Pm Customer Journey

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 visualise the end-to-end customer experience, identify pain points, and create a shared mental model across teams.

This is not a feature roadmap — it's a discovery and alignment tool.

Key Concepts

Five Key Components (NNGroup Framework)

1. Actor — Specific persona whose perspective anchors the map
2. Scenario + Expectations — Situational context and associated goals
3. Journey Phases — High-level stages (e.g., Discover → Try → Buy → Use → Support)
4. Actions, Mindsets, and Emotions — Behaviours, thoughts, emotional responses per phase
5. Opportunities — Insights identifying where experience can improve

Journey Map Structure

Actor: [Persona]   Scenario: [Goal/Context]

Phase 1 → Phase 2 → Phase 3 → Phase 4 → Phase 5
Actions:  Actions:  Actions:  Actions:  Actions:
Thoughts: Thoughts: Thoughts: Thoughts: Thoughts:
Emotions: Emotions: Emotions: Emotions: Emotions:
Opps:     Opps:     Opps:     Opps:     Opps:

When to Use

• Starting customer discovery
• Identifying pain points for retention/engagement initiatives
• Aligning cross-functional teams on customer perspective
• Prioritising which problems to solve first

When NOT to Use

• When you already understand the journey deeply
• As a substitute for user research (maps require research input)

Application

This skill is interactive — ask one question at a time.

Step 0: Gather Context First

Ask the user to share any available:

• User interviews, discovery notes, support tickets
• Churn reasons, NPS feedback, analytics
• Personas or proto-personas
• Existing journey documentation

Question 1: Identify the Actor

"Who is the actor for this journey map?"

Offer options:

1. Primary persona — main target customer
2. Secondary persona — different user segment
3. High-churn persona — segment with highest churn
4. Newly discovered persona — emerging segment from recent research

Question 2: Define Scenario + Goal

"What's the scenario and goal — what is the actor trying to accomplish?"

Common scenarios:

1. First-time use — new user onboarding, discovery to activation
2. Core workflow — recurring task done regularly
3. Problem resolution — user encounters issue, seeks help
4. Upgrade/expansion — free user considering paid, or expanding usage

Question 3: Identify Journey Phases

Generate 4-6 journey phases based on the scenario. Present to user and ask: "Do these phases capture the full journey? Add, remove, or rename?"

Example (First-time use):

1. Discover → 2. Evaluate → 3. Try → 4. Activate → 5. Use → 6. Expand

Question 4: Map Actions, Thoughts, Emotions

For each phase, generate 3-5 actions, thoughts, and emotions. Show full map, then ask: "Does this capture the customer experience accurately?"

Format per phase:

Phase [N]: [Name]

Actions:
- [Action 1]
- [Action 2]

Thoughts:
- "[Quote 1]"
- "[Quote 2]"

Emotions:
- [Emotion 1] 😊/😐/😞
- [Emotion 2]

Pain Points:
- [Pain point 1]

Question 5: Identify Opportunities

Generate 5-7 opportunities ranked by impact (HIGH/MEDIUM/LOW). Ask: "Do these align with your priorities? Which should we focus on first?"

Format per opportunity:

## [N]. [Opportunity Name] (Phase: [X])
**Pain Point:** [Description]
**Evidence:** [Data/research]
**Opportunity:** [Proposed improvement]
**Impact:** HIGH/MEDIUM/LOW — [Rationale]

Output: Full Journey Map

# Customer Journey Map: [Scenario]

**Actor:** [Persona]
**Scenario:** [Context]
**Goal:** [What actor is trying to accomplish]

## Journey Phases
[Phase 1] → [Phase 2] → [Phase 3] → [Phase 4] → [Phase 5]

## Full Journey Map
### Phase 1: [Name]
**Actions:** ...
**Thoughts:** ...
**Emotions:** ...
**Pain Points:** ...

[repeat for all phases]

## Opportunities (Prioritised)
[ranked list]

## Next Steps
1. Validate opportunities with customer interviews
2. Prioritise using impact/effort assessment
3. Frame top opportunities as problem statements (use `pm-problem-statement`)

Common Pitfalls

• Mapping internal process: Journey phases should reflect customer POV, not sales stages
• No emotions or pain points: Missing the point — emotions show where experience breaks
• Too many personas in one map: One map per persona
• Opportunities not prioritised: Rank by impact so team knows where to start
• Map created in isolation: Facilitate with cross-functional team (PM, design, engineering, support)

Related Skills

• pm-proto-persona — Defines the actor
• pm-problem-statement — Converts opportunities into problem statements