with user research.

For more inspiration, you can find collections with more real-life user journey examples and customer journey maps on  UXeria ,  eleken.co  &  userinterviews.com , or check out free templates provided by the design tools listed below.

Free UX journey mapping tools with templates

No matter whether you’re a design buff or feel more comfortable in spreadsheets, there are many templates available for free(mium) tools you might be already using. 

For example, there are good templates and tutorials available for  Canva ,  Miro  and even  Google Sheets . If you are more comfortable with regular design software, you can use the templates available for  Sketch  or one of these two from the  Figma (template 1 ,  template 2 ) community. There are also several dedicated journey map tools with free licenses or free trials, e.g.,  FlowMapp ,  Lucidchart  and  UXPressia , just to name a few.

Be aware that the first draft will require a lot of rearrangement and fiddling until you get to the final version. So it might help to pick where this feels easy for you. 

How do I collect data for my app user journey?

User journey maps need to be rooted in reality and based on what users really need and do (not what we wish they did) to add value to the product and business strategy. Hence, user insights are an inevitable step in the creation process.

However, it’s a huge pile of information that needs to be puzzled together and usually, one source of information is not enough to cover the whole experience — every research method has its own blind spots. But if you combine at least two or three of the approaches below, you can create a solid app user journey .

1. In-house expertise

The people working for and with your users are an incredible source of knowledge to start and finalize the journey. Whilst there might be a few overly optimistic or biased assumptions you need to set straight with your additional research, a user journey mapping workshop and/or  expert interviews  involving colleagues from very different (user-facing) teams such as:

customer service

business intelligence

customer insights

will help you collect a lot of insights and feedback. You can use these methods to build a preliminary skeleton for your journey but also to finalize the journey with their input and feedback.

2. Desk research

Next to this, it is fair to assume there is already a ton of preexisting documented knowledge about the users simply floating around in your company. Your  UX research repository  and even  industry reports  you can buy or find with a bit of googling will help. Go through them and pick the cherries that are relevant for your user journey. Almost anything can be interesting:

Old research reports and not-yet-analyzed context interviews from earlier user interviews

NPS scores & user satisfaction surveys

App store feedback

Customer support tickets

Product reviews written by journalists

Competitor user journeys in publicly available UX case studies

Ask your in-house experts if they know of additional resources you could check. And find out if there’s already a  long-forgotten old journey map  from a few years ago that you can use as a starting point (most organizations have those somewhere).

3. Qualitative user research

Qualitative research methods are your best shot to learn about all the things users experience, think, and desire before and after they touch your product.  In-depth interviews  and  focus groups  explore who they are and what drives them. You could show them a skeleton user journey for feedback or  co-creation . 

This could also be embedded into your user journey mapping workshop with the team. Alternatively, you can follow their actual journey in  diary studies ,  in-home visits  or  shadowing . However, in all these cases it is important that you talk to real users of your product or competitors to learn more about the real scenarios. This is why usability testing with non-users or fictional scenarios won’t help much for the user journey map.

4. Quantitative research

Once you know the rough cornerstones of your user journey map,  surveys  could be used to let users rate what needs and pains really matter to them. And what their mood is at certain phases of the journey. You can learn how they became aware of your product and ask them which of the motives you identified are common or exotic edge cases. Implementing micro-surveys such as  NPS surveys , CES , and  CSAT  embedded into your product experience can give additional insights.

5. Customer satisfaction (CSAT) survey

Customer satisfaction surveys (or CSATs for short) are important tools that measure your customers' satisfaction with your product or service. It is usually measured through surveys or feedback forms, asking customers to rate their experience on a scale from 1 to 5. This metric can give valuable insights into the overall satisfaction of your customers and can help identify areas of improvement for your product.

CSAT surveys can be conducted at different customer journey stages, such as after purchase or using a specific feature. This allows you to gather feedback on different aspects of your product and make necessary changes to improve overall satisfaction.

The benefit of CSAT lies in understanding how satisfied customers are with your product and why. By including open-ended questions in the surveys, you can gather qualitative insights into what aspects of your product work well and what needs improvement.

5. User analytics

User analytics is a beautiful source of information, even if it has its limits. Depending on what tools you are using (e.g., Google Analytics, Firebase, Hubspot, UXCam), you can follow the digital footprints of your users before and when they were using the product. This may include  acquisition channels  (input for brand touchpoints and early journey phases),  search terms  that brought them to your product (input for needs and pains), and how they navigate your product. 

Unlike a usability test, you can use  screen flows  and  heatmaps  to understand how your users behave naturally when they follow their own agenda at their own pace — and how often they are so frustrated that they just quit. Knowing this gives you pointers to negative user emotions at certain journey steps and even helps identify your product’s moments of truth. Whilst you cannot ask the users if your interpretations are correct, checking analytics already helps you prepare good questions and talking points for user interviews or surveys.

Curious to know how heatmaps will look in your app?  Try UXCam for free — with 100,000 monthly sessions and unlimited features.

How can I utilize UXCam to collect App User Journey data?

If you have UXCam set up in your mobile app, you can use it to support your user journey research. You can find many of the previously mentioned  user analytics  features ( screen flows  and  heatmaps , including  rage taps ) here as well. 

UXCam can also be an  invaluable asset for your qualitative research . Especially for niche products and B2B apps that normally have a lot of trouble  recruiting real users  via the usual user testing platforms. 

UXCam’s detailed segmentation options allow you to  identify exactly the users you want to interview  about their journey — and  reach out to them via either email or UXCam push notifications , which can include invitation links for your study, a survey or an additional screener.

Additionally, UXCam's session replay feature allows you to watch recordings of user sessions, providing valuable insights into how users interact with your app and where they may face challenges.

Where can I learn more about user journey map?

Don’t feel ready to get started? Here are a few additional resources that can help you dive deeper into user journey mapping and create the version that is best for your project.

Creating user journey maps & service blueprints:

Mapping Experiences by Jim Kalbach

Journey Mapping 101

How to create customer journey maps

Customer Journey Stages for Product Managers

The Perfect Customer Journey Map

Planning and running user journey mapping workshops:

Journey mapping workshop

Jobs to be done:

The Theory of Jobs To Be Done

Moments of truth in customer journeys:

Journey mapping MoTs

What is a user journey map?

A user journey map is a visual representation of the process that a user goes through to accomplish a goal with your product, service, or app.

What is a user journey?

A user journey refers to the series of steps a user takes to accomplish a specific goal within a product, service, or website. It represents the user's experience from their point of view as they interact with the product or service, starting from the initial contact or discovery, moving through various touchpoints, and leading to a final outcome or goal.

How do I use a user journey map in UX?

User journey maps are an essential tool in the UX design process, used to understand and address the user's needs and pain points.

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How to create a customer journey map — a step-by-step guide with examples

Learning more about client experience is the best way to understand and improve it. As you are reading this article, you already know that 😉 

Here, you will find a detailed step-by-step guide on making a customer journey map (CJM), examples, expert tips, templates, and a PDF guide to download and save for later.

• 1 What is a customer journey map?
• 2 Benefits of client journey mapping
• 3.1 Step 1: Define your persona
• 3.2 Step 2: Set customer journey stages
• 3.3 Step 3: Define journey map sections
• 3.4 Step 4: Set customer goals
• 3.5 Step 5: Define touchpoints
• 3.6 Step 6: Processes and channels
• 3.7 Step 7: Problems and ideas
• 3.8 Step 8: Emotional graph
• 3.9 Step ?: Be Creative!
• 4 Customer journey map examples
• 5 A customer journey mapping checklist
• 6 The free guide to download

What is a customer journey map?

A customer journey map is the final output of the collaborative visualization process called customer journey mapping. This process lets you reveal typical experiences the customers have over time when interacting with your organization, service, or product. A finished map provides insights into their actions, processes, goals, needs, channels, emotions, and many other aspects shaping the customer experience. 

Journey maps can be of different scopes. For example, a broad-scope map would include multiple customer journey stages like ‘Awareness’, ‘Decision’, ‘Purchase’, ‘Support’, and ‘Renewal’. In contrast, a map with a narrower focus would look at a few specific stages like ‘Decision’ and ‘Purchase’.

CJMs focusing on the current experience are AS-IS maps, while journey maps visualizing the future, desired, state of the experience are called TO-BE maps.

There’s also a similar technique, customer experience mapping, which is often used interchangeably with journey mapping. Experience maps are variations of CJMs, but they typically cover a wider range of interactions and contexts beyond a specific consumer-business relationship. 

Benefits of client journey mapping

Why make journey mapping your tool of choice? There are plenty of reasons, the major of which include:

• Gaining a deeper understanding of your customers 

For instance, a high-end fashion retailer may discover that its younger customers prefer online shopping, while older customers enjoy the in-store experience.

• Getting a single view of your customer within the organization

Journey mapping will help you turn a fragmented vision of the customer experience into a unified, organization-wide one. It will have a massive impact on the decision-making process, encouraging you to consider how your actions will affect your clients and become customer-focused.

• Breaking corporate and cross-department silos 

To make the way toward delivering a great customer experience, you will need to collaborate with others. Understanding why this collaboration is essential, departments and employees will be more inclined to participate in conversations and collaborate.

• Improving customer experience, retention, and loyalty

While working on a map, you will discover customer pain points at different stages of their journey with you. Fixing the most crucial one as quickly as possible will do you a good turn by eliminating the reasons for leaving you. If fixes take much time, look for quick wins first. 

For instance, adding details about your shipping policy on the website will take a developer half an hour, while it will set the right expectations among customers. They won’t be expecting the delivery the next day anymore, bombarding your customer support team with frustrated messages. Another example is a subscription-based video streaming service that can personalize content recommendations to keep subscribers engaged and less likely to cancel their subscriptions.

• Better conversion and targeting of your target customers

Sometimes, it makes sense to focus on a specific segment or, talking journey mapping terms, specific personas. Customer journey insights will help you with this endeavor by giving you a glimpse into these people’s minds and ensuring the higher effectiveness of your marketing.

How to build a customer journey map

Although there is no gold standard for creating a customer journey map, we’ll try to create a somewhat generalized map. So that you can use it as a reference when making maps of your own.

We’ll be using our CJM Online tool along the way for two reasons. Because it’s easy to use and lets you create a CJM fairly quickly without wasting time setting up the environment. Oh, and there's a Personas building tool that comes with it 😉

We’ll take a pizza restaurant as an example of business and learn how to make a customer journey map together.

Step 1: Define your persona

Creating personas is a crucial part of customer experience service and journey mapping in particular. We won’t go into details — you can find them in this post about defining personas .

Let’s just say that our persona’s name will be Eva Moline — 29, works as a journalist and loves pizza. Eva is not really tech-savvy, and she tries to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Step 2: Set customer journey stages

Stages are the steps customers take when interacting with a business. The easiest way to identify them is to think of all the actions the person has to take throughout their journey, organize them into logical groups, and name these groups. These will be your map stages. 

The number of stages varies from business to business, but we’ll take 8 for this example:

💡 Expert tips: 

• If you’re unsure about the order or names of the stages, don’t worry about that. You can change both at any time when working on the map.
• If your stages are complex, you can break them into smaller ones. Read this blog post about defining customer journey stages to learn more.

Step 3: Define journey map sections

Sections are horizontal rows with data that, together with the stages you defined, make up a customer journey map.

When picking sections for a map, your choice will depend on your journey’s type and purpose. 

As for UXPressia’s Journey Map tool, it offers a set of more or less universal sections for all kinds of maps. 

We’ll use some of the sections in the current example.

Step 4: Set customer goals

Setting customer goals at each stage is great for multiple reasons:

• It helps you understand how your business goals align with the goals of your customers.
• You can meet your customers’ needs better, gaining their loyalty by helping them achieve their goals at each stage.

Above, you can see some of the goals we set for Eva. They are self-explanatory, so there’s no need for extra details.

Step 5: Define touchpoints

Touchpoints are encounters that happen between your business and customers. In the pizza restaurant example, touchpoints happen:

• At the Awareness phase, when Eva is actively looking for a pizza place nearby. She is asking around, searching locations on Google Maps, etc.
• At the Research phase, when she is trying to find out what people say about the place by asking her friends and reading online reviews.
• At the Arrival stage, when Eva searches for a parking spot and enters the restaurant to get seated after parking the car.
• At the Order stage, when she makes an order and waits for it.
• Time to eat! At this stage, touchpoints occur when Eva is being served and when she is eating her meal.
• At the Leave stage, Eva interacts with the waiter, pays for the meal, etc.
• At the Feedback stage, she goes to the pizzeria’s website and drops a few lines on Instagram.
• At the last stage, Eva gets a promo email from the restaurant with discounts or other special offers.

Defining all the touchpoints is critical because each touchpoint leaves some impression, and your main goal is to keep it up to the mark.

You can also have a separate section to describe the actions your persona takes:

Step 6: Processes and channels

Now, you may want to add some processes and channels to the map. Just to see what channels your persona uses and what types of processes are in their journey. Luckily, our tool lets you do it in the most awesome way. Processes can be linear, non-linear & time-based, cyclic, or bi-directional. In UXPressia, you can specify up to 10 channels per process.

Step 7: Problems and ideas

It’s time to explore problems Eva might have when using our service. It could be a lack of info about the pizza house. Few reviews and ads do not show how our pizza differs from others.

Upon arriving, Eva may struggle with locating the place due to unclear information on signboards or just because of a hard-to-find location.

When making her order, Eva may look for detailed info on dish ingredients to learn whether it contains peanuts she’s allergic to. Descriptions may not be as detailed as she’d want them to be.

While waiting for the pizza, Eva may want to check out the place. Finding a restroom can turn into a nightmare if you don’t have clear signs showing what’s where in the restaurant.

Once you’re done with problems, it’s time to find solutions to these problems. Brainstorm for some ideas on how this or that problem can be solved. Here’s what we brainstormed for Eva’s case:

Step 8: Emotional graph

Never underestimate the power of visualization. And our Customer Journey tool is all about it. We added an emotional graph to see where our service example shines and where it stinks. Plus, we filled text boxes with Eva’s thoughts:

There’s also a special section ( “Think & feel” ) to put personas’ thoughts.

Step ?: Be Creative!

This is a good start, but the map is far from being complete. So, keep exploring Eva’s journey to find more insights and then add all of them to the map.

If you use our tool (which we highly recommend you to do), check out other CJM sections:

• Image section for screenshots, photos, or any other relevant imagery. You can even turn it into a storyboard , describing the journey from beginning to end with your images or those from our library.

• Charts section for communicating data in a visual and meaningful way, just like we did it in the persona:

• Video and document sections for journey-related videos and documentation (e.g., an annual marketing report).
• Personas section for visualizing different personas’ interactions within the same journey.

💡 Expert tip: The section with the persona’s questions works like a charm for marketing and content purposes. So be sure to add one 😉

Customer journey map examples

There are also a whole lot of free CJM templates for all sorts of journeys in our library. Here are three examples we picked for you.

• Example 1: a mobile user journey

This user journey map template covers the digital experience of the persona who discovers a new mobile app, installs it, and uses the app for some time before deleting it.

• Example 2: a client journey map for a corporate bank

This free template is an example of a multi-persona, B2B customer journey. The key persona is a newly opened company looking for a bank to run their business. The CJM also visualizes interactions between the personas involved. 

• Example 3: a digital customer journey

This customer journey map example shows the digital journey of three customer personas who want to buy a new pair of sneakers online. They go through the same stages, but if you look at the map, you will be able to see the differences in customer behavior, goals, and actions. It’s also a multi-persona journey map .

A customer journey mapping checklist

As a quick recap, here is a checklist with key steps to follow when creating a customer journey map:

• Do research

To represent real people, your real customers, and visualize their journeys, you must base your personas and journey maps upon actual data.

• Define your customer persona(s)

Identify your target personas. Create detailed profiles focusing on information relevant to your journey mapping initiative. Include such details as background, customer needs, motivations, channels, etc. 

• Specify journey map stages

Determine the stages you want to have on your map and come up with their names.

• Decide on the map sections

Determine which sections to include in your map (e.g., actions, touchpoints, emotions, channels).

• Set customer goals for each stage

Make sure that it is your customers’ goals, not your business goals.

• Identify touchpoints between the persona(s) and your organization, product, or service

Consider both online and offline interactions.

• Map out processes and channels

Visualize the journey-specific processes and the channels your customers use at each stage. Include both digital and physical channels.

• Highlight problems and look for opportunities

Identify any pain points and issues customers might encounter. Brainstorm potential solutions and quick wins to improve the experience.

• Add details about the emotional experience

Visualize the persona’s emotional journey. Include thoughts and feelings where it’s relevant.

• Use more sections

Include illustrations, images, and charts to make the map visually engaging and easy to understand. Enrich your journey map with more data, like KPIs related to journey stages.

Feel free to tailor this checklist to the specific context of your business and your project's needs.

The free guide to download

As a bonus, download our free customer journey mapping guide. Fill in the form below to get a PDF file as an email.

Related posts

The post was originally written in 2017.

Rate this post

first of all, excellent example and I’m very happy to I could understand how to create user journey map, due to for a long time I can’t understand it and how, many thanks for your efforts 🙂 I have some question about ser journey map. I hope to open your chest for me,

1-no there are rules for user journey map? 2-I need another example ?(for example Uber)?further understand 3-have I create user journey map without customer?

Hello, Karim!

I am very glad that this article helped you understand customer journey mapping 🙂

In regards to your first question, I would say that journey maps differ from business to business. However, they tend to have the same structure give or take. So no matter what industry you make a CJM for, you will end up having several stages and a bunch of sections we mentioned in this post.

If you’re looking for CJM examples of Uber customers, here is one: https://www.mindomo.com/doc.htm?d=92be818b774d422bad7eab790957ebc0&m=7d286174ccf1450bbb77c921a609ff65 Plus we have a lot more on our template page: https://uxpressia.com/templates

As for your last question, yes. You may have a journey map without a customer (persona) and use target audience segments instead (or have a generic map without personas at all, though I don’t recommend the latter as in this case it will be hard to empathize with real people). So you will certainly have to introduce a customer down the road to gain a deeper understanding of the journey.

many thanks for your reply to me and again I have some questions

1-why you don’t use in your example? user experience, empathy maps such as use goal touch point, and how to create it 2-As for the previous example (Uber) very confuse for me not as your example

Could you please rephrase your first question? And as for the Uber map, well, that’s all I managed to find. 🙂 But again, here you can find a hundred of map examples of all stripes and colors: https://uxpressia.com/templates

welcome again, my question is? what’s different between Aware and Research

The differences come from the names.

At the aware stage your client realizes that there’s a need for a service/product. Or they find out that your company exists and offer a desired service.

While at the research stage they either do research on your business (e.g. visit your website or ask their friends if they used your service) or they research what is out there on the market that can help them.

Makes sense? 🙂

Thank you for this,

I am wondering , Have you done examples on B2B services. I work in Accreditation & Certification, this seems to be the least visited topic in marketing platforms and blog sites.

We have some B2B templates in our Template Library . Type B2B tag in the search placeholder and you will see all categories with the fitting templates. You can also explore the B2B mapping guide here .

Good luck and happy customers!

Great article, well articulated and detailed. I am starting off with service design and was wondering if I could get some advice mapping out a customer journey for a specific project. I was mapping out how do one approach to repair services?

Hi Shreya, glad you liked the article!

If you’re dealing with home repair, I might suggest our pre-filled template for an interior design agency customer journey: https://uxpressia.com/templates/real-estate . Templates can be a great starting point even if they’re not a 100% match to your use case.

Other than that, you will need to create a persona. If you don’t have any research data yet, do it based on your assumptions. Then, try to visualize what their experience across all stages and interactions with the repair service might be. Once you have the first draft, you can proceed with validating it and adding more data as it comes in.

If you have more context on the project, I can look into it and come up with specific tips 🙂

I very delighted to find this internet site on bing, just what I was searching for as well saved to fav

Thank you for sharing, it was something I researched.

Hi Rok! Happy mapping 🙂

A Beginner’s Guide To User Journey Mapping

To design a great product, you need to understand what the user does with it. A user journey map will help you to answer that question for the product’s entire lifecycle.

“How do people actually use this product?” is a fundamental question that every product creator must answer. In order to do so, product designers need to understand the essence of the whole product experience from the user’s perspective. Fortunately, user journey mapping is an excellent exercise that can shed light on the ways in which the users interact with the product.

What Is a User Journey Map?

More From Nick Babich What Is Microcopy?

What Design Problems Does a User Journey Map Solve?

A user journey map is an excellent tool for UX designers because i t visualizes how a user interacts with a product and allows designers to see a product from a user’s point of view. This fosters a more user-centric approach to product design, which ultimately leads to a better user experience.

User journey maps help a product team to find the answer to the “What if?” questions. Also, a user journey map can be helpful when a company tracks quantitative key performance indicators . In this case, a user journey map can become a cornerstone for strategic recommendations.

The 8-Step Process of User Journey Mapping

Before creating a user journey map, review the goals of your business or service. This knowledge will help you align the business and user goals.

• Choose a scope.
• Create a user persona.
• Define the scenario and user expectations.
• Create a list of touchpoints.
• Take user intention into account.
• Sketch the journey.
• Consider a user’s emotional state during each step of the interaction.
• Validate and refine the user journey.

1. Choose a Scope

The scope of the user journey map can vary from a high-level map that shows end-to-end experience (e.g., creating a smart home in your house) to a more detailed map that focuses on one particular interaction (for instance, adding a new device to your smart home ecosystem).

2. Create a User Persona

Who is your user?

A user journey map is always focused on the experience of one main actor — a user persona who experiences the journey.

A user persona should always be based on information that you have about your target audience. That’s why you should always start with user research . Having solid information about your users will prevent you from making false assumptions.

Gather and analyze all available information about your target audience:

• Interview your real or potential users.
• Conduct contextual inquiry. This is an  ethnographic field study that involves in-depth observation of people interacting with your product.
• Conduct and analyze the results of user surveys.

3. Define the Scenario and User Expectations

The scenario describes the situation that the journey map addresses. It can be real or anticipated. It’s also important to define what expectations a user persona has about the interaction. For example, a scenario could be ordering a taxi using a mobile app with the expectation of getting the car in five minutes or less.

4. Create a List of Touchpoints

Touchpoints are user actions and interactions with the product or business. You need to identify all the main touchpoints and all channels associated with each touchpoint. For example, for the touchpoint “Buy a gift,” the associated channels could be purchasing online or buying in the store.

5. Take User Intention Into Account

What motivates your user to interact with your product? Similarly, w hat problem are users looking to solve when they decide to use your product? Different user segments will have different reasons for adopting it.

Let’s take an e-commerce website. There is a big difference between a user who is just looking around and one who wants to accomplish a specific task like purchasing a particular product.

For each user journey, you need to understand:

• Motivation. Why are the users trying to do this action?
• Channels. Where the interaction takes place.
• Actions . The actual behaviors and steps the users take.
• Pain points . What are the challenges users are facing?

Also, ensure that the user is getting a consistent experience across all channels.

6. Sketch the Journey

Put together all the information you have and sketch a journey in the format of a step-by-step interaction. Each step demonstrates an experience that the persona has with a service/product or another person.

You can use  a tool called a storyboard,  which is a graphic representation of how a user does something, step by step. It  can help you show how users can interact with a product. Using storyboards, you can visually depict what happens during each step.

7. Consider a User’s Emotional State During Each Step of the Interaction

What does a user feel when interacting with your product?

The products we design need to mirror the states of mind of our users. When we consider a user’s emotional state, this knowledge will help us to connect with them on a human level. That’s why it’s important to add an emotional lane to the user journey map. By visualizing the emotional ups and downs of the experience, you’ll find the areas that require refinement.

You can create an empathy map to better understand how the user feels. Try to mitigate the emotional downs and reinforce emotional ups with good design. 

8. Validate and Refine the User Journey

Journey maps should result in truthful narratives, not fairy tales. Even when a user journey is based on research, you must validate it. Use the information from usability testing sessions and app analytics to be sure that your journey resembles a real use case.

Gather and analyze information about your users on a regular basis. For example, user feedback can be used to improve your understanding of the user journey.

More in Design + UX Hey Designers, Stop Using Users

Map the User Journey

Remember that the goal of making a user journey map is to create a shared vision within your product team and stakeholders. That’s why, once you create a user journey map, you should share it with your peers. Make it possible for everyone in your team to look at the entire experience from the user’s standpoint and draw on this information while crafting a product.

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User research

User Journey Map

Explore real examples of User Journey Maps

Learn how the best operators in tech think about user journey maps. explore 38 examples of user journey maps so you never have to start from scratch..

Updated June 13, 2024

What is a User Journey Map?

A user journey map visualizes the steps a user takes with a product, capturing experiences and emotions at each touchpoint. Reforge can enhance this tool with resources that improve understanding of user interactions, helping teams identify and address pain points effectively. Our support enables companies to optimize user experiences by tailoring offerings to better meet needs, increasing satisfaction and loyalty.

Popular User Journey Map examples

Explore 10 most popular User Journey Maps from top companies.

User journey teardown presentation for head of growth role at ngrok

by Sam Crowell Richard , Created as Head of Growth @ ngrok

I created this user journey teardown presentation while interviewing as Head of Growth at ngrok.

• Sam created a user journey teardown presentation while interviewing for Head of Growth at ngrok.
• The presentation covered a framework for growth, including discovery, activation, conversion, repackaging, monetization, and scale.
• Sam prioritized the first quarter and provided data to track and questions to answer for an ideal first year.

User Journey Figma Template at CloudBees

by Amber Rucker , Created as Director Of Product Design & Research @ CloudBees

When defining user journeys for a product, I use this format to communicate the broad view of each customer's experience and orient each team at the company around a singular purpose.

• Amber challenges the misconception that user research is always long and expensive by using this format to communicate the broad view of each customer's experience and orient each team at the company around a singular purpose.
• User journeys should be accessible and fast to orient teams around a singular purpose.
• Amber prioritizes speed and accuracy in user journey research, using existing data and a few new interviews.

Onboarding experiment result for personalization at Airtable

by Lauryn Motamedi (Isford) , Created as Head of Growth @ Airtable

When our team was working on onboarding at Airtable, we ran experiments using personalization to drive the completion rate and provide more value to new users of the product.

• Lauryn's team at Airtable experimented with personalization to improve onboarding completion rates and value for new users.
• Personalized templates in the onboarding flow increased completion rates by 15%, but decreased sharing and collaboration by 10%.
• After further research, a revised focus on multi-player and team use cases led to a 15% lift in completion rates and a 10% lift in activation rate.

Jobs to Be Done Journey Map by Bria King

by Bria King , Created while working in product management

I created this while our organization was exploring a product opportunity with a new, broad target audience on a broad issue. This exercise allowed us to define the problem to be solved and narrow our target audience.

• Bria created this artifact to define and narrow the target audience for a new product.
• The "jobs to be done" framework helped identify common pain points and motivations of parents.
• The artifact guided the process of mapping the current experience, validating competitors, and designing a new experience.

How to Create User Journeys Biased Toward Action from Amber Rucker

by Amber Rucker , Created as Advisor @ Aikido Security

I created this six-step guide for PMs, researchers, and designers seeking to drive organizational change through user journeys.

• Amber developed this guide for creating user journeys that are actionable immediately and long-term.
• The guide includes steps for talking to people, analysis, creating an Excel doc, creating an artifact, summarizing, and presenting.
• User journeys should be revisited and updated every 6 months, and should be created for each product or pricing level.

User Journey Tracking Spreadsheet at CloudBees

I used this template as the first step in mapping out the user journey. It can be shared with designers, researchers, PMs, support, and professional services to gain diverse perspectives on the lifecycle stages and ultimately synthesize each user journey.

• Amber used this Excel template to map out user journeys based on input from various teams.
• The template helped identify patterns and big jobs to be done, and made it easier to synthesize user journeys into Figma graphics.
• The template can be shared with designers, researchers, PMs, support, and professional services to gain diverse perspectives.

User Journey Presentation at CloudBees

User journey research goes nowhere if you don't present and drive it forward. I used this template to align cross-functional teams at CloudBees toward a common goal.

• Amber conducted user journey research and presented it to align cross-functional teams at CloudBees.
• She used actionable and memorable personas, clear next steps, and a focus on opportunities rather than pain points.
• The research revealed that developers want an invisible UI and that investing in UI design may be a waste of time.
• The presentation led to organizational changes and small concerted efforts in identified areas.

Improving Onboarding and Activation with the Psych Framework at GoDaddy

by Satheesh Kumar , Created as Senior Software Engineering Manager - Growth & Monetization @ GoDaddy

This was a hackathon experiment aimed at improving onboarding and activation using the psych framework from Darius Contractor and Reforge.

• Satheesh conducted a hackathon experiment to improve onboarding and activation using the psych framework.
• The team believed that addressing user emotion and psychology could boost activation rates.
• Friction caused by not gathering user intent and goals during onboarding led to downstream issues and highlighted the potential for conversational onboarding.

User Journey Interview Template from Amber Rucker

I created this template to help PMs and researchers get the right insights quickly when creating user journeys.

• Amber created this template to help PMs and researchers get the right insights quickly when creating user journeys.
• About 10 interviews per persona should be enough to gather data for a user journey.
• The focus of the interviews should be on the user's goals, not just pain points.

Onboarding Flow Diagram at Whimsical

by Brandon Dorn , Created as Lead Product Designer @ Whimsical

As we started running more onboarding experiments at Whimsical, it was important that we could quickly see the whole flow. I made this diagram to collect that information in one easy-to-use view.

• Brandon created a diagram to show the onboarding flow for various types of users at Whimsical.
• The diagram helped the Growth team sequence onboarding experiments and avoid confusing new users.
• Documenting edge cases and flow logic took time, but the diagram made it easier to see the whole flow.

View all 38 examples of User Journey Maps.

Other popular User Journey Maps

Explore the full catalog of User Journey Map resources to get inspired

Amber Rucker, Created as Director Of Product Design & Research @ CloudBees

Satheesh Kumar, Created as Senior Software Engineering Manager - Growth & Monetization @ GoDaddy

Amber Rucker, Created as Advisor @ Aikido Security

Brandon Dorn, Created as Lead Product Designer @ Whimsical

Shelly Eisen-Livneh, Created as Sr. Director, Growth (PLG/PLS, Demand Generation) @ PredictHQ

I created this document by the end of my 3rd week as the Director of PLG at PredictHQ, to bring multiple execs and stakeholders along for the ride of the first PLG and Growth analysis.

Mitalee Mulpuru, Created as Principal PM @ Microsoft

This simple back of the envelope visual illustrates a linear customer journey map and the points in that journey that should be optimized.. Use it to help you dissect conversion rate optimization and make decisions around creating new features or mending existing ones to better suit the user.

Alex Pham, Created as Associate Product Manager @ SaveDay

I created this to share how we segmented users by forming a user lifecycle in SaveDay and tracking user's status in each of our defined stages.

Joe Skupinsky, Created as GTM Lead @ CommandBar

I created this complete customer journey map to help us define our customers and other business processes.

Tori Curtis, Created as Head of Product Marketing @ A.Team

We built this taxonomy to help users navigate our many published use cases in the most applicable way to their needs.

View all 38 examples of User Journey Maps

Reforge has everything you need to get more done, faster

Explore artifacts of all kinds

Browse other popular categories to get ideas for your own work

Go deeper with step by step guides

Refine Customer Use Cases With Archetypes

By Erika Warren, Casey Winters & Shaun Clowes

Use cases serve as a crucial tool for defining and communicating the problems your product addresses and the target audience. They form the foundation for establishing usage retention metrics and prioritizing future product development.

While use case maps vary, reflecting the uniqueness of each product, there are certain archetypes found in the most common business types:

• The Buyer, Admin, and End User : choose products to enhance processes, increase efficiency, and boost finances.
• 1st User and 2nd+ User : 1st users’ actions draw subsequent users to the product.
• Supply and Demand : The supply-side sells a product the demand-side purchases via a platform or intermediary.
• Advertiser and End User : The product is free or subsidized for end users through advertising.

This guide delves into each business type, highlighting archetypes and addressing common pitfalls with practical examples. First review the Define Customer Use Cases' guide , as this content builds upon that foundation.

Defining the retention funnel

By Crystal Widjaja

The goal of an ideal funnel analysis is to gain a complete understanding of:

• Where is the constraint?
• Who are the user segments?
• What are the contributing factors?
• How much does the constraint impact growth?

The standard funnel analysis, though useful for pinpointing major conversion pitfalls, typically focuses on snapshots in time and simple conversion rates without getting into the depth required to diagnose product health.

For example, a B2C ecommerce company using standard funnel analysis to measure user sign-ups, product views, and transactions might overlook crucial nuances in user retention and long-term value creation. A key limitation in standard funnel analysis is that high conversion rates alone don't necessarily equate to sustained user value if there are underlying retention issues.

Moreover, traditional funnels, often a snapshot in time, don't capture the evolving trends in conversion rates across cohorts. This static analysis fails to leverage the most valuable industry benchmark: our own internal, relative performance comparisons between different cohorts.

Finally, conventional funnel analysis might not accurately reflect a product's overall success. Products with lower activation rates might still have segments with high retention rates that derive significant value from the product in unique ways, providing critical insights for strategic realignment or repositioning.

The first component of ideal funnel analysis is to close the retention loop by redefining the ideal Activation Funnel user journey steps to those that correlate with stabilized, long-term retention.

Influence user decisions with the ELMR framework

By Andrew Chen & Brian Balfour

The ELMR framework outlines the four key psychological factors that drive user decisions and actions: Emotion, Logic, Motivation, and Reward.

Empowered with this understanding, we can help users get unstuck in their journey and influence the action they take, whether that’s clicking an ad, reading a blog post, signing up for a subscription, or returning to your product again and again. Influencing these kinds of decisions ultimately leads to growth.

Improve user journeys with the psych framework

By Andrew Chen, Brian Balfour & Darius Contractor

The Psych Framework evaluates users' emotional fuel as they move through your product. This framework allows us to visualize high energy and friction moments in our user journey. Mapping out and analyzing user flows with the Psych Framework identifies areas where excessive forms, unclear interfaces, or premature requests sap user motivation. We can also explore where to add motivational boosts to help users through the journey.

Darius Contractor, a growth engineering manager at Dropbox, created the Psych Framework to take subjective concepts and make them more concrete. It gives us a unit of measurement of user motivation called psych.

Components of a story structure

By Tara Wellington

Once you have decided on the story you want to tell and decided this is the right time to tell it, it is time to build out your story! When you are building your story there are two main phases to focus on:

• Your story’s structure. This is the basis of your story.
• Your story’s content. This is what you wrap around the structure that brings your story to life and makes it believable.

This section of the course will deep dive into building your stories’ structure and give you templates and frameworks to create your best story.

Understanding the Components of a Story Structure

We start with story structure because it is the basis of the story that you are telling - it is the skeleton of the story that we will use to build everything else off of.

Think about any classic story you know - Cinderella, Robin Hood, any Disney movie 😂 - all stories have a very basic set of components.

• Main character (s)
• Problem or situation that main character faces
• Action or series of actions the main character goes through
• Result or what happens after the main character goes through these actions.

This framework of problem, action, result or PAR may sound familiar. It is a method for interview responses that had been popularized in behavioral interviews in recent years. But in the case of a behavioral interview, and the story examples above, the story that is being communicated is something that has ALREADY HAPPENED.

Why are PM Stories Different?

PM storytelling is a little different than basic storytelling for a few reasons.

• You are telling the story of something you WANT to happen vs. something that has already happened.
• You have a reason that you want this to happen: You believe it is the “right thing to do for the customer and the business” - as we called out in the Picking the Right Story unit.
• The “result” of the story is more important than the “action.” This is because the story is not for entertainment, it is for painting a picture of how to get to a result.

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User Journey Map Examples

In this part of the guide we are going to present you some user journey map examples, describing their types, components and differences..

Last update 13.07.2023

User journey maps come in all shapes and sizes, depending on the type of product, persona and the goals you’ve defined for the research project. We understand it can be confusing to come up with your own structure suitable for your specific use case. That’s why we gathered 5 different user journey map examples to make sure you have something to look up to when working on your own map. 

It’s always easier to create something based on the examples of professionals who’ve already done it! 

In examples below we go through user journey maps of :

• Indian Railways

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Example 1: NN/group

We chose NN/group ’s user journey map as the first example for one reason. It’s very simple and easy to recreate and can serve as the most basic template with all the crucial components inside. In this particular case, we’re looking at the user journey map of the Jumping Jamie, who is looking to switch her mobile plans in order to save money. 

The map perfectly outlines the 4 user stages she goes through: define, compare, negotiate, select .

We can see that at each stage Jamie completes different steps on the way to her final goal. We can also see the feelings she has along the way and the line which represents her emotions, going from the low to high points, depending on her satisfaction with the experience. The bottom of the map serves as the conclusion, defining the opportunities for improving the customer journey and internal ownership. 

Source: NN/group

Example 2: Spotify

Spotify’s map for improving their music sharing experience is a great example of a B2C customer journey map . It was created as a part of a design project with the goal to add a music sharing feature that would allow listeners to send each other playlists and songs either within the platform or using other platforms. The project included customer journey mapping together with developing a persona as a part of the research stage. Check out the full Spotify case study to learn more.

As we can see on this map, there are a lot more stages a typical Spotify user goes through. Their thoughts and actions are described a lot more detailed and there are also additional sections such as touchpoints and actors. This map helped the design team understand at which point and why users get motivated to share music with each other. One of the key insights was that users are much more likely to share a song when the sharing feature is visible to them.

Meghana Bowen , a UX designer who worked on the project talks about pain points they uncovered: “ The biggest pain points discovered during the research stage was that the participants were worried about being judged for their music habits, as well as, most users were not aware of a share functionality existing.” 

Example 3: Hubspot

In 2018 Hubspot created their own customer journey map and wrote a whole article about it providing you tips to create your own. 

They chose a classical linear structure and used color-coding to make it more readable. A great idea was to add testimonials of their actual customers dealing with the product during the user research stage. This helped to empathize with them better, make existing problems feel more real and urgent and justify the data about their feelings.

It’s also a great thing to add for those who you’ll be presenting your user journey map to. These people will not be completely familiar with the research process behind it, but reading the testimonials could help them get more context on what’s going on at each stage of the journey.  

Example 4: UXPressia 

Another user journey map example, this time by UXPressia. It perfectly represents the B2B customer journey , outlining the stages a user goes through while making a purchase, from awareness to bonding or detachment. 

UXPressia’s user journey map also includes 2 handy sections: barriers and motivators, that they describe under each stage. We can see that while there are no detailed emotions described at this map (as in the previous ones, for example), it’s still informative due to the motivators and barriers sections.

That again proves that user journey maps can and should look differently, as long as they are informative and clearly represent your user’s POV. 

Example 5: Indian Railways

Our last example will be a user journey map created by Deepika Sinha from a research case study found on Behance. The study was conducted with a goal of improving the mobile UX of an Indian Railway app. You can check out the whole case study here .

This is a great example of how you can make an informative user journey map while still keeping it clean, visually appealing and not scary to read. The map shows the experience of booking tickets through the app, describes the pain points a user goes through and the opportunities for designers to improve the experience.

How to create a user journey map?

Creating a user journey map is an iterative process that not only includes building a map itself, but also a lot of user research and usability testing done throughout the whole process.

Creating a user journey map for your specific persona helps to look at the product from their point of view, uncover pain points and opportunities for fine-tuning the user flow in order to make it more intuitive. 

To create a user journey map we recommend following these 7 steps:

• Set the objectives
• Define user personas
• Get to know your audience
• Define the journey phases
• Map out each phase
• Validate the user journey
• Identify confusions and areas of improvement

Check out our user journey map page, where we explain each of the steps in detail and walk you through the process of creating your own map.

Get access to actionable templates and examples! Learn how to create the perfect customer journey map today with our free ebook guide. ⬇️

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6 user journey map examples to enhance your ux.

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What is journey mapping.

User journey maps (sometimes called customer journey maps) detail how your users move through marketing and sales funnels.

That gives you a better picture of how users interact with your company. And that can translate to better UX and improvements for a ton of KPIs.

But there’s more than one type of user journey map. And they won’t all fit all companies. Each type of user journey map illustrates a particular dimension of the user’s experience. The six user journey map examples below cover all the high points so you can find the exact type you need. Read on.

1. Experience maps

Experience maps visualize the steps someone takes to achieve a desired goal, like buying a car or ordering take-out through a delivery app.

Experience maps are the simplest type of user journey maps. They’re all about tracking behaviors at each phase of a process from beginning to end. Experience mapping is an exercise that encourages you to think about users’ wants and needs and the potential actions they might take in a certain scenario. These maps are incredibly useful at giving you a general sense of the user's point of view before you get into the weeds with more detailed user journey mapping. Here’s an example of what an experience map could look like for a food delivery app:

Most customer experience maps qualify whether each individual step of the process is positive or negative. The simple design of these customer journey map examples makes it easy to determine the overall quality of a user’s journey with just a quick glance. 

That makes experience mapping especially helpful for working backward from a problem. Imagine users are subscribing to your product but not adopting it. You can map the interactions they had with your brand in reverse and identify if friction in earlier phases compounded your onboarding or retention problems.

2. Current state maps

Current state maps are a visual representation of how users engage with your product at every customer touchpoint. They’re the most common type of UX maps.

Current state maps help you think about customer satisfaction, mindset, behavior, and pain points when they use your app. Using this user journey example, you can constantly tweak your UX to keep users happy with your product.

You can translate what current state maps reveal into advocacy for change to your current UX. On paper, current state maps sound similar to experience maps. But current state maps dive deeper into the mind of the customer, attempting to give reasons for why the experience for the customer is good, bad, or neutral. 

Experience maps are good at pointing out bad interactions, but current state maps provide further dimensions to the analysis. For example, you would log when a customer interaction occurs on social media versus within the product itself. Relational database tool Airtable allows users to start on a free plan and upgrade to a paid plan when they need more records or storage space. Early on, the Airtable team realized their free version was beneficial to casual users. They also identified opportunities to monetize larger teams that had more complex organizational needs. As a result, Airtable has prioritized helping users determine what they need from a paid plan to successfully navigate this upgrade. 

A current state map would help remove friction points around this process. For instance, if the CMO at a startup is looking for a better way to organize their content team’s workflow, they might consider upgrading from Airtable’s free plan. Their journey might look like this:

Using this map, Airtable identifies the critical points in their user’s journey that can make or break their product’s success. For example, a user experiences friction when they can’t decide between annual and monthly billing:

By adding a “Save 17%!” message to the annual billing option on their pricing page, Airtable made it easier for visitors to make a decision about which billing cycle to choose.

3. Future state maps

Future state maps use the framework set up by current state maps and shift the focus to what’s next. Mapping the future state is all about designing an experience that does not yet exist—specifically, one that improves upon the current journey. Future state maps are like vision boards for your products. They help you envision how you hope customers will use your product and guide you to establish specific goals during the design process or at other touchpoints. 

Like current state maps, these types of maps help you to step into your user’s shoes for a bit. Do some future state mapping when you’re brainstorming ideas for a new product or when you want to map out the best-case scenario for one that already exists. Companies can predict behavior to a limited extent using existing digital metrics, computer learning, and a solid analytics platform. 

But no one can accurately predict the future. This means future state mapping is best considered a helpful exercise for guiding new developments—not as an absolute guide for planning business goals.

4. Empathy maps

(Source) Empathy maps don’t follow a particular sequence of events along a user journey. Instead, these maps are divided into four sections and track what a user says , thinks , does , and feels when using a product. 

Empathy maps are usually created after user research and usability tests, where you have a chance to observe and directly ask someone about their experience with your product in real time. The development of empathy maps is critical to understanding your customer personas. Not every customer who uses your product will have the same motivations, needs, and pain points. This means users will experience the same product in different ways. Creating multiple empathy maps for different personas will help you to build a UX that’s positive for every kind of user your product attracts. Empathy maps are generally used to detail broader facets of a particular user group. Alternatively, you can focus on how a specific type of user performs a particular activity to reveal broader insights about your UX. 

Take this mock empathy user journey map example created in collaboration platform Miro :

Hypothetical user Mary needs to run and export reports on certain segments of users ahead of a round of A/B testing. She finds your product easier to use after your most recent update but still identifies points of friction that could be ironed out in the future. 

Zooming in on how a specific buyer persona performs a relatively routine task will help you highlight places for product improvement going forward.

5. Day in the life maps

Day in the life maps are all about narrowing in on users’ daily behaviors to gain insight into how a product can help alleviate a person’s pain points. They  visualize obstacles a user might encounter and address issues well before the user notices there’s a problem. While still working with the hypothetical, these maps emphasize practicality. You would build an empathy map to construct and inform user personas, but a day in the life map illustrates how these personas interact with your product at various points throughout the day. 

For example, if you manage a food delivery app, your customers are unlikely to engage with your product at 4 AM as they would during the dinner rush. People don’t use your products in a vacuum. They exist within the context of routines and responsibilities unrelated to anything ecommerce or SaaS companies provide for them. 

Consider a user who usually starts using your product around 10 AM. By the time they open your product, they’ve dropped kids off at schools, hopped onto video calls, and answered two dozen emails. They may be frustrated before your product has even had a chance to wow them. 

These insights help product teams develop products built for real-world usage versus isolated experiences.

6. Service blueprints

Service blueprints detail the individual actions performed by everyone involved in the delivery process—including the customer.   Service blueprints shift the focus away from customer centricity and toward how companies work to deliver products and services to their customers. 

By focusing on touch points across channels and departments, service blueprints reveal hiccups in business processes. They focus on the customer as well as the roles stakeholder like employees and customer support providers play in different scenarios. There are four major elements to service blueprints:

• Customer actions. What customers do when engaging with a service provider
• Frontstage actions . Employee actions that the customer sees
• Backstage actions . Everything that occurs on the backend, out of the customer’s view
• Processes . All of the events and inner workings of the organization that make the business work

Figuring out customer behavior is the first step in creating service blueprints, which makes them a logical bridge between more customer-centric maps and actual action plans. 

Your product team may identify a pain point in the user journey with a current state map and theorize how to eliminate the source of friction. 

You could move forward with the change and hope for the best. However, this isn’t recommended. 

Instead, create a service blueprint to understand how that single change might affect the delivery process at every stage of the journey and for team members in every department involved.

What defines a great customer journey map?

You’ve spent enough time analyzing user journey examples. Now, it’s time to create a user journey map of your own..

But what will make it great ?

In our experience, a few key traits will bring any user journey map from “OK” to “Oh, wow”:

• It’s tied to something measurable . Each stage of whichever user journey map you’re dealing with should be tied to relevant KPIs. That means assessing how your findings affect the metrics your company cares about.
• It uses your data . Not just broader market research. If you’re not doing customer surveys and other forms of customer data and feedback collection, start now. Blend that information with your market research. That way, you’re not just guessing what your users encounter, but you’re not taking every single one of their words for it, either.
• It doesn’t stop at the purchase . Don’t make the mistake that so many of your competitors do: stopping the customer journey mapping process after the moment of purchase. That’s incomplete data and says nothing about onboarding, retention, churn, and so many other critical SaaS metrics. Map the user journey from start to actual finish.

Use these guideposts and the wisdom from the examples we’ve discussed so far as you create your map, and you’re golden.

The best kind of user journey map: the next one

If we still relied on maps from a thousand years ago, we’d have a hard time getting around. Our collective knowledge base has expanded as exploration and mapping technology has improved. Similarly, choosing the right type of user journey map for your current needs is only the beginning. Once you’ve mapped out your user journey, you’ll need to identify how your awareness of the customer experience can be used to improve it. Even then, every customer pain point you address or every new flow you develop will alter the user journey.

In other words, user mapping is an iterative process. Tomorrow, your current state map will look like yesterday’s future state map. Your user journey map examples are just snapshots of a point in time—not a permanent state.

Instead of becoming complacent with a single instance of success, head back to the drawing board and identify the unforeseen ways your fixes impact your UX. Committing to this process will create a cycle of constant improvement that consistently places your customer’s needs at the forefront of your product’s development.

Build your user journey map in Appcues

You might be wondering—where should I build my journey maps? On paper, in a tool like Miro, or perhaps another dedicated tool?

Our take: do what makes the most sense for your team. That could mean building these user journeys directly in Appcues.

Our Journeys feature makes it easier than ever before. Now, you can effortlessly map out desired and actual in-product experiences, collaborate with your team, share, and align your cross-functional teams on the user experiences you want to create.

And here's the biggest advantage of mapping experiences in Appcues: any change you make to an in-app experience will automatically update on the associated Journey. Meaning less maintenance and more time for you to focus on building remarkable user experiences.

If you're intrigued, learn more about Journeys or start a free trial of our journey mapping software to embark on your own journey of building exceptional experiences.

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Customer journey mapping in 2 and 1/2 days

How to create a customer journey map that improves customer success.

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There’s a common saying that you can’t understand someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes—and that’s exactly what customer journey maps do: they help you put yourself in different customers’ shoes and understand your business from their point of view.

Why should you do it? How should you do it? Find the answers in this guide, which we wrote after interviewing 10+ customer journey experts who shared methodologies, dos and don’ts, and pro tips with us. 

On this page:

What is a customer journey map?

How to create a customer journey map in 2 and ½ working days

4 benefits of customer journey mapping for your business

In later chapters, we dive deeper into customer journey analytics, workshops, and real-life examples.

Start mapping your customer journey

Hotjar lets you experience the customer journey through their eyes, so you can visualize what’s working and what needs improvement.

A customer journey map (CJM) is a visual representation of how customers interact with and experience your website, products, or business across multiple touchpoints.

By visualizing the actions, thoughts, and emotions your customers experience, a customer journey map helps you better understand them and identify the pain points they encounter. This is essential if you want to implement informed, customer-focused optimizations on your site.

Mapping the customer journey: narrow vs. wide focus

A customer journey map can have a very narrow focus and only look at a few, specific steps of the customer experience or buyer’s journey (for example, a product-to-purchase flow on a website), or it can take into account all the touchpoints, online and offline, someone goes through before and after doing business with you. 

Each type of customer journey map has its advantages:

A CJM with a narrow focus allows you to zero in on an issue and effectively problem-solve 

A CJM with a wide focus gives you a broader, holistic understanding of how customers experience your business

Regardless of their focus, the best customer journey maps have one thing in common: they are created with real customer data that you collect and analyze . The insights are usually organized into a map (hence the name), diagram, or flowchart during a group workshop, which is later shared across the entire business so everyone gets a clear and comprehensive overview of a customer’s journey.

How to create your first customer journey map in 2 and ½ working days

The process of creating a customer journey map can be as long or short as you need. Depending on how many people and stakeholders you involve, how much data you collect and analyze, and how many touchpoints there are across the business, you could be looking at days or even weeks and months of work.

If you’re new to customer journey mapping, start from a narrower scope before moving on to mapping every single customer touchpoint . 

Here’s our beginner customer journey mapping framework to help you create your first complete map in 2 and ½ working days:

Day 1: preliminary customer journey mapping work

Day 2: prep and run your customer journey mapping workshop.

Final ½ day: wrap up and share your results

Download your free customer journey map checklist  (as seen below), to mark off your tasks as you complete them.

On your first day, you have three essential tasks:

Define the goal and scope of your CJM

Collect customer data and insights

Invite your team to a customer journey mapping workshop

Step 1: define the goal and scope of your CJM

Clarifying what part(s) of the journey you're looking at, and why, helps you stay focused throughout the mapping process.

If this is your first map,  start from a known issue or problematic area of your website. Keep the scope small, and focus on anything you can break down into four or five steps. For example:

If you have a high drop-off on a pricing page with five calls-to-action, each of which takes users to a different page, that’s enough for a mappable journey

If your purchase flow is made of five self-contained pages, each of which loses you potential customers, that’s a good candidate for mapping

✅ The output: a one- or two-sentence description of what your map will cover, and why, you can use whenever you need to explain what the process is about. For example: this map looks at the purchase flow on our website, and helps us understand how customers go through each step and the issues or obstacles they encounter. The map starts after users click ‘proceed to checkout’ and ends when they reach the 'Thank You' page .

Step 2: collect customer data and insights

Once you identify your goal and scope, the bulk of your first day should be spent collecting data and insights you’ll analyze as part of your mapping process. Because your map is narrow in focus, don’t get distracted by wide-scale demographics or data points that are interesting and nice to know, but ultimately irrelevant. 

Get your hands on as much of the following information as you can:

Metrics from traditional analytics tools (such as Google Analytics) that give you insight into what’s happening, across the pages and stages your customer journey map covers

Data from analyzing your conversion ‘funnels’ , which record how many visitors end up at each stage of the user journey, so you can optimize those steps for potential customers and increase conversions

Behavior analytics data (from platforms like Hotjar) that show you how people interact with your site. For example, heatmaps give you an aggregate view of how users click, move and scroll on specific pages, and session recordings capture a user’s entire journey as they navigate your site

Quantitative and qualitative answers to on-site surveys relevant to the pages you’re going to investigate, as customer feedback will ultimately guide your roadmap of changes to make to improve the journey

Any demographic information about existing user and customer personas that helps you map the journey from the perspective of a real type of customer, rather than that of any hypothetical visitor, ensuring the journey makes sense for your target audience

Any relevant data from customer service chat logs, emails, or even anecdotal information from support, success, and sales teams about the issues customers usually experience

✅ The output: quantitative and qualitative data about your customers' interactions and their experiences across various touchpoints. For example, you’ll know how many people drop off at each individual stage, which page elements they interact with or ignore, and what stops them from converting.

💡Pro tip: as you read this guide, you may not yet have most of this data, particularly when it comes to heatmaps, recordings, and survey results. That’s ok. 

Unless you’re running your CJM workshop in the next 12 hours, you have enough time to set up Hotjar on your website and start collecting insights right now. The platform helps you:

Learn where and why users drop off with Funnels

Visualize interactions on key pages with Heatmaps

Capture visitor sessions across your website with Recordings

Run on-site polls with Surveys

When the time comes for you to start your customer journey mapping process, this data will be invaluable.

Step 3: invite your team to a customer journey mapping workshop

In our experience, the most effective way to get buy-in is not to try and convince people after things are done—include them in the process from the start. So while you can easily create a customer journey map on your own, it won’t be nearly as powerful as one you create with team members from different areas of expertise .

For example, if you’re looking at the purchase flow, you need to work with:

Someone from the UX team, who knows about the usability of the flow and can advocate for design changes

Someone from dev or engineering, who knows how things work in the back end, and will be able to push forward any changes that result from the map

Someone from success or support, who has first-hand experience talking to customers and resolving any issues they experience

✅ The output: you’ve set a date, booked a meeting space, and invited a group of four to six participants to your customer journey mapping workshop.

💡Pro tip: for your first map, stay small. Keep it limited to four to six people, and no main stakeholders . This may be unpopular advice, especially since many guides out there mention the importance of having stakeholders present from the start.

However, when you’re not yet very familiar with the process, including too many people early on can discourage them from re-investing their time into future CJM tasks. At this stage, it’s more helpful to brainstorm with a small team, get feedback on how to improve, and iterate a few times. Once you have a firm handle on the process, then start looping in your stakeholders.

On workshop day, you’ll spend half your time prepping and the other half running the actual session.

Step 1: prepare all your materials 

To run a smooth workshop, ensure you do the following:

Bring stationery: for an interactive workshop, you’ll need basic materials such as pens, different colored Post-its, masking tape, and large sheets of paper to hang on the wall

Collect and print out the data: use the data you collected on Day 1. It’s good to have digital copies on a laptop or tablet for everybody to access, but print-outs could be the better alternative as people can take notes and scribble on them.

Print out an empathy map canvas for each participant: start the workshop with an empathy mapping exercise (more on this in Step 2). For this, hand each participant an empty empathy map canvas you can recreate from the template below.

Set up a customer journey map template on the wall: use a large sheet of paper to create a grid you'll stick to the wall and fill in as part of the workshop. On the horizontal axis, write the customer journey steps you identified during your Day 1 prep work; on the vertical axis, list the themes you want to analyze for each step. For example:

Actions your customers take

Questions they might have

Happy moments they experience

Pain points they experience

Tech limits they might encounter

Opportunities that arise

Step 2: run the workshop

This is the most interactive (and fun) part of the process. Follow the framework below to go from zero to a completed draft of a map in just under 2 hours .

Introduction [🕒 5–10 min]

Introduce yourself and your participants to one another

Using the one-two sentence description you defined on Day 1, explain the goal and scope of the workshop and the activities it will involve

Offer a quick summary of the customer persona you’ll be referring to throughout the session

Empathy mapping exercise [🕒 30 min]

Using the personas and data available, have each team member map their observations onto sticky notes and paste them on the relevant section of the empathy mapping canvas

Have all participants take turns presenting their empathy map

Facilitate group discussions where interesting points of agreement or disagreement appear

Customer journey mapping [🕒 60 min]

Using Post-its, ask each participant to fill in parts of the map grid with available information. Start by filling in the first row together, so everybody understands the process, then do each row individually (15–20 min). At the end of the process, you should have something like this:

Looking at the completed map, encourage your team to discuss and align on core observations (and take notes: they’ll come in handy on your final half day). At this point, customer pain points and opportunities should become evident for everybody involved. Having a cross-functional team means people will naturally start discussing what can, or cannot, immediately be done to address them (35–40 min).

Wrap up [🕒 5 min]

Congratulations! Your first customer journey map is complete. Finish the session by thanking your participants and letting them know the next steps.

Final half-day: wrap up and share

Once you’ve gone through the entire customer journey mapping workshop, the number one thing you want to avoid is for all this effort to go to waste. Instead of leaving the map hanging on the wall (or worse: taking it down, folding it, and forgetting about it), the final step is to wrap the process up and communicate the results to the larger team.

Digitize the map so you can easily update and share it with team members: it may be tempting to use dedicated software or invest time into a beautiful design, but for the first few iterations, it’s enough to add the map to your team’s existing workflows (for example, our team digitized our map and added it straight into Jira, where it’s easily accessible)

Offer a quick write-up or a 5-minute video introduction of the activity: re-use the description you came up with on Day 1, including who was involved and the top three outcomes

Clearly state the follow-up actions: if you’ve found obvious issues that need fixing, that’s a likely next step. If you’ve identified opportunities for change and improvement, you may want to validate these findings via customer interviews and usability testing.

4 benefits of customer journey mapping

In 2023, it’s almost a given that great customer experience (CX) provides any business or ecommerce site with a competitive advantage. But just how you’re supposed to deliver on the concept and create wow-worthy experiences is often left unsaid, implied, or glossed over.

Customer journey maps help you find answers to this ‘How?’ question, enabling you to:

Visualize customer pain points, motivations, and drivers

Create cross-team alignment around the business

Remove internal silos and clarify areas of ownership

Make improvements and convert more visitors into customers

We’ve done a lot of customer journey work here at Hotjar, so we know that the above is true—but don’t just take our word for it: all the people we interviewed for this guide confirmed the benefits of journey mapping. Let’s take a look at what they shared.

1. Visualize customer pain points, motivations, and drivers

It’s one thing to present your entire team with charts, graphs, and trends about your customers, and quite another to put the same team in front of ONE map that highlights what customers think, want, and do at each step of their journey.

I did my first customer journey map at MADE.COM within the first three months of joining the company. I was trying to map the journey to understand where the pain points were.

For example, people who want to buy a sofa from us will be coming back to the site 8+ times over several weeks before making a purchase. In that time, they may also visit a showroom. So now I look at that journey, at a customer’s motivation for going to the website versus a physical store, and I need to make sure that the experience in the showroom complements what they're doing on-site, and vice-versa, and that it all kind of comes together.

The map helps in seeing that journey progress right up to the time someone becomes a customer. And it also continues after: we see the next touchpoints and how we're looking to retain them as a customer, so that they come back and purchase again.

A customer journey map is particularly powerful when you incorporate empathy into it, bringing to light specific emotions that customers experience throughout the journey.

2. Create cross-team alignment around the business

The best, most effective customer journey maps are not the solo project of the user experience (UX) or marketing team (though they may originate there).

Customer journey maps are a quick, easy, and powerful way to help everybody in your business get a clearer understanding of how things work from a customers’ perspective and what the customers’ needs are—which is the first step in your quest towards creating a better experience for them.

Our first goal for preparing a customer journey map was to improve understanding customers across the company, so that every employee could understand the entire process our clients go through.

For example, people from the shipping department didn't know how the process works online; people from marketing didn't know how customers behave after filing a complaint. Everything seems obvious, but when we shared these details, we saw that a lot of people didn't know how the company itself works—this map made us realize that there were still gaps we needed to fill.

If we discover that customers have a pain point in a specific section of the map, different teams can look at the same section from several angles; customer support can communicate why something is not possible, and engineering can explain why it’s going to take X amount of effort to get it done. Especially in cross-functional teams where we all come from really different disciplines, I find these maps to be an incredible way for us all to speak the same language.

3. Remove internal silos and clarify areas of ownership

As a company grows in size and complexity, the lines of ownership occasionally become blurry. Without clarity, a customer might get bounced like a ping pong ball across Sales, Success, and Support departments—not great for the seamless and frictionless customer experience we all want to offer.

A central source of ‘truth’ in the form of a customer journey map that everybody can refer to helps clarify areas of ownership and handover points.

We were growing as a team, and we realized we needed to operationalize a lot of the processes that, before then, had just been manually communicated. We did it through a customer journey map. Our goal was to better understand where these hand-off points were and how to create a more seamless experience for our customers, because they were kind of being punted from team to team, from person to person—and often, it was really hard to keep tabs on exactly where the customer was in that entire journey.

4. Make improvements and convert more visitors into customers

A customer journey map will take your team from 'It appears that 30% of people leave the website at this stage' to 'Wow, people are leaving because the info is incomplete and the links are broken.' Once everyone is aligned on the roadblocks that need to be addressed, changes that have a positive impact on the customer experience and customer satisfaction will happen faster.

The customer journey map brings it all together: it doesn't matter who you've got in the room. If you’re doing a proper journey map, they always get enlightened in terms of ‘Oh, my word. I did not know the customer's actually experiencing this.’ And when I walk out of the session, we have often solved issues in the business. Accountability and responsibilities have been assigned, and I find that it just works well.

Shaheema (right) working on a customer journey map

Collect the right data to create an effective customer journey map

The secret of getting value from customer journey mapping is not just building the map itself: it's taking action on your findings. Having a list of changes to prioritize means you can also measure their effect once implemented, and keep improving your customers' experience. 

This all starts with collecting customer-centric data—the sooner you begin, the more information you’ll have when the time comes to make a decision.

Start mapping your customer journey today

Hotjar lets you experience your customer’s journey through their eyes, so you can visualize what’s working and what needs improvement.

FAQs about customer journey mapping

How do i create a customer journey map.

To create a useful customer journey map, you first need to define your objectives, buyer personas, and the goals of your customers (direct customer feedback and  market research will help you here). Then, identify all the distinct touchpoints the customer has with your product or service in chronological order, and visualize the completion of these steps in a map format.

What are the benefits of customer journey mapping?

Customer journey mapping provides different teams in your company with a simple, easily understandable visualization that captures your customers’ perspective and needs, and the steps they’ll  take to successfully use your  product or service. 

Consider customer journey mapping if you want to accomplish a specific objective (like testing a new product’s purchase flow) or work towards a much broader goal (like increasing overall customer retention or customer loyalty).

What is the difference between a customer journey map and an experience map?

The main difference between an experience map and a customer journey map is that customer journey maps are geared specifically toward business goals and the successful use of a product or service, while experience maps visualize an individual’s journey and experience through the completion of any task or goal that may not be related to business.

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World Leaders in Research-Based User Experience

When and how to create customer journey maps.

July 31, 2016 2016-07-31

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In This Article:

What is a customer journey map, deconstruction of a customer journey map, why do you need a journey map and when should you have one, key elements of customer journey maps, rules for creating successful journey maps.

In its most basic form, journey mapping starts by compiling a series of user goals and actions into a timeline skeleton. Next, the skeleton is fleshed out with user thoughts and emotions in order to create a narrative. Finally, that narrative is condensed into a visualization used to communicate insights that will inform design processes.

Storytelling and visualization are essential facets of journey mapping because they are effective mechanisms for conveying information in a way that is memorable, concise and that creates a shared vision. Fragmented understanding is chronic in organizations where KPIs are assigned and measured per individual department or group because many organizations do not ever piece together the entire experience from the user’s standpoint. This shared vision is a critical aim of journey mapping, because without it, agreement on how to improve customer experience would never take place.

Journey mapping creates a holistic view of customer experience, and it’s this process of bringing together and visualizing disparate data points that can engage otherwise disinterested stakeholders from across groups and spur collaborative conversation and change.

Zone A: The lens provides constraints for the map by assigning (1) a persona (“who”) and (2) the scenario to be examined (“what”).

Zone B: The heart of the map is the visualized experience, usually aligned across (3) chunkable phases of the journey. The (4) actions, (5) thoughts, and (6) emotional experience of the user has throughout the journey can be supplemented with quotes or videos from research.

Zone C: The output should vary based on the business goal the map supports, but it could describe the insights and pain points discovered, and the (7) opportunities to focus on going forward, as well as (8) internal ownership.

Journey maps should always be created to support a known business goal. Maps that do not align to a business goal will not result in applicable insight. The goal could be an external issue, such as learning about a specific persona’s purchasing behaviors, or an internal issue, such as addressing lack of ownership over certain parts of the customer experience. Some potential business goals that journey mapping could be applied toward are listed below.

Shift a company’s perspective from inside-out to outside-in. If an organization lets internal processes and systems drive decisions that affect customer experience, a journey map could help turn the culture of that organization by refocusing on the thoughts, actions and emotions of customers. Journey mapping sheds light on real human experiences that often organizations know very little about.

Break down silos to create one shared, organization-wide vision. Because journey maps create a vision of the entire customer journey, they become a tool for creating cross-department conversation and collaboration. Journey mapping could be the first step in building an organization-wide plan of action to invest in customer experience, as it helps answer the question, “Where do we start?” by highlighting areas of friction.

Assign ownership of key touchpoints to internal departments. Often, areas of inconsistencies and glitches in customer journeys exist simply because no internal team has been tasked with ownership of that element. Journey maps can create clarity around alignment of departments or groups with different stages or key touchpoints in the journey that need addressing.

Target specific customers. Journey maps can help teams focus in on specific personas or customers, whether that means understanding differences or similarities across the journeys of multiple personas, prioritizing a high-value persona or exploring ways to target a new type of customer.

Understand quantitative data. If you are aware through analytics or other quantitative data that something specific is happening—maybe online sales are plateauing or an online tool is being underutilized—journey mapping can help you find out why.

While journey maps can (and should) take a wide variety of forms, certain elements are generally included:

Point of view. First and foremost, choose the “actor” of the story. Who is this journey map about? For example, a university might choose either students or faculty members, both of which would result in very different journeys. “Actors” usually aligns with personas, if they exist. As a guideline, when creating a basic journey map, use one point of view per map in order to provide a strong, clear narrative.

Scenario. Next, determine the specific experience to map. This could be an existing journey, where mapping will uncover positive and negative moments within that current experience, or a “to-be” experience, where the mapper is designing a journey for a product or service that doesn’t exist yet. Make sure to clarify the user’s goal during this experience. Journey maps are best for scenarios that describe a sequence of events, such as purchasing behavior or taking a trip.

Actions, mindsets, and emotions. At the heart of a journey map’s narrative is what the user is doing, thinking, and feeling during the journey. These data points should be based on qualitative research, such as field studies, contextual inquiry, and diary studies . The granularity of representation can vary based on the purpose of the map. Is the purpose to evaluate or design an entire, broad purchasing cycle or a contained system?

Touchpoints and channels. The map should align touchpoints (times when the actor in the map actually interacts with the company) and channels (methods of communication or service delivery, such as the website or physical store) with user goals and actions. These elements deserve a special emphasis because they are often where brand inconsistencies and disconnected experiences are uncovered.

Insights and ownership. The entire point of the journey-mapping process is to uncover gaps in the user experience (which are particularly common in omnichannel journeys), and then take action to optimize the experience. Insights and ownership are critical elements that are often overlooked. Any insights that emerge from journey mapping should be explicitly listed. If politically possible, also assign ownership for different parts of the journey map, so that it’s clear who’s in charge of what aspect of the customer journey. Without ownership, no one has responsibility or empowerment to change anything.

Even with all the above critical elements included, two journey maps could look completely different, yet both be perfectly suitable for the context in which they were designed.Tradeoffs in scope, focus, and breadth vs. depth are required when deciding on what elements to include. To make informed decisions on those tradeoffs, consider the following:

• What level of detail is needed in order to tell the complete story?
• What elements (such as device, channel, encountered content) are also necessary in order to provide the most truthful narrative?
• Is the purpose of this journey map to diagnose issues with a current experience or to design a new experience?
• What’s the balance between external actions (on the customer side) and internal actions (on the organization side)?
• Who will be using this journey map?

Successful journey maps require more than just the inclusion of the “right” elements. Journey mapping should be a collaborative process informed by well-defined goals, and built from research. It requires hard work to keep the process on the right track and to build the buy-in needed to evangelize the insights it provides. Below are some tips for making sure that the process starts and stays in the right direction:

Establish the “why" and the “what.”  First, identify the business goal that the journey map will support. Make sure there are clear answers to these basic key questions before you begin the process:

• What business goal does this journey map support?
• Who will use it?
• Who is it about and what experience does it address?
• How will it be shared?

Base it on truth. Journey maps should result in truthful narratives, not fairy tales. Start with gathering any existing research, but additional journey-based research is also needed to fill in the gaps that the existing research won’t cover. This is a qualitative-research process. While quantitative data can help support or validate (or aid in convincing stakeholders who may view qualitative data as “fuzzy”), quantitative data alone cannot build a story .

Collaborate with others. The activity of journey mapping (not the output itself) is often the most valuable part of the process, so involve others. Pull back the curtain and invite stakeholders from various groups to be a part of compiling the data and building the map.

Don’t jump to visualization. The temptation to create an aesthetic graphic or jump to design can lead to beautiful yet flawed journey maps. Make sure the synthesis of your data is complete and well-understood before moving to creating the visual.

Engage others with the end product. Don’t expect to get “buy-in” and foster interest in your journey map by simply sending a lovely graphic as an email attachment. Make it a living interactive document that people can be a part of. Bring up your story in meetings and conversations to promote a narrative that others believe in and begin to reference. One idea is to create a journey-mapping showroom where anyone not on the direct team can come experience the process and resulting artifacts.

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How to Create a User Journey Map – Made Simple!

Written by samantha ferguson.

Last updated on 9th August 2023

When’s the last time you read a map?

Thanks to Google Maps and other satellite navigation apps, the answer could be never. 

According to a recent study , 1 in 7 millennials have never read a map , and only 18% feel ‘very confident’ in their ability to read one. 

With all of the other options available, people are spending less time looking at road maps. And this accessibility and breadth of options has also affected user journey maps.

With all of the different ways users can communicate with your brand – email, social media , apps, brick and mortar stores, websites, review sites – it can be tough to track the journey that led them towards becoming a new user of your product or service. 

But we’re here to make it less tough! 

In this article we’re going to take a look at how to create a user journey map – made simple! 

What is a user journey map?

A user journey is the path a user takes, across different touchpoints, while interacting with your brand. 

A user journey map , more specifically, is a visualisation of this journey. It can help you understand how users are interacting with your brand, product, or service – and what their needs, motivations, and pain points are. 

User journey maps differ from company to company, and industry to industry. But they always reflect a timeline that outlines important steps in the user journey. Here’s an example for a food delivery app: 

And here’s another one for a fitness app: 

Why you need a user journey map

Finding out more about the user journey can help you to better understand your customers’ motivations and pain points. 

And this insight can help you to improve your onboarding of new customers . For example, if you spot a part of your onboarding flow that has a lot of drop-off, a user journey map can help you to understand the reasons behind that drop-off, and ultimately remove or improve that section of your onboarding.

Even if you feel like your user journey is pretty good right now, mapping it out will give you more of an in-depth overview. And this could allow you to create a more memorable experience for your users. 

After all, why settle for ‘pretty good’ when you can make it awesome?! 

How to create a user journey map

Okay, now into the good stuff! Grab a notepad and pen, or maybe open a fresh Google Sheet, as we take you through four simple steps that will help you create a user journey map.

Step one: Research your users

To understand the journey your users take, you must first understand your users. 

If you haven’t done so already, then you’ll need to create buyer personas for your users. Buyer personas are fictional representations of your ideal customers. 

When creating a buyer persona, you should go into as much detail as you can for each type of customer you have – think about their age, their home life, their worklife, any struggles they have, and so on. The aim is to make this person as tangible as possible. Here’s an example for a food delivery app:

In addition to creating buyer personas, you can also survey your current customers to find out more about them. 

For each user journey, it’s important to understand 4 key things: 

• Customer goals
• Touchpoints
• Customer activity
• Customer pain points

By creating a user experience survey about your app, product, or service, you could uncover some things about the user journey that you may not already know.

It’s really easy to send out a survey using a platform like SurveyMonkey . Here’s a quick example we made using the Customer Satisfaction template: 

SurveyMonkey pulls everything together in seconds, and all of the questions can be customised and personalised to fit your brand.

Step two: List your touchpoints

The next step is to list all the possible touchpoints that your users could interact with along their journey with your app, product, or service.

This is important because it gives you an insight into how customers are discovering you and can also inform you of any overlaps and/or gaps in your user journey. 

For example, you could discover that people are coming to your site very early on in the user journey, but because they are missing out steps that could help them build knowledge about your product or service, they aren’t seeing the value – and therefore aren’t converting.

Potential touchpoints could include:

• Social media
• Review sites
• Word of mouth
• Email marketing
• Video marketing

…the list could go on and on. It’s basically anywhere, online or offline, that users could hear about you. 

It also helps to check your analytics software and find out which sites are backlinking to you – as this is another potential source of discovery for new users. If you don’t currently have any analytics software, then Google Analytics is a good place to start. 

Step three: Sketch out the journey

Now that you have your buyer personas and all of the touchpoints listed, you can use these together to sketch out a user journey – from awareness (just discovering your brand) to loyalty (falling madly in love with your brand). 

To start, create a chart that has 6 columns and 5 rows. This is easiest using a spreadsheet software, like Google Sheets .

Your columns should be labelled as each step in the user journey and your rows should be labelled for the four key things we mentioned above – goals, touchpoints, activity, and experience (experience covers ‘pain points’). The top row should include the name of your brand. Here’s an example:

Next, you’ll want to start filling out your journey, one column at a time. A fun way to do this is to take the user journey yourself – as if you’re discovering your brand for the first time.

This activity of viewing your brand with fresh eyes will help you to spot any friction, repetition, or gaps that new users may come across when embarking on your user journey. 

If you do find anything that makes the user journey difficult then it’s important to implement changes to fix that. 

Step four: Put it all together 

Finally, it’s time to put everything together to create your user journey map. 

We included some fake examples above, but let’s take one last look at what a user journey would look like for a real company. 

Here’s a user journey map that we mocked up for travel company, Airbnb :

As you can see, the customer’s goals are clearly mapped out and all of the potential touchpoints that they interact with are considered. The experience graph also helps to show how new users may be feeling throughout the journey.

Of course, there are many, many different ways to create a user journey map. This is just our simple ‘beginner’s map’ to help you get started. As you begin using your map, you’ll probably find ways to tweak it to make it work in the best way for you.

Final thoughts

The first map was thought to have been created in the 6th century BC! And they’ve been telling us where we need to go ever since.

Your user journey map will help you visualise the steps that your users take and the experiences they have – both positive and negative – on the road to becoming a customer. Helping you to improve that journey, and increase your number of happy users. 

For more information on how to start the user journey with a bang, take a look at our onboarding videos .

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Must-have User Journey Map Templates with Examples and Samples

Deepika Dhaka

When you think about Apple, Netflix, Zappos, and Amazon, pause and reflect on what makes them your favorites beyond their fantastic products and services. Undoubtedly, it's the exceptional customer experience they deliver. It's their dedication to customer-centricity that shapes unforgettable user journeys.

Let’s take the example of an iPhone. Apple creates a remarkable experience throughout the customer journey. It begins right from the exploration phase (featuring a user-friendly website). It continues till the communication of product delivery (engaging email and SMS updates after or during the purchase decision). An essential part of the journey, which people often don’t realize, is when you open a new iPhone. Even though it only takes a few seconds to lift the lid, it's filled with excitement, anticipation, and happiness. This moment is a big part of what makes buying the iPhone enjoyable. And not to forget, people enthusiastically share "Unboxing iPhone" moments through reels and stories, underscoring the profound impact of a user journey.

Crafting and communicating a map, therefore, is crucial for optimizing sales and marketing processes. But how can you create one that addresses the pain points and creates a loyal fanbase and returning clients? 

If you're a marketing or sales professional or a UX designer tasked with sculpting an offline or online user journey map for your organization, our solution awaits you— the User Journey Map Templates. 

Explore these Pain Point Templates to identify and resolve business and customers problems

User Journey Map Templates to Create Memorable Customer 

ExperiencesRevolutionize your customer insights with our cutting-edge User Journey Map Template—a strategic resource for effective user interactions. From initial engagement to ultimate conversion, this template presents a visual storyline of emotions, requirements, and touchpoints, directing your business strategies toward unprecedented achievements. Harness the power of personalized engagement, fine-tune pain points, and cultivate loyal customer relationships.

The unique part?  The 100% customizable nature of the templates provides you with the desired flexibility to edit your presentations. The content-ready slides give you the much-needed structure. 

 Let’s begin!

Template 1: End-User Journey Mapping PowerPoint Presentation

Introducing a comprehensive solution for all your user journey mapping requirements. This all-inclusive toolkit is designed to assist you in creating and conveying crucial aspects, such as comprehending the customer mapping process, essential statistics, and mapping elements. It will lead you through the stages, steps, and layers of user journey mapping while showcasing touchpoints. With its content-rich tables, graphs, flowcharts, and other visuals, this PowerPoint Presentation guarantees a seamless experience. Download it now!

Download this template

(Explore these Improvement Plan Templates providing a structured roadmap for setting goals, implementing actions, and monitoring progress to enhance performance and foster a culture of continuous improvement.)

Template 2: User Journey Mapping for Software Development

Initiating your software development journey begins with crafting a precise User Journey Map. Start on the right foot with our PowerPoint Slide, offering a structured flowchart for team onboarding, customer onboarding, and user activities. It also incorporates a section outlining software user tasks like creating logins, verifying customer details, and inviting colleagues to the portal. You can tailor the journey on this slide to meet your client's specific needs. Get it now!

Template 3: Addressing User Journey Based on Customer Requirement

This PPT Slide portrays a user journey the project manager can use to map the customer journey across stages. It also includes details about the channels and critical metrics. Encompassing five stages, this template is a great option to educate and entice your audience. Use this template to document Awareness, Consideration, Convert, and Loyalty information and highlight the channels and critical metrics to incorporate.  Grab it now to reap its full benefits.

Template 4: Multiple User Journey Map PPT Slide

For those seeking to showcase the journeys of multiple users on a single page, this PPT Slide is the perfect choice. It allows you to emphasize the journey starting with user sign-up, progressing through onboarding, and then monitoring the following behavior  — whether the user abandons the tools, continues as a free user, or upgrades instantly. It's a foolproof method for presenting user journeys based on which you can make strategic decisions. Download it today!

Chart Success with Precision

Now you know that the User Journey Map is the backbone of differentiating your brand from the rest.  Each touch point with the customer matters whether it be early in the journey or towards the end. Customers value and appreciate a consistent journey, and yours can be a brand that does this exceptionally well. Simply download these popular User Journey Map Templates and gain raving fans and repeat customers.

PS. Explore this handy guide with the most popular Customer Journey Map Templates , with content-ready samples and examples.

FAQs on User Journey Map

What is a user journey map.

A user journey map is a visual representation that illustrates the steps, experiences, emotions, and touchpoints a user goes through when interacting with a product, service, or system. It helps organizations understand and optimize the user's experience.

How do I create a user journey map?

Creating a user journey map involves several steps:

Define Your User Persona : Start by identifying your target user or customer persona.

Research and Data Collection: Gather data on user behavior, pain points, and emotions.

Map the Journey: Create a visual representation of the user's experience, including stages, touchpoints, and emotions.

Identify Pain Points and Opportunities: Analyze the map to pinpoint areas for improvement and opportunities to enhance the user experience.

Implement Changes: Develop strategies and initiatives to address the identified issues and improve the user journey.

Test and Iterate: Continuously test and refine the user journey map based on user feedback and evolving needs.

What are the four stages of journey mapping?

The 4 stages of journey mapping typically include:

Research: Gather data about user behavior, needs, and pain points through methods like surveys, interviews, and analytics.

Mapping: Create a visual representation of the user journey, highlighting key touchpoints and emotions.

Analysis: Analyze the map to identify pain points and opportunities for improvement.

Implementation: Based on the insights gained, develop and execute strategies to enhance the user experience.

Related posts:

• Unverzichtbare User Journey Map-Vorlagen mit Beispielen und Beispielen
• Top 10 Customer Roadmap Templates With Samples and Examples
• Top 5 Customer Journey Mapping PowerPoint Templates
• Top 10 Customer Onboarding Templates with Samples and Examples

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7 Interesting Real-Life Customer Journey Map Examples

Creating a customer journey map is vital for any business to optimize its sales and marketing processes.

According to Salesforce , “among high-performing teams, 88% say a customer journey strategy is critical to the success of their overall marketing.”

An effective customer journey map will include each customer touchpoint a shopper interacts with on the way to making a purchase.

If you’re looking to create this document from scratch or looking for ways to improve your map, below are some customer journey map examples from highly successful companies.

Customer Journey Map Examples

When doing customer journey mapping, you should think deeply about your business and the customer experience. On that note, let’s dive into some real-life customer journey mapping and walk you through what makes customer journey maps so valuable.

Consumer SaaS Customer Journey Map Examples

Customer journey maps are essential to B2C companies in the SaaS space. It can be expensive to acquire a new customer and each month that you’re able to keep a subscription active deepens your ROI and ROAS.

Understanding each customer interaction, pain points and customer needs is vital for maximizing value throughout the customer lifecycle - and a user journey map will help identify these areas.

Spotify is one of the world’s most popular audio streaming services. When Spotify wanted to improve the music-sharing experience for its customers, it hired a marketing firm to create a customer journey map .

The goal of this user journey map was to determine where music sharing features the best fit into the customer experience .

In this example, we see the user experience mapped out from the moment the user first opens Spotify on a mobile device, all the way through to whether they like a song that a friend has shared.

Also Read: Effective Customer Journey Design

Throughout each stage and every touchpoint, the brand lists what a customer is engaging with, doing, thinking, and feeling (something that's commonly done with an empathy map ). The agency used data research and customer surveys to better understand how users felt at each touchpoint in the customer journey to collect this information.

Based on the customer journey map, Spotify was able to identify pain points for users and address those pain points so that the music sharing experience is smooth and seamless, encouraging more users to share music -- and to do it more often. \

This journey map is excellent because it identifies key areas of customer engagement, takes into account customer behavior , and has the goal of making the customer experience as enjoyable as possible.

The end result is significantly higher customer satisfaction, which can have several key benefits, including a smoother buyer journey, greater customer loyalty, and in many cases, existing customers becoming brand advocates.

2. TurboTax

Turbo Tax is a leading online software package for preparing taxes. When the TurboTax team was ready to launch a new product called Personal Pro, they created a customer journey map to better understand the overall customer experience with this new product.

The team used a mix of data research, customer surveys, and key conversations with tax professionals to understand how the product fits into the lives of those using it.

TurboTax’s customer journey analytics exercise starts when someone enters the website and is in the consideration phase through to the completion of the tax filing.

This customer journey map is great because it allows the team to see each customer pain point experienced and, therefore, address these pain points to make the customer experience smoother and more satisfactory.

Ecommerce Customer Journey Map Examples

The Ecommerce space is highly competitive in almost every niche these days. To maximize profit margins while keeping pricing competitive, it’s important to convert as many shoppers that visit your site as possible.

Also Read: Customer Journey Template

In addition to converting first-time customers at high rates, it’s important to have up-sell and cross-sell touchpoints in your customer journey as well. This increases the lifetime value of your customers and drives up the ROI against your acquisition costs.

Customer journey mapping is a vital exercise that can help E-commerce businesses skyrocket conversion rates from all online shoppers and achieve higher customer success.

1. Columbia Road

E-commerce agency, Columbia Road, created this map template for a fictitious online grocery shop . Here the agency demonstrates the core activities, goals, touchpoints, and experiences that a customer will go through during the decision-making process to place an order.

In this customer journey mapping exercise, the Columbia Road team went one step further than others by also including Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and which department is responsible for ensuring a customer has the best experience possible at each stage within the user journey.

Including KPIs is important because it lets you know if your customer journey map template is effective or if it needs to be adjusted to better serve your shoppers.

Amazon is one of the largest E-commerce shops in the world, with its own technology and custom systems in place for moving a customer through the sales journey. Its customer journey map is one of the most complex around and would take most people days to read through and understand each customer journey stage.

The good news is that the map can be broken down into several more digestible parts for analysis.

Here we can see Amazon’s customer conversion funnel and how the customer journey is enabled by its own products that push users through the sales funnel to maximize customer engagement.

Most interesting here is how Amazon includes its success metrics for each stage of the customer journey. These are the same success metrics that just about every E-commerce shop should be monitoring:

• Impressions
• Add to list
• Add to cart
• Purchase assists
• Conversion rate
• Subscriptions
• Repeat purchase rates

When conducting your customer journey mapping exercise, be sure to include these key metrics to monitor your success and gain deeper insight into the overall customer experience.

3. A More Common Scenario

If looking at the Amazon customer journey map feels overwhelming to you know that you’re not alone. Most E-commerce businesses will have a much less complicated customer journey to map out.

Here's a customer journey map template for the checkout process for online shops.

For instance, you see the most important stages of the checkout process, including the technology involved, common customer frustrations, and space to include solutions to make the process smoother.

For example, if a customer finds creating an account to be a barrier to checkout in the very first step - then offering a guest checkout option would be one solution for improving the customer experience.

Start your E-commerce customer journey mapping exercise using the above customer journey mapping template as an outline and then customize it for your own needs.

(If this isn't a good fit for your company, check out these other customer journey templates .)

B2B Customer Journey Map Examples (SaaS)

In the B2B customer journey , the sales cycle can vary significantly based on price point and the buy-in from stakeholders needed to make a business purchase.

When it comes to a B2B SaaS purchase for something reasonably inexpensive like Hootsuite’s social media management platform or the MailChimp email marketing platform, most of the customer journey will happen digitally with minimal to no involvement from a sales representative.

In this case, customer journey maps might be made using a simple Excel spreadsheet.

Because there are few high barriers to conversion, the customer sales journey can happen quickly and easily as long as the right digital touchpoints are in place.

The journey map example above shows that touchpoints can all be online assets from social media for awareness, to blog posts for research, to case studies or webinars for consideration. Finally, there might be a personal touchpoint at the very end if someone has a question right before or after purchasing.

If your customers go from Awareness to Purchase (or even Free Trial purchase) quickly, a simple user journey mapping might work for you.

If a B2B SaaS company has a longer sales cycle with a more highly considered product or service, the customer journey map should be more complex and done differently.

Below is an example from HubSpot. The first part of their customer journey map includes the various stages of the journey throughout each customer touchpoint:

Because this is an example of a journey with a longer sales cycle, it also breaks down the stages into substages to dig further into the mindset of a potential customer.

Under the Awareness Stage would be the Stranger. Under the Consideration Stage would be the Subscriber/Lead and MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead). And under the Decision Stage would be the Opportunity and the Deal Closed/Handoff.

As a customer moves from, say, Subscriber to MQL in the Consideration Stage, they will experience different emotions and require different touchpoints to move through the sales funnel.

For example, a blog subscriber or newsletter subscriber might not even be able to afford your product or service, so it wouldn’t make sense to assign them a sales rep and waste that rep’s time.

However, once a subscriber becomes an MQL, and you know they fit your customer profile you can start treating this person as a real potential customer by dedicating more time and resources.

This also makes for a more relevant experience from your customer’s perspective. No one likes to be hassled to buy a product they can't afford.

In the overall customer journey, the subscriber and the MQL are both still in the Consideration Stage but they should be treated in a different way which is why it’s important to break the journey down into smaller stages if you have a longer sales cycle.

What Makes a Good Customer Journey Map

Above we walked through several interesting examples of customer journey maps and discussed the pros and cons. Now, as you get ready to create your own map, let’s talk about key elements to keep in mind for best practices.

1. It Should Be Based on Market Research Plus Real Customer Data

According to a study from Ascend2 in partnership with Ansira, enterprise marketers are using customer feedback surveys (53%) and customer journey marketing research (47%) to build journey maps.

This is a great combination because it includes work based on theory as well as the real-world experiences of shoppers. And having this mix is critical for constructing effective journey maps and ultimately optimizing the customer experience.

Why is this combination key?

Customers don’t always know what they want or what they would prefer if they have never experienced a new product or feature before.

Therefore, it’s up to the business to continuously innovate and present ideas to shoppers. These new products and features should be workshopped based on a customer persona and user research.

Then, once the product or new feature is created, to make it as beneficial to the user as possible, feedback should be collected so improvements can be made.

Because customer journey maps need to take into account the thoughts and actions of users, compiling a document that includes a combination of market research and customer feedback surveys is the best way to get the data you need to make an effective journey map for your ideal buyer persona.

2. It Expands Beyond Your Marketing Funnel

A common pitfall for many companies when customer journey mapping is making a storyboard of the marketing funnel or marketing plan.

The marketing funnel is a good basis for creating a skeleton of the marketing portion of experience maps, but the user journey map should go well beyond marketing.

What does this mean?

The marketing funnel can be broken down into customer journey stages , just like your customer’s journey. It starts with awareness with your target audience and ends with a purchase from your ideal customer persona in the most basic sense (we often like to take this beyond purchase to gaining a loyal customer and getting a repeat purchase).

This means in the awareness stage of your marketing funnel you may talk about social media, Google Ads, and other forms of awareness building.

Then in the interest section, you may discuss email marketing, webinars, and other forms of content that increase interest. And in the consideration phase, you may talk about the UX design of your website, sales demonstrations, customer service, and so on.

A good marketing funnel will detail basic activities that should be carried out at each stage of the funnel for your user persona.

The Customer journey maps goes well beyond these basic activities and also lists out what a customer is thinking, feeling, and doing at each stage of the marketing funnel.

Think of it as a marketing funnel on steroids! It’s a much stronger and more powerful document than just your basic marketing funnel or marketing plan.

Additionally, any customer experience mapping needs to go beyond the marketing funnel. It should include the entire user experience with the product or service, each step in the sales cycle, and the touchpoints a person may routinely have with customer service.

3. It Includes KPIs

Good customer journey maps will include the various stages of the sales and marketing cycle as well as the thoughts, feelings, and actions of the user at each stage. Great customer journey maps will include KPIs for each stage.

Including KPIs is important so that the map can be evaluated by each customer touch point and adjusted when necessary.

Also, note that a customer journey map isn’t a document that is set in stone. It should be updated when new information is learned about:

• Customer behavior
• Customer needs
• Customer goals
• Customer expectations
• Customer satisfaction
• Customer support
• Customer service

It should also be evaluated and adjusted if overall sales and marketing goals are not being met.

Because the world is always evolving, so is the entire customer journey.

Whether you’re using a basic platform like Google Analytics or something more advanced like Woopra that’s specifically designed with the customer journey in mind, it should be capable of tracking all essential KPIs.

Get Started Creating Your Customer Journey Map

There's no better time to start laying the foundation for your customer journey mapping process than today.

By creating a visual representation of the buying process, you’ll gain valuable insight into the customer experience and reasons why customers do and don’t buy from you.

Once you’ve identified customer pain points you can make improvements at the necessary customer journey touchpoints, as well as optimize your customer service blueprint to position your business for sales success.

Remember, the whole goal is to put yourself in your customer’s shoes to create the best possible shopping experience for customer retention!

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A Complete Beginner's Guide to User Journey Map

Updated 6/24/2020 : We added more valuable advice and resource for you to know better about user jouney map. Let us know what you thin about it.

User journey maps are important UX tools to help designers build a website or app from the user's point of view, and create a product that really suits the user. 

However, since user journey maps come in different forms, sizes and shapes, not all designers, especially some new starters, understand how to get the best out of them. 

So, to help you make full use of journey maps, here we will cover the basics:

• What is a user journey map?
• Why it is so important on design?
• The difference between user journey maps and user flow diagrams
• How to create a user journey map

What is a user journey map? 

A user journey map (also known as a customer journey map) is a visual presentation — often an easy-to-understand diagram or flowchart — of the process that a user or customer goes through in order to achieve a goal on your website or app. It helps designers build a website or app from the user's stand, and have a better understanding of the users' needs and pain points. 

Most user journey maps are designed with main parts below: 

1. Specific users + Scenario + Goals : Introduce a clear portrait of the user: what are their needs; what are their expectations; what is their main focus; what are their views and feelings?

2. Timeline : Explain step by step about how users achieve their goals. Here you should cover user actions, thoughts, and emotions in detail.

3. Others : Extra information, such as opportunities, insights, internal ownership, solutions and so forth can be added here to explain or expand on your design.

Why user journey map is so important? 

A user journey map enables companies or design teams to better understand their audiences and improve their experience in ways such as:

• Creating a better user experience

Studying all phases of a user's journey on your website/app helps you to understand your audience better, making it easier to create a better user experience.

• Helping customers achieve their goals more easily

An effective user journey map means a better user experience with customers achieving their goals more easily.

• Helping product teams communicate and collaborate better

Mapping out everything makes it easier for your entire product team to share, communicate, and collaborate on the designs more efficiently.

• Demonstrating designs better to clients and stakeholders

An intuitive user journey map leads to clearer demonstrations of your designs and can thus attract more potential clients and stakeholders.

An effective user journey map increases the chances of your company producing superb UX and a great product.

User journey vs user flow

User journey map focuses on those situations where the user interacts with your website or app. It maps out the different stages and scenarios a user will experience and provides a macro view of the interactions between the user and your website or app from start to finish. 

This example of a user journey map shows how the map focuses more on the macro view of all the instances in which a user will interact with your product or service.

User flow depicts the actual route that users follow to achieve their goal on your website or app. It focuses more on the micro level, illustrating the specific steps users take to complete their actions.

User flow focusing more on the specific actions as a user interacts with your products.

If you are still confusing about these two terms, check out differences & similarities between User Journey and User flow . 

How to Create a Customer Journey Map? 

An effective customer journey map helps designers understand users and provides insights that help create better customer and user experience. But, as a new starter, how can you create a customer journey map? Here are three ways that you can consider: 

1. Search for user journey map examples to get inspiration

Newcomers to the process can find plenty of inspiration from existing well-crafted user journey maps. Here are 8 of the best user journey map examples for your inspiration: 

Student Journey Map

Student Journey Map is a concept user journey map that lays out step by step how an international student can interact with the program to complete a Master’s degree. It analyzes the main decision and action points; it acknowledges the thoughts and feelings the student might experience at each stage; it covers the pain points; and it offers possible solutions.

• Tradeworthy Job User Journey

Tradeworthy Job User Journey visualizes a typical journey for a construction manager looking to use the Tradeworthy Job App to hire an employee. It gives a clear depiction of the entire interaction flow.

User Journey Map for Health Pal

This user journey map was made for a Health and Wellness service that enables the use to find the best doctors and book appointments. It illustrates the journey through the user’s eyes, using a concept persona. It focuses on the main phases, actions, and opportunities on the journey as well as on the thoughts and emotions a user might experience.

User Journey Map for GymDog

User Journey Map for GymDog is a creative customer journey map made for a gym app. From this map, you will see how the trainer and the trainee can use the app to interact at each training session. The circular presentation is clear and intuitive in demonstrating the different stages of the process.

User Journey Map Template Bundle 

User Journey Map Template Bundle is a typical user journey map template bundle that works for many programs. It contains a range of typical map templates in different styles. You can download them and use them as templates for your own designs.

Persona and Journey Map

Persona and Journey Map is made for a pharma enterprise website. It illustrates how users feel at each stage as they interact with the site.

Hey User Journey Map

Hey User Journey Map visualizes the user journey on a mobile dating app. It fully maps out the actions that users take and details their likely emotions and thoughts as they seek to meet new people.

User Journey Map Simone Chosse

User Journey Map  Simone Chosse uses brightly colored visuals to present the user journey map. It is a good example of how you can create an effective journey map with rich visuals.

2. Download and use a user journey map template

The fastest way to create a user journey map is to download and use a template. To help you find desired templates quickly, we've picked  the best websites to download a user journey template : 

Dribbble is the go-to option for designers and creatives looking for inspiration or wanting to share design work and resources. It is also a good place to find the best and latest user journey map examples and templates. Not only are many of these user journeys or maps effective, but they are also free to download.

Behance is another good place for designers to share their design projects. You will find a number of the latest user journey maps and related projects are also shared here.

3. Use a user journey mapping tool to draw everything from scratch

If you are not familiar with using templates, you can choose a professional user journey mapping tool instead. Here are 3 of the best user journey mapping tools :

• Smaply - online user journey mapping tool 

Smaply is an online user journey mapping tool that would enable you and your team to visualize, share, and demonstrate customer journey maps, personas, and other stakeholder maps. Your team will find it easy to share the journey maps, comment on them, and create different exports.

• Giffy - online diagram and flowchart drawing tool 

Giffy is a lightweight online diagram and flowchart drawing tool. It provides a full set of diagramming shapes and templates to help you create a brilliant user journey map. You can also invite others to collaborate with you on a journey map.

• Microsoft Visio - online flowchart and diagram maker

Microsoft Visio is an online flowchart and diagram maker that can help you create professional user journey maps with modern shapes and templates. With Microsoft 365*, your team can all work on a diagram at the same time. Visio is sold as an addition to MS Office.

If you still have questions about how to create a user journey map, check out this step-by-step video:

The goal of creating a user journey map is to create a version of a site that can be shared, so that your team can think about the user experience and then communicate and collaborate on their design ideas. This all leads to a better outcome in your final UX design.

We hope this guide will help you understand the importance of the user journey map and enable you to create your own effective journey maps.

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Customer Journey Map

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A Customer Journey Map is a strategic tool that visually maps the customer’s experience with a product or service across multiple touchpoints and interactions. It delineates the stages a customer progresses through, from initial awareness to post-purchase support, pinpointing pain points, opportunities for improvement, and instances of delight. Utilizing this management approach, businesses can pinpoint critical areas for optimization, improve customer satisfaction, and develop more personalized and seamless experiences. These enhancements are key to driving loyalty and retention, effectively aligning with broader business strategies for customer relationship management.

What is a customer journey map?

A customer journey map is a visual representation illustrating the step-by-step experience a customer goes through when interacting with a product or service, highlighting key touchpoints and emotions.

Examples Of Customer Journey Map

• E-commerce Website : Journey from website visit to post-purchase feedback.
• Retail Store : Experience from entering the store to returning items.
• Mobile App : From download to regular use and updates.
• Subscription Services : From free trial through subscription upgrades to cancellation.
• Banking Services : Account opening, using online banking, and loan applications.
• Healthcare Services : Patient journey from appointment scheduling to follow-up.
• Travel and Tourism : Booking, traveling, and post-trip feedback.
• Insurance Claims : Claim filing to payment and post-claim service.
• Automotive Sales : Research, dealership visit, purchase, and after-sales.
• Real Estate : From house hunting to buying and moving in.
• Software as a Service (SaaS) : Free trial to subscription renewal and upsell.
• Education : Student enrollment, learning, graduation, and alumni involvement.
• Restaurant Dining : From reservation to dining and posting a review.
• Utility Services : Service connection to billing and service termination.
• Telecommunications : Plan selection, device purchase, and troubleshooting.
• Event Planning : Ticket purchase to post-event engagement.
• Public Transportation : Planning, ticketing, travel, and feedback.
• Fitness Club : Signing up, regular visits, and membership renewal.
• Pet Adoption : Adoption process and post-adoption support.
• Library Services : Membership, borrowing, event participation.
• Beauty Salon : Booking, service, product purchase, and rebooking.
• Home Improvement Projects : Research to project completion and follow-up.
• Legal Consultation Services : Initial inquiry to case resolution.
• Non-Profit Donor Engagement : Donation process to long-term support.
• Luxury Goods Shopping : Product discovery to after-sales care.
• Digital Marketing Campaigns : Targeting to campaign analysis and conversion.

Key Elements of Customer Journey Maps

• Persona : Profiles representing different customer segments.
• Touchpoints : Interactions between the customer and the business.
• Emotions : Feelings experienced at each touchpoint.
• Stages : Phases of the journey, from awareness to post-purchase.
• Channels : Communication mediums used by customers.
• Pain Points : Challenges or frustrations encountered.
• Opportunities : Moments for improvement or enhancement.
• Metrics : Data to measure success and identify areas for optimization.

Elements of a Customer Journey Map

• Customer Personas : Detailed profiles of the target customer that represent different segments of the user base.
• Stages of the Journey : The key phases a customer goes through in a nonprofit context, from becoming aware of the organization to post-donation activities. These stages can include awareness, consideration, decision, retention, and advocacy.
• Customer Touchpoints : Specific interactions the customer has with the business during their journey. This can include visits to a website, interactions with sales personnel, or usage of the product.
• Customer Emotions : The feelings and emotional states experienced by the customer at various points in the journey. Highlighting these can help identify areas needing improvement.
• Pain Points and Challenges : Difficulties or frustrations that customers face during their interaction with the brand, which might deter them from continuing the relationship.
• Opportunities : Potential areas for improvement or innovation that can enhance the customer experience.
• Channels and Resources : The various mediums through which interactions take place, such as in-store, online, mobile, or through customer service .
• Metrics : Key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics that measure the success of customer interactions at various stages.

Rules for Creating Successful Journey Maps

• Start with Research : Gather data on customer behavior, preferences, and pain points.
• Define Objectives : Clearly outline what you aim to achieve with the map.
• Focus on Customers : Keep the customer perspective central throughout the mapping process.
• Use Visuals : Create visual representations that are easy to understand and engage with.
• Include Key Touchpoints : Highlight critical interactions across the entire journey.
• Consider Emotions : Capture the emotional highs and lows experienced by customers.
• Collaborate Across Teams : Involve stakeholders from various departments to ensure comprehensive insights.
• Iterate and Improve : Continuously update and refine journey maps based on feedback and evolving customer needs.

Customer Journey Stages

Awareness : Customers become aware of a product, service, or brand through various channels such as advertising, social media, or word-of-mouth. Consideration : Customers research and evaluate different options, comparing features, prices, and reviews to make an informed decision. Decision : Customers make a purchase decision, selecting the product or service that best meets their needs and preferences. Purchase : Customers complete the transaction, whether online, in-store, or through other channels, to acquire the chosen product or service. Post-Purchase Experience : After the purchase, customers experience the product or service, seeking support, using it, and forming opinions based on their experience. Loyalty and Advocacy : Satisfied customers may become loyal to the brand, repurchasing products and advocating for it through positive reviews, referrals, or social media engagement.

Why is customer journey mapping important?

• Understanding Customer Needs : It helps businesses gain insights into customer behavior, preferences, pain points, and motivations throughout the entire journey.
• Identifying Pain Points and Opportunities : By visualizing the customer experience, businesses can pinpoint areas of friction, gaps in service, and opportunities for improvement.
• Enhancing Customer Experience : Journey maps enable businesses to design and deliver more seamless, personalized, and satisfying experiences at every touchpoint, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Aligning Cross-Functional Teams : Journey mapping fosters collaboration across departments by providing a shared understanding of the customer journey, incorporating feedback , and encouraging teams to work together to address customer needs and deliver consistent experiences.
• Optimizing Marketing and Sales Efforts : It helps businesses tailor marketing messages, sales strategies, and product offerings to better align with customer needs and preferences at each stage of the journey, optimizing the budget allocation for maximum impact.
• Driving Business Growth :By enhancing the overall customer experience through journey mapping, businesses can achieve increased customer retention, higher conversion rates, and ultimately drive sales , business growth, and profitability.

Using a customer journey map to improve the customer experience

• Identify Pain Points : By mapping out the customer journey, you can clearly see where customers encounter problems or frustrations. These pain points can then be targeted for improvement, whether they’re related to service, product usability, or communication.
• Enhance Customer Touchpoints : Each touchpoint represents an opportunity to improve the customer’s impression of your brand. Analyzing these touchpoints through the journey map allows you to refine interactions to ensure they are as effective and pleasant as possible.
• Optimize Resource Allocation : Understanding the critical stages of the customer journey helps businesses prioritize where to allocate resources for the greatest impact. For example, if many customers drop off at a specific stage, you can invest more in that area to improve retention.
• Personalize Customer Interactions : Customer journey maps often incorporate customer personas, which help in tailoring interactions to meet the specific needs and preferences of different customer segments. This personalization can lead to higher satisfaction and loyalty.
• Streamline Processes : A detailed map can reveal redundancies or inefficiencies in how customers are handled across different channels. Streamlining these processes can improve the overall customer experience and reduce operational costs.

What should be included in a customer journey map template?

• Define Objectives and Scope : Determine what you want to achieve and the focus of the journey map (product, service, or entire brand experience).
• Develop Customer Personas : Create profiles for your target customers, incorporating demographics, behaviors, and needs.
• Map the Journey Stages : Outline the key stages of the customer experience, from awareness to advocacy.
• Identify Touchpoints and Assess Interactions : Document where and how customers interact with your brand at each stage, analyzing actions, emotions, and pain points.
• Analyze and Optimize : Use the insights to propose actionable improvements, implement changes, and track their impact on customer satisfaction and other metrics.

Customer Journey vs. Buyer Journey

Benefits of a customer journey map.

• Enhanced Customer Understanding : Gains insight into customer needs and experiences at various stages.
• Identification of Pain Points : Detects specific areas where customers encounter difficulties or frustrations.
• Improved Customer Engagement : Tailors communication strategies to meet customer needs effectively at different journey points.
• Streamlining of Operations : Identifies and eliminates inefficient processes that impact the customer experience.
• Higher Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty : Enhances overall satisfaction, increasing customer loyalty and promoting positive word-of-mouth.

What’s the first step in creating a customer journey map?

Define the scope and goals of the map.

How does a customer journey map help reduce churn?

By identifying and addressing critical pain points that lead to customer drop-offs.

Can a customer journey map impact revenue?

Yes, by enhancing customer experiences and improving conversions.

Should customer feedback be included in a customer journey map?

Absolutely, as it provides insight into customer satisfaction and pain points.

What is the role of metrics in a customer touchpoint?

Metrics help measure the success of interactions and guide improvements.

How does a customer journey map differ for B2B versus B2C?

B2B maps typically involve more decision-makers and longer cycles.

Is there a universal template for customer journey maps?

No, but many follow similar structures adapted to specific business needs.

How can a customer journey map facilitate cross-functional collaboration?

By aligning various departments around a common understanding of the customer experience.

What outcomes should you expect from a good customer journey map?

Improved customer engagement, satisfaction, and organizational efficiency.

How does technology affect the construction of a customer journey map?

Advances in analytics and digital tools enhance accuracy and insights.

What’s the ultimate goal of using a customer journey map?

To continuously improve the entire customer experience across all touchpoints.

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Elaborate on research from your Discovery phase.

Journey mapping

A visualization of the major interactions shaping a user’s experience of a product or service.

To provide design teams with a bird’s-eye view of a service that helps them see the sequence of interactions that make up a user’s experience including the complexity, successes, pain points, and emotions users experience from the earliest phases of researching a product or service all the way through adoption.

How to do it

• People involved and their related goals
• Their behaviors in pursuit of their goals
• Information, devices, and services that support their behaviors
• Important moments in how they experience a service or major decisions they make
• The emotions associated with these moments or decisions
• Potential harms (e.g. financial penalties, anxiety, damaged reputation) associated with these moments or decisions
• Visualize the order in which people exhibit behaviors, use information, make decisions, and feel emotions. Group elements into a table of “phases” related to the personal narrative of each persona . Identify where personas share contextual components.
• Discuss the map with stakeholders. Point out insights it offers. Use these insights to establish design principles . Think about how to collapse or accelerate a customer’s journey through the various phases. Incorporate this information into the project’s scope.

Additional resources

• 3-part series on the what, why, and how of journey mapping — GSA Customer Experience Center of Excellence

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SWOT Analysis

Understanding your business, informing your strategy.

By the Mind Tools Content Team

Key Takeaways:

SWOT stands for S trengths, W eaknesses, O pportunities, and T hreats.

A "SWOT analysis" involves carefully assessing these four factors in order to make clear and effective plans.

A SWOT analysis can help you to challenge risky assumptions, uncover dangerous blindspots, and reveal important new insights.

The SWOT analysis process is most effective when done collaboratively.

What Is a SWOT Analysis?

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, and so a SWOT analysis is a technique for assessing these four aspects of your business.

SWOT Analysis is a tool that can help you to analyze what your company does best now, and to devise a successful strategy for the future. SWOT can also uncover areas of the business that are holding you back, or that your competitors could exploit if you don't protect yourself.

A SWOT analysis examines both internal and external factors – that is, what's going on inside and outside your organization. So some of these factors will be within your control and some will not. In either case, the wisest action you can take in response will become clearer once you've discovered, recorded and analyzed as many factors as you can.

In this article, video and infographic, we explore how to carry out a SWOT analysis, and how to put your findings into action. We also include a worked example and a template to help you get started on a SWOT analysis in your own workplace.

Why Is SWOT Analysis Important?

SWOT analysis can help you to challenge risky assumptions and to uncover dangerous blindspots about your organization's performance. If you use it carefully and collaboratively, it can deliver new insights on where your business currently is, and help you to develop exactly the right strategy for any situation.

For example, you may be well aware of some of your organization's strengths, but until you record them alongside weaknesses and threats you might not realize how unreliable those strengths actually are.

Equally, you likely have reasonable concerns about some of your business weaknesses but, by going through the analysis systematically, you could find an opportunity, previously overlooked, that could more than compensate.

How to Write a SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis involves making lists – but so much more, too! When you begin to write one list (say, Strengths), the thought process and research that you'll go through will prompt ideas for the other lists (Weaknesses, Opportunities or Threats). And if you compare these lists side by side, you will likely notice connections and contradictions, which you'll want to highlight and explore.

You'll find yourself moving back and forth between your lists frequently. So, make the task easier and more effective by arranging your four lists together in one view.

A SWOT matrix is a 2x2 grid, with one square for each of the four aspects of SWOT. (Figure 1 shows what it should look like.) Each section is headed by some questions to get your thinking started.

Figure 1. A SWOT Analysis Matrix.

Swot analysis template.

When conducting your SWOT analysis, you can either draw your own matrix, or use our free downloadable template .

How to Do a SWOT Analysis

Avoid relying on your own, partial understanding of your organization. Your assumptions could be wrong. Instead, gather a team of people from a range of functions and levels to build a broad and insightful list of observations.

Then, every time you identify a Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, or Threat, write it down in the relevant part of the SWOT analysis grid for all to see.

Let's look at each area in more detail and consider what fits where, and what questions you could ask as part of your data gathering.

Strengths are things that your organization does particularly well, or in a way that distinguishes you from your competitors. Think about the advantages your organization has over other organizations. These might be the motivation of your staff, access to certain materials, or a strong set of manufacturing processes.

Your strengths are an integral part of your organization, so think about what makes it "tick." What do you do better than anyone else? What values drive your business? What unique or lowest-cost resources can you draw upon that others can't? Identify and analyze your organization's Unique Selling Proposition (USP), and add this to the Strengths section.

Then turn your perspective around and ask yourself what your competitors might see as your strengths. What factors mean that you get the sale ahead of them?

Remember, any aspect of your organization is only a strength if it brings you a clear advantage. For example, if all of your competitors provide high-quality products, then a high-quality production process is not a strength in your market: it's a necessity.

Weaknesses, like strengths, are inherent features of your organization, so focus on your people, resources, systems, and procedures. Think about what you could improve, and the sorts of practices you should avoid.

Once again, imagine (or find out) how other people in your market see you. Do they notice weaknesses that you tend to be blind to? Take time to examine how and why your competitors are doing better than you. What are you lacking?

Be honest! A SWOT analysis will only be valuable if you gather all the information you need. So, it's best to be realistic now, and face any unpleasant truths as soon as possible.

Opportunities

Opportunities are openings or chances for something positive to happen, but you'll need to claim them for yourself!

They usually arise from situations outside your organization, and require an eye to what might happen in the future. They might arise as developments in the market you serve, or in the technology you use. Being able to spot and exploit opportunities can make a huge difference to your organization's ability to compete and take the lead in your market.

Think about good opportunities that you can exploit immediately. These don't need to be game-changers: even small advantages can increase your organization's competitiveness. What interesting market trends are you aware of, large or small, which could have an impact?

You should also watch out for changes in government policy related to your field. And changes in social patterns, population profiles, and lifestyles can all throw up interesting opportunities.

Threats include anything that can negatively affect your business from the outside, such as supply-chain problems, shifts in market requirements, or a shortage of recruits. It's vital to anticipate threats and to take action against them before you become a victim of them and your growth stalls.

Think about the obstacles you face in getting your product to market and selling. You may notice that quality standards or specifications for your products are changing, and that you'll need to change those products if you're to stay in the lead. Evolving technology is an ever-present threat, as well as an opportunity!

Always consider what your competitors are doing, and whether you should be changing your organization's emphasis to meet the challenge. But remember that what they're doing might not be the right thing for you to do. So, avoid copying them without knowing how it will improve your position.

Be sure to explore whether your organization is especially exposed to external challenges. Do you have bad debt or cash-flow problems, for example, that could make you vulnerable to even small changes in your market? This is the kind of threat that can seriously damage your business, so be alert.

Use PEST Analysis to ensure that you don't overlook threatening external factors. And PMESII-PT is an especially helpful check in very unfamiliar or uncertain environments.

A SWOT Analysis Example

Imagine this scenario: a small start-up consultancy wants a clear picture of its current situation, to decide on a future strategy for growth. The team gathers, and draws up the SWOT Analysis shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. A Completed SWOT Analysis.

As a result of the team's analysis, it's clear that the consultancy's main strengths lie in its agility, technical expertise, and low overheads. These allow it to offer excellent customer service to a relatively small client base.

The company's weaknesses are also to do with its size. It will need to invest in training, to improve the skills base of the small staff. It'll also need to focus on retention, so it doesn't lose key team members.

There are opportunities in offering rapid-response, good-value services to local businesses and to local government organizations. The company can likely be first to market with new products and services, given that its competitors are slow adopters.

The threats require the consultancy to keep up-to-date with changes in technology. It also needs to keep a close eye on its largest competitors, given its vulnerability to large-scale changes in its market. To counteract this, the business needs to focus its marketing on selected industry websites, to get the greatest possible market presence on a small advertising budget.

Frequently Asked Questions About SWOT Analysis

1. who invented swot analysis.

Many people attribute SWOT Analysis to Albert S. Humphrey. However, there has been some debate on the originator of the tool, as discussed in the International Journal of Business Research .

2. What Does SWOT Analysis Stand For?

SWOT Analysis stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

3. What Can a SWOT Analysis Be Used For?

SWOT analysis is a useful tool to help you determine your organization's position in the market. You can then use this information to create an informed strategy suited to your needs and capabilities.

4. How Do I Write a SWOT Analysis?

To conduct a SWOT analysis, you first need to create a 2x2 matrix grid. Each square is then assigned to one of the four aspects of SWOT. You can either draw this grid yourself or use our downloadable template to get started.

5. How Do SWOT Analysis and the TOWS Matrix compare?

While SWOT analysis puts the emphasis on the internal environment (your strengths and weaknesses), TOWS forces you to look at your external environment first (your threats and opportunities). In most cases, you'll do a SWOT Analysis first, and follow up with a TOWS Matrix to offer a broader context.

6. What Are the Biggest SWOT Analysis Mistakes?

• Making your lists too long. Ask yourself if your ideas are feasible as you go along.
• Being vague. Be specific to provide more focus for later discussions.
• Not seeing weaknesses. Be sure to ask customers and colleagues what they experience in real life.
• Not thinking ahead. It's easy to come up with nice ideas without taking them through to their logical conclusion. Always consider their practical impact.
• Being unrealistic. Don't plan in detail for opportunities that don't exist yet. For example, that export market you've been eyeing may be available at some point, but the trade negotiations to open it up could take years.
• Relying on SWOT Analysis alone. SWOT Analysis is valuable. But when you use it alongside other planning tools (SOAR, TOWS or PEST), the results will be more vigorous.

How to Use a SWOT Analysis

Use a SWOT Analysis to assess your organization's current position before you decide on any new strategy. Find out what's working well, and what's not so good. Ask yourself where you want to go, how you might get there – and what might get in your way.

Once you've examined all four aspects of SWOT, you'll want to build on your strengths, boost your weaker areas, head off any threats, and exploit every opportunity. In fact, you'll likely be faced with a long list of potential actions.

But before you go ahead, be sure to develop your ideas further. Look for potential connections between the quadrants of your matrix. For example, could you use some of your strengths to open up further opportunities? And, would even more opportunities become available by eliminating some of your weaknesses?

Finally, it's time to ruthlessly prune and prioritize your ideas, so that you can focus time and money on the most significant and impactful ones. Refine each point to make your comparisons clearer. For example, only accept precise, verifiable statements such as, "Cost advantage of $30/ton in sourcing raw material x," rather than, "Better value for money."

Remember to apply your learnings at the right level in your organization. For example, at a product or product-line level, rather than at the much vaguer whole-company level. And use your SWOT analysis alongside other strategy tools (for example, Core Competencies Analysis ), so that you get a comprehensive picture of the situation you're dealing with.

SWOT Analysis Tips

Here are four tips for getting more out of a SWOT analysis:

• Be specific. The more focused and accurate you are about the points you write down, the more useful your SWOT analysis will be.
• Work backwards. Experiment with filling in the four sections of your SWOT analysis in a different order, to stimulate new ways of thinking. Working backwards, in particular, from threats to strengths, may cast new light on the situation.
• Get together. Highlight the most useful people to contribute to your SWOT analysis, then gather information and ideas from them all.
• SWOT your competition ! To stay ahead of your competitors, carry out a regular SWOT analysis on them . Use everything you know about them to evaluate their situation, and use SWOT analysis to plan your competitive strategies accordingly.

It's also possible to carry out a Personal SWOT Analysis . This can be useful for developing your career in ways that take best advantage of your talents, abilities and opportunities.

SWOT Analysis Infographic

See SWOT Analysis represented in our infographic :

SWOT Analysis helps you to identify your organization's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

It guides you to build on what you do well, address what you're lacking, seize new openings, and minimize risks.

Apply a SWOT Analysis to assess your organization's position before you decide on any new strategy.

Use a SWOT matrix to prompt your research and to record your ideas. Avoid making huge lists of suggestions. Be as specific as you can, and be honest about your weaknesses.

Be realistic and rigorous. Prune and prioritize your ideas, to focus time and money on the most significant and impactful actions and solutions. Complement your use of SWOT with other tools.

Collaborate with a team of people from across the business. This will help to uncover a more accurate and honest picture.

Find out what's working well, and what's not so good. Ask yourself where you want to go, how you might get there – and what might get in your way.

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Comments (1)

SWOT is useless. When you try it and you find Weaknesses box bulging, but Strengths & Opportunities completely empty, what can that possibly achieve?

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Handling Information and Data

Project Management

Knowledge Management

Self-Development and Goal Setting

Time Management

Presentation Skills

Learning Skills

Career Skills

Communication Skills

Negotiation, Persuasion and Influence

Working With Others

Difficult Conversations

Creativity Tools

Self-Management

Work-Life Balance

Stress Management and Wellbeing

Coaching and Mentoring

Change Management

Team Management

Managing Conflict

Delegation and Empowerment

Performance Management

Leadership Skills

Developing Your Team

Talent Management

Problem Solving

Decision Making

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