Choosing the Right User Journey Mapping Approach
A journey map is a tool that captures the actions of users through their course of using a particular service. It captures what the customer is doing and how they are feeling as they interact with each touchpoint as they move through each stage of the service. The journey map provides insights into the stages or activities on where the user is being served well and where the user is struggling. It serves as a visual tool to easily communicate where service improvements are needed within an organization.
Depending on the need, there are a few approaches to customer journey mapping that can be used. The organization may want to establish a benchmark using staff perceptions of how users interact with their service or they want a well-researched journey to understand the exact current landscape of the user’s end-to-end experience. In addition to mapping staff perceptions (or assumptions) and current landscape, another approach is to map a desired new service or experience.
Hypothesis Mapping
If you want to identify the gap between what the organization believes to be true and the actual user experience, you should think about starting with a hypothesis map. Recruiting staff experts from each department to participate, you will gather their assumptions on how users interact with the touchpoints in the service and how they believe the user is feeling. This will provide a picture of what the organization thinks the user journey map looks like. Once the current-state of the user map has been created, you can compare the two journey maps to discuss knowledge gaps and begin working on ways to close those gaps.
Current-State Mapping
To build a current-state map, you need to start with user research. A current-state map Is the outcome of documenting and charting user findings from qualitative and quantitative research methods through the process of using a service. A window into how the user is experiencing the current service an organization offers. Grounded in facts and data, the current-state map presents what the user is actually experiencing and feeling as they interact with the touchpoints of a service. Once completed, the current-state map helps to create a story for change.
Future-State Mapping
The future-state mapping approach is used to reinvent current services or to imagine a completely new service for users. It take the current experience one step further by exploring new experiences based on user’s desires and hopes. On top of using it to map new experiences and services for users, As discussed in Katie Kaplan’s article on Journey-Mapping Approaches: 2 Critical Decisions To Make Before You Begin, it can also be used to communicate a vision and serve as a roadmap to align teams and provide planning organization.
Whichever approach you decide to take, journey mapping is a key tool to use to communicate pain points, touchpoints and provides a visual to help you advocate for the users.
Readings:
Orchestrating Experiences: Collaborative Design for Complexity
Chris Risdon and Patrick Quattlebaum
Journey-Mapping Approaches: 2 Critical Decisions To Make Before You Beginhttps://www.nngroup.com/articles/journey-mapping-approaches/
Current-State vs. Future-State Journey Mapping
https://info.keylimeinteractive.com/current-state-vs.-future-state-journey-mapping
Ideas From Future-State Journey Mapping
https://www.thisisservicedesigndoing.com/methods/ideas-from-future-state-journey-mapping
