6 Bonus Myths of Journey Mapping

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Get the journey mapping process right, and you’ll reap the rewards for a long time to come!

Last week, I wrote about the session I hosted for Quadient’s 2nd CX Transformation Day. It was a great hour, during which I busted five myths about journey mapping and interviewed a panel of experts on their experiences with journey mapping.

While I talked about five myths last week, we know that there are a lot more than that. I thought I’d take a moment to share six more that need to be busted, as well.
1. I’ve mapped the journey myself; I don’t need to involve anyone else.
First of all, actionable maps cannot be created in a vacuum. By definition, the mapping process is a collaborative effort that brings different departments together to build that initial assumptive map: for discovering, learning, and sharing. This is where maps help to break down silos.

Second, and probably more importantly, the touchpoint doesn’t operate in isolation. So thinking you can develop a map that wasn’t done in conjunction with other departments, is erroneous. For example, think about buying a car: sales isn’t the only person/department involved; financing, service, parts, etc. are also involved in the experience. Mapping in your silo doesn’t afford others to bring their perspectives and artifacts into the map at the appropriate place along the journey.
2. We created an assumptive map and are ready to redesign the experience. 
Once you’ve created the assumptive map, you must have the map validated by customers. If you don’t, you’re simply perpetuating inside-out thinking and are on a path to designing an experience that will definitely not meet your customers’ needs.
3. It’s OK to start with a future state map.
Definitely not. You can’t transform something you don’t understand. How can you design the future state if you don’t understand the current state, i.e., what’s right and wrong. Start with today and then work toward tomorrow.If you don’t know what’s wrong, how can you make it right?

4. Buyer personas and CX personas are one and the same.

Marketing and customer experience professionals have different needs when they are developing and using personas. The personas are developed in much the same way, with lots of research, but CX  professionals’ personas have additional information that allows them to design the experience for their customers based on: pain points, problems they are trying to solve, jobs to be done, etc.

5. Journey maps are used only for the customer experience.
Journey maps are not only created for the customer experience but for any other constituent whose experience you are trying to improve, including: employees, vendors, partners, franchisees, and licensees.

6. Without a digital mapping platform, I can’t even begin to map.
You probably know by now that I’m a huge advocate of mapping via a digital platform, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that they (most of them) check the box for some of the basic tenets of mapping: collaboration, sharing, updating, communicating, incorporating data and artifacts, validation, and actionability. Having said that, you can still map without a digital platform; as a matter of fact, I often like to start my journey mapping sessions with butcher paper and Post-Its because it gets people: out of their seats and involved; up and thinking; and collaborating, questioning, and learning. It’s more of a design-thinking, creative approach.

I would, however, recommend that you get a digital platform sooner rather than later, as you’ll become really frustrated the first time you need to roll up your butcher paper to take it to another location. Trust me!
What are your thoughts? Do you have any other myths that you’d like to add?

The only impossible journey is the one you never begin. -Tony Robbins

Republished with author's permission from original post.

Annette Franz
Annette Franz is founder and Chief Experience Officer of CX Journey Inc. She is an internationally recognized customer experience thought leader, coach, consultant, and speaker. She has 25+ years of experience in helping companies understand their employees and customers in order to identify what makes for a great experience and what drives retention, satisfaction, and engagement. She's sharing this knowledge and experience in her first book, Customer Understanding: Three Ways to Put the "Customer" in Customer Experience (and at the Heart of Your Business).

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