Journey Mapping

Create user and customer journey maps to understand experiences, identify pain points, and discover improvement opportunities. A human-centered complement to process-focused value stream mapping.

What is a Journey Map?

A journey map visualizes a user's experience over time as they accomplish a goal. Unlike process maps (which show what happens), journey maps show how it feels from the user's perspective.

Element Definition Purpose

Persona Who is taking the journey Focus on specific user type

Phases Major stages of the journey Organize the experience

Touchpoints Interactions with your system Identify contact points

Actions What the user does Understand behavior

Thoughts What the user thinks Understand mindset

Emotions How the user feels Identify emotional peaks/valleys

Pain Points Friction and frustrations Target improvements

Opportunities Ways to improve Prioritize enhancements

Journey Types

Type Scope When to Use

Current State How things are today Identify problems

Future State Desired experience Design solutions

Day-in-the-Life Full day across contexts Understand broader context

Service Blueprint Journey + backstage operations Design service delivery

Workflow

Phase 1: Preparation

Step 1: Define the Journey Scope

Journey Definition

Journey Name: New Customer Onboarding Persona: Sarah - First-time SaaS Buyer Goal: Successfully adopt the product and get first value Trigger: Signs up for trial End State: Completes first project successfully Time Frame: First 30 days

Step 2: Select or Create Persona

Persona: Sarah - First-time SaaS Buyer

Demographics:

• Age: 32
• Role: Marketing Manager
• Company: Mid-size B2B
• Tech Savviness: Moderate

Goals:

• Streamline team workflows
• Prove ROI to leadership
• Look good to her team

Frustrations:

• Limited time to learn new tools
• Past bad experiences with complex software
• Pressure to show quick results

Quote: "I need something that works out of the box."

Phase 2: Map the Journey

Step 1: Identify Phases

Typical journey phases:

Domain Common Phases

Purchase Awareness → Consideration → Decision → Purchase

Onboarding Sign-up → Setup → First Use → Habit Formation

Support Issue → Search → Contact → Resolution → Follow-up

Renewal Review → Evaluate → Negotiate → Renew/Churn

Step 2: Map Touchpoints and Actions

For each phase:

Phase: Setup

Touchpoints

• Welcome email
• Product UI (setup wizard)
• Help documentation
• Onboarding video

Actions

1. Opens welcome email
2. Clicks "Get Started"
3. Enters company info
4. Invites team members
5. Configures first workspace

Step 3: Capture Thoughts and Emotions

Phase: Setup - Experience

Step 4: Identify Pain Points

Pain Points - Setup Phase

Step 5: Identify Opportunities

Opportunities - Setup Phase

Phase 3: Visualize the Journey

Standard Journey Map Format

        |              | pricing page | docs         |              | email

------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|-------- ACTIONS | Researches | Compares | Creates | Explores | Daily | solutions | plans | account | features | usage ------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|-------- THOUGHTS | "Is there | "Which plan | "This is | "How do I | "This | a better | is right?" | taking | do X?" | saves | way?" | | too long" | | time" ------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|-------- EMOTIONS | 😐 | 🤔 | 😣 | 😕 | 😊 | Neutral | Uncertain | Frustrated | Confused | Happy ------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|-------- PAIN POINTS | Too many | Pricing | Long form | Feature | None | options | confusion | No save | discoverability ------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|-------- OPPORTUN- | Clear | Simpler | Reduce | Better | Celebrate ITIES | comparisons | pricing | friction | onboarding | wins

Phase 4: Emotion Curve

Visualize emotional highs and lows:

EMOTION 😊 +2 | / 😌 +1 | _/\ / 😐 0 |/_/ \ ___ / 😕 -1 | \ / __ / 😣 -2 | _______/ _/

     |--Awareness--|--Sign-up--|--Setup--|--First Use--|--Habit--|
                                  ↑
                           Pain Point: Long form

Phase 5: Identify Moments of Truth

Moments of Truth are critical interactions that disproportionately impact the overall experience:

Moment Type Definition Example

Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) Pre-purchase research Reading reviews

First Moment of Truth (FMOT) Initial encounter Landing page

Second Moment of Truth (SMOT) Using the product First workflow

Ultimate Moment of Truth (UMOT) Sharing experience Referral/review

Moments of Truth

Output Formats

Narrative Summary

Journey Map Summary

Journey: [Name] Persona: [Name] Date: [ISO date] Analyst: journey-facilitator

Journey Overview

[2-3 sentence summary of the end-to-end experience]

Emotional Journey

• Highest Point: [Phase] - [Why]
• Lowest Point: [Phase] - [Why]
• Overall Arc: [Description]

Critical Pain Points

1. [Pain Point] (Phase: [X]) - [Impact and evidence]
2. [Pain Point] (Phase: [X]) - [Impact and evidence]

Top Opportunities

1. [Opportunity] - Impact: High, Effort: Low
2. [Opportunity] - Impact: High, Effort: Medium

Moments of Truth

• Make or Break Moment: [Description]
• Current State: [Assessment]
• Recommendation: [Action]

Structured Data (YAML)

journey_map: name: "New Customer Onboarding" version: "1.0" date: "{ISO-8601-date}" analyst: "journey-facilitator" type: current_state

persona: name: "Sarah" archetype: "First-time SaaS Buyer" goals: - "Get value quickly" - "Look good to leadership" frustrations: - "Limited time" - "Complex tools"

journey: goal: "Successfully adopt and get first value" trigger: "Signs up for trial" end_state: "Completes first project" time_frame: "30 days"

phases: - name: "Awareness" order: 1 touchpoints: - channel: "Web" type: "Blog post" - channel: "Email" type: "Marketing email" actions: - "Researches solutions" - "Reads comparison articles" thoughts: - "Is there a better way?" emotions: overall: neutral intensity: 0 pain_points: [] opportunities: - name: "Clear comparison content" impact: medium effort: low

- name: "Setup"
  order: 3
  touchpoints:
    - channel: "Email"
      type: "Welcome email"
    - channel: "Product"
      type: "Setup wizard"
  actions:
    - "Opens welcome email"
    - "Starts setup wizard"
    - "Enters company info"
  thoughts:
    - "This is taking too long"
    - "Why so many fields?"
  emotions:
    overall: frustrated
    intensity: -2
  pain_points:
    - description: "Long form with many required fields"
      severity: high
      evidence: "40% drop-off rate"
    - description: "No save-and-continue"
      severity: high
      evidence: "Support tickets"
  opportunities:
    - name: "Progressive disclosure"
      impact: high
      effort: low
    - name: "Save progress"
      impact: high
      effort: medium

moments_of_truth: - type: "First Moment (FMOT)" phase: "Sign-up" current_state: "Overwhelming options" desired_state: "Clear value proposition" priority: high

- type: "Second Moment (SMOT)"
  phase: "First Use"
  current_state: "Confusion, needs help"
  desired_state: "Guided success path"
  priority: high

summary: emotion_arc: "Curious → Frustrated → Confused → Satisfied" highest_point: phase: "Habit" reason: "Realizes time savings" lowest_point: phase: "Setup" reason: "Long form, no progress saving" top_recommendation: "Reduce setup friction through progressive disclosure"

Mermaid Diagrams

Journey Flow:

journey title New Customer Onboarding Journey section Awareness Reads blog post: 5: Customer Watches demo video: 4: Customer section Sign-up Views pricing: 3: Customer Selects plan: 4: Customer section Setup Fills long form: 2: Customer Invites team: 4: Customer section First Use Explores features: 3: Customer Completes first task: 5: Customer section Habit Daily usage: 5: Customer

Emotion Curve (Mermaid XYChart):

xychart-beta title "Emotional Journey" x-axis ["Awareness", "Sign-up", "Setup", "First Use", "Habit"] y-axis "Emotion" -3 --> 3 line [0, -1, -2, 1, 2]

Multi-Persona Workshop

For comprehensive journey analysis, run parallel persona agents:

Persona Agent Perspective Focus

first-time-user-persona

New to product Onboarding friction

power-user-persona

Experienced Advanced needs

admin-persona

Management Configuration, oversight

support-seeker-persona

Needs help Support experience

When to Use

Scenario Use Journey Mapping?

UX redesign Yes - understand current experience

Service design Yes - design end-to-end experience

Customer complaints Yes - find pain points

Onboarding optimization Yes - improve adoption

Process improvement Partial - combine with VSM

Technical architecture No - wrong level of abstraction

Integration

Upstream

• stakeholder-analysis - Understand user stakeholders

• process-modeling - Process context

• Persona research - User research inputs

Downstream

• Requirements - Experience requirements

• UX design - Design improvements

• value-stream-mapping - Operational improvements

Related Skills

• value-stream-mapping

• Process efficiency perspective

• stakeholder-analysis

• Stakeholder needs

• capability-mapping

• Capability touchpoints

• root-cause-analysis

• Investigate pain point causes

• prioritization

• Prioritize opportunities

• decision-analysis

• Evaluate improvement options

User-Facing Interface

When invoked directly by the user, this skill operates as follows.

Arguments

• <journey-description> : Description of the journey to map (e.g., "customer purchasing a subscription")

• --mode : Mapping mode (default: guided )

• full : Comprehensive journey with detailed touchpoint analysis (~10K tokens)

• quick : Rapid journey mapping (~4K tokens)

• guided : Interactive journey discovery (variable)

• --persona : Optional persona name to use (creates new if not provided)

• --dir : Output directory (default: docs/analysis/ )

Execution Workflow

• Parse Arguments - Extract journey description, mode, and persona. If no description provided, ask the user who is taking the journey, what they are trying to accomplish, and where the journey starts and ends.

• Define or Select Persona - Use provided persona, create default from context (Quick/Full), or interactively define (Guided).

• Execute Based on Mode:

• Full: Spawn the journey-facilitator agent for thorough mapping with 4-6 phases, emotion curves, Moments of Truth (ZMOT/FMOT/SMOT/UMOT), and prioritized opportunities.

• Quick: Rapid mapping with 4-5 phases, key touchpoints, obvious pain points, and top 3 opportunities.

• Guided: Interactive discovery using AskUserQuestion for research approach and empathy depth, then walk through persona, scope, phases, phase deep-dives, moments of truth, and opportunities.

• Generate Output - Produce journey map markdown, Mermaid journey diagram, emotion curve (xychart-beta), pain point inventory, and opportunity backlog.

• Save Results - Save to docs/analysis/journey-map-[persona-name].md (or custom --dir ).

• Suggest Follow-Ups - Recommend stakeholder-analysis for journey owners, value-stream-mapping for operations behind pain points, and capability-mapping for touchpoint-capability links.

Version History

• v1.0.0 (2025-12-26): Initial release