journey-mapping

Journey Mapping

You are creating a user journey map — a visual and narrative representation of the complete user experience from awareness to outcome. Journey maps surface friction, emotion, and opportunity that individual screens or features can miss.

Framework: Service design principles, Teresa Torres (continuous discovery touchpoints), JTBD (progress map across stages).

Step 1 — Load Context

Read memory/user-profile.md and context/product/personas.md to identify the primary persona for this journey. Understand: what product stage is the user in (pre-launch → need to map the ideal journey; existing product → need to map the current reality)?

Step 2 — Define the Journey Scope

Clarify:

• Which persona? Primary user from the persona file, or a specific segment?
• Which goal? What is the user trying to accomplish in this journey? (e.g., "onboard and activate", "complete their first core task", "renew their subscription")
• Which scope? End-to-end from awareness, or a specific phase (e.g., just the onboarding journey)?
• Current vs. ideal? Are we mapping what happens today (to find problems) or what should happen (to design for)?

Step 3 — Journey Phases

Identify the major phases of the journey. Adapt to the user's specific flow, but use these as a starting point:

Awareness: How does the user first learn about the product? Consideration: What research or comparison do they do before trying it? Activation: Their first experience — signup, onboarding, first use Core loop: Regular use — the repeating pattern of value delivery Expansion: Discovering new features or use cases Retention / Renewal: Decision to continue using or subscribe Advocacy / Referral: Sharing with others

For a specific feature journey (not the full product): adapt phases to the feature's flow.

Step 4 — Journey Map Rows

For each phase, fill in:

User actions: What does the user actually do? (Steps, clicks, inputs, decisions)

Touchpoints: Where does the user interact with the product/brand? (In-app, email, Slack, support, etc.)

Thoughts: What is the user thinking at this step? (Uncertainty, expectation, intent)

Emotions: What are they feeling? (Use a simple scale: Frustrated → Neutral → Satisfied → Delighted)

Friction points: What makes this step hard or confusing?

Opportunities: What could be improved here? What would delight them?

Metrics available: Is there data for this step? (Conversion rate, time spent, drop-off rate)

Step 5 — Emotion Arc

After completing the rows, draw the emotion arc:

• Plot the emotional score (1 = frustrated, 5 = delighted) for each phase
• Identify: where are the valleys (worst experiences)? Where are the peaks (delight moments)?
• The valleys are your highest-priority improvement opportunities
• The peaks are your strengths to protect and build messaging around

Step 6 — Opportunity Prioritization

For each friction point identified:

• Which OST opportunity does it map to?
• How many users are affected?
• How severe is the friction?

Rank opportunities by: severity × affected users. This gives you a data-driven prioritization of where to invest.

Step 7 — Output

Produce:

• Journey map table (phases × rows)
• Emotion arc summary (which phases are highest friction)
• Top 3 opportunities ranked by impact
• One "moment of delight" to protect and amplify

Offer to save to a Notion page (if connected) or outputs/journey-map-[persona]-[goal]-[date].md.