customer-journey-mapping-workshop

Purpose

Guide product managers through creating a customer journey map by asking adaptive questions about the actor (persona), scenario/goal, journey phases, actions/emotions, and opportunities for improvement. Use this to visualize the end-to-end customer experience, identify pain points, and create a shared mental model across teams—avoiding surface-level feature lists and ensuring discovery work focuses on real customer problems, not assumed solutions.

This is not a feature roadmap—it's a discovery and alignment tool that uncovers where the experience breaks down and where improvements will have the greatest impact.

Key Concepts

What is a Customer Journey Map?

A journey map (NNGroup) visualizes "the process that a person goes through in order to accomplish a goal." It compiles user actions into a timeline, enriched with thoughts and emotions to create a narrative, then condenses and polishes into a visual artifact.

Five Key Components (NNGroup Framework)

1. Actor — A specific persona or user whose perspective anchors the map
2. Scenario + Expectations — The situational context and associated goals
3. Journey Phases — High-level stages organizing the experience (e.g., discover, try, buy, use, seek support)
4. Actions, Mindsets, and Emotions — User behaviors, thoughts, and emotional responses throughout phases
5. Opportunities — Insights identifying where experience can improve