A journey map shows the steps a person goes through to reach a goal, and how each step feels. It might be buying a new phone, getting a diagnosis, or opening a bank account online. Journey maps are popular because they turn a messy experience into something a team can act on: here is the step that hurts, and here is why.
Many journey maps are drawn in a workshop, from what the team believes. The better ones are built from what customers report, close to the moment. This article explains how.
What a research-based journey map needs
For each step of the journey, you want three things from each participant:
- What happened: the step itself, in their words.
- How it felt: a simple rating, from very bad to very good.
- Why: a short note, a voice note or a video.
Put many participants' answers together and you get an average journey: the shape of the experience, with the high points and the pain point, the step that felt worst.
Steps you set, or steps they write
There are two ways to define the steps.
Steps you set. Everyone rates the same steps, such as "Search", "Compare", "Buy", "Delivery", "First use". This makes answers easy to compare and average. Use it when you know the journey well.
Steps participants write. Each person describes their own steps. This shows journeys you did not expect, such as a step that happens before your first step, or a detour through a competitor. Use it when you are exploring.
A good approach is to start exploring with written steps in a first round, then set the steps for a larger second round.
Shopper journeys
For shopper research, capture the journey at the moment of purchase rather than a week later. A repeatable "every time you shop" task can ask for a short video at the shelf, a photo of the basket and a journey map of the trip: deciding to go, finding the product, choosing, paying, getting home.
Online shopping adds screen recordings. A participant records their screen while they search, compare and check out, and talks it through. The journey map then shows how each step felt, and the recording shows what happened.
Patient journeys
Patient journeys are long and personal: first symptoms, the first appointment, waiting, diagnosis, treatment, living with the condition. A one-off journey map can cover the past. A diary over several weeks adds the present: a bad morning, a refill at the pharmacy, a call with a nurse.
Care matters here. Offer voice notes and text as well as video, keep tasks short and flexible, get consent in the participant's language, and show participants to the client by code only.
Digital journeys
For apps and websites, combine the journey map with real use. Ask participants to complete a task on their own device while recording the screen, then rate each step. The ratings tell you where it hurts; the recording shows the button they could not find.
Finding the pain point
The average journey shows where the experience dips. That is the pain point, and it is where the team should look first. But the average does not tell you why. For that, read the notes and watch the videos from that step. Often the cause is not the step itself but what came before it: a confusing promise, missing information, or a wait nobody explained.
Common mistakes
- Too many steps. Six to eight steps is usually enough. More, and people rate without thinking.
- Team language. "Onboarding funnel" means nothing to a customer. Use their words.
- Only the average. Different groups can have very different journeys. Compare them.
- No why. A rating without a reason is a number without an insight.
How Zolensa supports journey mapping
Zolensa has a journey map question where participants rate each step with five faces, from very bad to very good, and add a note. You set the steps or let participants write their own. The Analysis tab shows the average journey and the pain point, and the videos, screen recordings and transcripts from the same study explain them. See the use cases for shopper journeys, patient journeys and digital experience research.
