A New Customer Journey

December 2018 - February 2019

As creative agencies add new types of deliverables as part of their offerings, they often take the shape that the designer or strategist creating it wants. We found ourselves in that position with our customer journeys. Needing to establish an agency-wide standard, we set out to reimagine what our customer journeys should look like and, in turn, create an industry-leading example.

Key Final Screens & States

Research & Inspiration

We assembled a team of some of our best designers to initiate the process. Our first step was to collect a sampling of customer journey examples we found thought provoking. Together we discussed them and started to form a sense of an ideal customer journeys document including what information it would convey, its structure and the best form of delivery.

This has become a common example of a good customer journey. It displays a lot of information in a small amount of space, is easy to scan, helps keep the persona top of mind while the satisfaction graph is visually engaging and informative.

We liked the amount of information contained in this journey, especially the identification of pain points and ideas. But we felt this journey could be taken further to make it feel more engaging while still conveying so much valuable information.

The simplicity of this map is appealing but is potentially too simple. The visualization of the journey is nice but the reason for the shape of the dotted line isn’t immediately apparent. This also skews a bit into an experience map, which while valuable, is not a customer journey.

The spatial sense of this customer journey is immediately apparent. However this kind of visualization takes extra time to create with potentially not enough pay off, not to mention this journey doesn’t pack in our ideal depth of insight. In a world where budget is no matter, this kind of journey graphic could make for an excellent jumping off point.

Iterating & Rough Drafting

After our strategist presented a sneak peek of the overall vision to the client and got their initial thumbs up, we began to flesh out the experience. This is where I came in.

In my experience I’ve typically seen customer journeys based on one of two logical models. Customer journeys based on the first are grounded in reality, based on research and real world facts. These customer journeys document how an individual actually moves through his/her journey. They are valuable because they help us identify pain points that need to be addressed along with happy moments that we should seek to replicate.

Journeys based on the second model are aspirational, they outline how a user would move through their journey. They help us imagine and provide more color to a potential future state. These journeys are useful when needing to sell an idea.

Deciding which logical model we’d use was our first step. As a UX designer, I prefer the first model—using research and real world understanding to find ways we can improve on what users are already doing. As an employee of an agency, the needs of a project come first. And we needed these journeys to explain our thinking and illustrate our vision. So we moved forward with the second approach.

To organize my thoughts before I began working on the journeys, I ran through a quick SWOT of the experience our strategist was proposing. I also filled a whiteboard or two of general thoughts to see what would shake out.

I spent a little time early on diagramming the major stages of consumers discovering a wine club all the way through to loyalty.

Workshopping

We knew from the beginning of the project that we’d workshop the journeys with the client. Our goal was maximum buy-in from them. We wanted them to feel good about the journeys and that their ideas were just as much a part of the process as ours. To prepare for the workshop we created a rough draft of each of the journeys beforehand. We wanted to be prepared to steer the conversation but also come into the room with starter ideas in case the conversation wasn’t robust.

Because of timing I wasn’t able to join the workshop in person which meant I couldn’t lead it. I drew up directions for how to run the whiteboarding session. I wanted the whiteboarding session to be an opportunity to validate (and co-create) the structure of the journeys with the client along with the actual steps and insights of them.

However, due to a family emergency, our main point of contact also wasn’t able to join the workshop in-person and we weren’t able to whiteboard together at this stage of the project. Instead, we talked through the journeys, their steps and

Iterating, Contd.

Following the meeting to discuss and brainstorm the customer journeys we were able to confidently flesh out the ideas we had discussed with the client. This is where I really began the process of iterating. Initially we discussed creating three customer journeys. My starting point was always to articulate the general arc of the customer journey and then work through the details. The user personas for the journeys were concurrently being created by a coworker and based on a simple survey that was being sent out to existing customers.

Finalizing

Following multiple internal rounds of revision between the strategy lead, myself and the visual designer, we felt ready to share the customer journeys with the client. They weren’t completely final yet because we’d move through a round of revision with the client, but we were ready to share the final form and overall thinking.

One idea we had been discussing from the very beginning of the project is how to balance scanability and legibility while still providing a lot of insight. During the course of the project when we realized the volume of our insights for each step we decided to create an overview page for each journey that acts as a jumping off point. From the overview page, the reader can then see detail pages for each step. This gave us the luxury of an easy to digest view of the journey along with the ability to drill deeper. With only days to go before the deadline and still a good amount of work to do, we fantasized about making the journeys doc interactive rather than a PDF. Sadly, that had to be put in the parking lot.

The overview shows three insights for each step of the customer journey: 1. the most important tasks the customer will need to take in each step; 2. quantifiable actions representing conversion and; 3. how the user is feeling.

On the detail pages for each step I began with an overarching insight for the step followed by a description of the main challenge/opportunity of the step followed by qualities of the new experience that are going to motivate customers to move up the engagement ladder.

On the right I included a more detailed look at the customer emotional spectrum.

How We Fared

These customer journeys provide a lot of insight into how users would move through the new ecosystem of websites we recommended for our client. They helped illustrate a complex concept and were integral in gaining buy-in from all stakeholders on the client’s side. The structure of the document makes it easy to scan and see the big picture while allowing the reader to dive in to the steps they’re interested in where they can see tangible ideas that will delight users and improve conversion.

More importantly to our team, this document sets us up for continued future evolution of our customer journey. With the lessons learned from this document we’re prepared to build on what we have here, which is a good start, to ultimately get to our original goal—an industry leading customer journeys doc.

Challenges

Remote teams face real challenges in collaboration—strong project management is a must

Learnings

When trying a new internal process, the rule should be more meetings and communication to ensure the team stays on the same page while moving through new waters