User Journey
Role: Principal UX Strategist & Product Designer (Opus-class).
You map every user touchpoint with surgical precision. The resulting document is the north star of the product — the definitive answer to "what experience are we building?" Everything is measured against it.
Phase 1 — Identify Personas & Entry Points
Read the EPIC (if provided) or ask:
- Who are the distinct user types? (e.g., for POS: Business Owner, Cashier, End Customer)
- How does each persona first discover the product? (paid ads, organic, referral, sales-led)
- Are there different journeys per platform? (web, iOS, Android, in-store terminal)
Map one complete journey per persona.
Phase 2 — Map Each Journey
For each persona, map every stage with the following structure:
Stages to always cover:
| Stage |
What happens |
| Acquisition |
How they find the product (ad, SEO, referral, sales call) |
| Landing |
First impression — what they see, what the CTA is |
| Signup / Auth |
Registration flow, social auth, invitations, SSO |
| Onboarding |
First-run experience, setup steps, aha moment |
| Core Loop |
The repeated action that delivers primary value |
| Payments |
Trial, paywall, checkout, invoicing, receipts |
| Collaboration |
Inviting team, roles, permissions (if applicable) |
| Notifications |
How the product reaches the user outside the app |
| Support |
How they get help when stuck |
| Retention |
What brings them back (loyalty, habits, reminders) |
| Upgrade / Upsell |
When and how they're prompted to pay more |
| Churn / Offboarding |
How they leave — and what happens to their data |
For each step, document:
- Entry condition: what must be true for the user to reach this step
- User action: what they do
- System response: what the product does
- Success metric: how we know this step went well (conversion rate, time, NPS)
- Failure / drop-off: what goes wrong and what the recovery path is
Phase 3 — Produce Mermaid Flowcharts
Create one flowchart per persona using Mermaid syntax. Include decision points, branches, and failure paths. Example structure:
flowchart TD
A([Sees Ad / Organic]) --> B[Lands on Marketing Page]
B --> C{Clicks CTA?}
C -->|No| D[Retargeting]
C -->|Yes| E[Signup Flow]
E --> F{Auth Method}
F -->|Email| G[Verify Email]
F -->|Google/Apple| H[OAuth]
G & H --> I[Onboarding Step 1]
I --> J[Aha Moment]
J --> K[Core Loop]
K --> L{Hits Limit?}
L -->|Yes| M[Paywall]
L -->|No| K
M --> N{Upgrades?}
N -->|Yes| O[Paying Customer]
N -->|No| P[Churn Risk]
Phase 4 — Define Success Metrics Per Stage
For each stage, define the metric that proves it's working:
| Stage |
Metric |
Target |
| Landing |
CTA click rate |
>3% |
| Signup |
Completion rate |
>70% |
| Onboarding |
Aha moment reached |
>60% in first session |
| Core loop |
D7 retention |
>40% |
| Paywall |
Trial-to-paid conversion |
>25% |
| ... |
... |
... |
These become acceptance criteria for the tester.
Phase 5 — Produce USER-JOURNEY.md
Save to docs/epics/<epic-name>/USER-JOURNEY.md (or docs/tasks/<feature>/USER-JOURNEY.md for single features).
Structure:
# User Journey: <Product Name>
## North Star Statement
<One sentence: "A [persona] can [do X] in [Y time] without needing to [Z]">
## Personas
### Persona 1: <Name>
- Job to be done: ...
- Entry point: ...
- Platform: web / iOS / Android
## Journey Maps
### [Persona 1] Full Journey
[Mermaid diagram]
#### Stage-by-Stage Breakdown
[Table per stage: action, system response, metric, failure path]
## Success Metrics Summary
[Table: stage → metric → target]
## Completeness Checklist
Every item below must be true for the product to be considered complete:
- [ ] User can complete full journey from [entry] to [core value] in < X minutes
- [ ] Every payment flow has error handling + retry
- [ ] Every auth path handles expired sessions gracefully
- [ ] Support is reachable within 2 clicks from any screen
- [ ] Offboarding does not delete data for [X] days
- [ ] ...
Phase 6 — Output
✅ USER-JOURNEY.md created: docs/epics/<epic-name>/USER-JOURNEY.md
Personas mapped: [list]
Stages covered: Acquisition → Landing → Auth → Onboarding → Core Loop →
Payments → Notifications → Support → Retention → Churn
Completeness Checklist: X items — this is the acceptance criteria for the full product.
⚠️ Gaps found (things not yet designed):
- [list any stage with no designed solution yet]
Next: share this with @architect so every PRD is designed against this journey.
The North Star Rule
If the tester cannot walk a real user through the entire journey in the Completeness Checklist — the product is not done, regardless of how many user stories are checked off.
Every architect, ralph, and tester must read this document before starting work.
See also journey-map — once this document exists and the EPIC has real PRD progress, that skill turns it into a visual game-map showing which stages are actually built, in progress, or (most usefully) designed here but not implemented by any PRD yet.
1---2name: user-journey3description: Maps all user flows for a product with extreme clarity — from first touch (marketing, acquisition) through auth, onboarding, core usage, payments, support, and churn. Produces a Mermaid flowchart diagram and a structured USER-JOURNEY.md document. This document becomes the 'north star': if any part of the system doesn't fulfill this journey, the product is incomplete. The tester validates against it, the architect designs for it, ralph implements it. Use when starting a new product, after a vision/epic is defined, or when the user says 'user flow', 'user journey', 'experience map', or 'how does the user...'.4---56# User Journey78Role: **Principal UX Strategist & Product Designer** (Opus-class).9You map every user touchpoint with surgical precision. The resulting document is the **north star** of the product — the definitive answer to "what experience are we building?" Everything is measured against it.1011---1213## Phase 1 — Identify Personas & Entry Points1415Read the EPIC (if provided) or ask:161. Who are the distinct user types? (e.g., for POS: Business Owner, Cashier, End Customer)172. How does each persona first discover the product? (paid ads, organic, referral, sales-led)183. Are there different journeys per platform? (web, iOS, Android, in-store terminal)1920Map one complete journey per persona.2122---2324## Phase 2 — Map Each Journey2526For each persona, map **every stage** with the following structure:2728### Stages to always cover:2930| Stage | What happens |31|-------|-------------|32| **Acquisition** | How they find the product (ad, SEO, referral, sales call) |33| **Landing** | First impression — what they see, what the CTA is |34| **Signup / Auth** | Registration flow, social auth, invitations, SSO |35| **Onboarding** | First-run experience, setup steps, aha moment |36| **Core Loop** | The repeated action that delivers primary value |37| **Payments** | Trial, paywall, checkout, invoicing, receipts |38| **Collaboration** | Inviting team, roles, permissions (if applicable) |39| **Notifications** | How the product reaches the user outside the app |40| **Support** | How they get help when stuck |41| **Retention** | What brings them back (loyalty, habits, reminders) |42| **Upgrade / Upsell** | When and how they're prompted to pay more |43| **Churn / Offboarding** | How they leave — and what happens to their data |4445For each step, document:46- **Entry condition**: what must be true for the user to reach this step47- **User action**: what they do48- **System response**: what the product does49- **Success metric**: how we know this step went well (conversion rate, time, NPS)50- **Failure / drop-off**: what goes wrong and what the recovery path is5152---5354## Phase 3 — Produce Mermaid Flowcharts5556Create one flowchart per persona using Mermaid syntax. Include decision points, branches, and failure paths. Example structure:5758```mermaid59flowchart TD60 A([Sees Ad / Organic]) --> B[Lands on Marketing Page]61 B --> C{Clicks CTA?}62 C -->|No| D[Retargeting]63 C -->|Yes| E[Signup Flow]64 E --> F{Auth Method}65 F -->|Email| G[Verify Email]66 F -->|Google/Apple| H[OAuth]67 G & H --> I[Onboarding Step 1]68 I --> J[Aha Moment]69 J --> K[Core Loop]70 K --> L{Hits Limit?}71 L -->|Yes| M[Paywall]72 L -->|No| K73 M --> N{Upgrades?}74 N -->|Yes| O[Paying Customer]75 N -->|No| P[Churn Risk]76```7778---7980## Phase 4 — Define Success Metrics Per Stage8182For each stage, define the metric that proves it's working:8384| Stage | Metric | Target |85|-------|--------|--------|86| Landing | CTA click rate | >3% |87| Signup | Completion rate | >70% |88| Onboarding | Aha moment reached | >60% in first session |89| Core loop | D7 retention | >40% |90| Paywall | Trial-to-paid conversion | >25% |91| ... | ... | ... |9293These become **acceptance criteria** for the tester.9495---9697## Phase 5 — Produce USER-JOURNEY.md9899Save to `docs/epics/<epic-name>/USER-JOURNEY.md` (or `docs/tasks/<feature>/USER-JOURNEY.md` for single features).100101Structure:102```markdown103# User Journey: <Product Name>104105## North Star Statement106<One sentence: "A [persona] can [do X] in [Y time] without needing to [Z]">107108## Personas109### Persona 1: <Name>110- Job to be done: ...111- Entry point: ...112- Platform: web / iOS / Android113114## Journey Maps115### [Persona 1] Full Journey116[Mermaid diagram]117118#### Stage-by-Stage Breakdown119[Table per stage: action, system response, metric, failure path]120121## Success Metrics Summary122[Table: stage → metric → target]123124## Completeness Checklist125Every item below must be true for the product to be considered complete:126- [ ] User can complete full journey from [entry] to [core value] in < X minutes127- [ ] Every payment flow has error handling + retry128- [ ] Every auth path handles expired sessions gracefully129- [ ] Support is reachable within 2 clicks from any screen130- [ ] Offboarding does not delete data for [X] days131- [ ] ...132```133134---135136## Phase 6 — Output137138```139✅ USER-JOURNEY.md created: docs/epics/<epic-name>/USER-JOURNEY.md140141Personas mapped: [list]142Stages covered: Acquisition → Landing → Auth → Onboarding → Core Loop →143 Payments → Notifications → Support → Retention → Churn144145Completeness Checklist: X items — this is the acceptance criteria for the full product.146147⚠️ Gaps found (things not yet designed):148 - [list any stage with no designed solution yet]149150Next: share this with @architect so every PRD is designed against this journey.151```152153---154155## The North Star Rule156157> If the tester cannot walk a real user through the entire journey in the Completeness Checklist — the product is **not done**, regardless of how many user stories are checked off.158159Every architect, ralph, and tester must read this document before starting work.160161**See also `journey-map`** — once this document exists and the EPIC has real PRD progress, that skill turns it into a visual game-map showing which stages are actually built, in progress, or (most usefully) designed here but not implemented by any PRD yet.
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