Discover Journey Map

Overview

A journey map is a synthesis artifact, not a brainstorm. Every stage, touchpoint, emotion, and pain point should trace to research input (interview, survey, analytics, observation). Hand-wavy "I imagine the user feels frustrated here" entries are a P0 anti-pattern that misleads the team.

If the user provides research signal, ground the map in that signal. If they provide hypotheses, label entries as hypothetical and recommend validation research.

When to Use

• Use when you need to produce a customer journey map covering stages, touchpoints, emotional curve, pain points, moments of truth, and opportunity annotations.
• Output is a markdown artifact that may include mermaid timeline / flowchart visualization.
• Supports both linear journey (start to end) and cyclical journey (recurring engagement).
• Composes with utility-mermaid-diagrams for visual output.

Prerequisites

Required inputs:

• Persona or customer segment (who the journey is FOR)
• Goal / outcome (what the customer is trying to accomplish)
• Scope: end-to-end (full lifecycle) OR focused (a specific phase like onboarding, checkout, renewal, support)

Optional but improves quality:

• Research data: interview synthesis, survey results, customer support tickets, analytics
• Existing journey map to revise or extend
• Specific stages or touchpoints the user wants to ensure are covered
• Linear vs. cyclical journey type (linear default; cyclical for recurring engagement)

Procedure

1. Load references: Read ~\agent-skills\library\discover-journey-map\references\TEMPLATE.md to structure the output. Read ~\agent-skills\library\discover-journey-map\references\EXAMPLE.md if you need a complete worked example.

2. Validate inputs: Ensure persona, goal, and scope are provided. If missing, execute the refusal protocol (see Pitfalls).

3. Executive summary: Produce a 3-5 sentence summary of who the journey is FOR, what they're trying to accomplish, where the biggest pain points and opportunities are, and the most important moment of truth.

4. Persona / segment: Write a 1-paragraph summary of the customer. Reference an existing persona if one exists (foundation-persona); summarize key attributes if not.

5. Journey scope: State explicitly what is included and what is excluded.

6. Stages: Define 3-7 named stages. Use customer-language verb forms ("Discovers", "Considers", "Tries", "Decides", "Uses", "Renews"). For each stage, include:

   • Customer goal at this stage
   • Duration estimate (minutes, days, weeks)
   • Trigger that moves them into this stage
   • Exit criterion that moves them out

7. Touchpoints: For each stage, list the touchpoints in a table:

   Stage	Touchpoint	Channel	What happens
   Discovers	Search result	Search engine	Sees competitor option
   Discovers	Landing page	Web	Lands on product page

8. Emotional curve: For each stage, identify what the customer feels using specific emotional labels (frustration, hope, surprise, anxiety, satisfaction) NOT generic ones (happy / sad). Format as a table:

   Stage	Dominant emotion	Confidence (high / medium / low based on research evidence)	Source
   Discovers	Curiosity, mild skepticism	Medium	12 user interviews; 3 mentioned skepticism explicitly

   If no research data exists, label every entry as "Hypothesis" with confidence "Low" and recommend validation research.

9. Pain points and moments of truth: Identify pain points (friction, confusion, blockers) and moments of truth (critical moments where customer perception is formed, limited to 3-5 that determine continue-vs-abandon). Format as a table:

   Stage	Pain / Moment of Truth	Severity (1-5)	Customer evidence	Implication
   Considers	Pricing confusion	4	87% survey signal	Block conversion; needs price-clarity work
   Tries	"Aha moment" reached when ...	Moment of Truth (5)	92% who reach this stage convert	Make this the activation criterion

10. Opportunities: Annotate 1-3 opportunities per stage where the product can intervene to reduce pain or amplify a moment of truth. Format as a table:

    Stage	Opportunity	What product change addresses it	Effort estimate (rough)
    Considers	Reduce pricing confusion	Add comparison table on landing page	Small

11. Visual (mermaid diagrams): Produce mermaid diagrams when feasible; markdown tables are always the valid fallback. Use utility-mermaid-diagrams for rendering guidance.

    • Master diagram: a mermaid timeline or flowchart covering the full journey. Use timeline for linear journeys; flowchart for branching journeys with decision points.
    • Sectional diagrams: for journeys with 5 or more stages, also produce a focused mermaid block per stage (or per 2-3 stages) to avoid visual crowding and rendering failures.
    • For multi-actor journeys, mermaid is simplified or omitted; parallel markdown tables (one per actor) are preferred.

    Example master diagram:

    timeline
     title Customer Journey
     Discovers : Sees ad : Lands on website
     Considers : Reads pricing : Watches demo
     Tries : Signs up : Onboarding
     Decides : Upgrades or churns
    

12. Research gaps: Explicitly state what the map is NOT addressing because data is unavailable, and what follow-up research would close the most important gaps.

Pitfalls

• No persona or scope: Refuse to produce a journey map. "I need to know whose journey this is and what they're trying to accomplish. Provide a persona (or persona summary) and the goal."
• Fabricate emotional data without research: If user asks "what does the customer feel here?" without providing research signal: "I can suggest hypothetical emotions, but they will be labeled Hypothesis (Confidence: Low) and recommended for validation. Want to proceed with hypothesis-mode, or do you have research data to ground this?"
• Service blueprint or architecture diagram request: This skill covers user-experience artifacts only. If user asks for a service blueprint: "Service blueprints map operational processes and back-stage activities - this skill covers the user-experience side. For a service blueprint, use a diagramming tool directly. Want to continue with a user journey map instead?"
• Excessive scope: End-to-end journey for a long-lifecycle product (e.g., 5 years of B2B SaaS engagement) is too coarse. Refuse: "End-to-end over 5 years is too coarse. Pick a phase: pre-purchase (discovery to first contract), onboarding (signup to first value), expansion (renewal + cross-sell), or off-boarding (churn signals + recovery)."
• Single touchpoint as the whole journey: If user provides only one touchpoint (e.g., "checkout"): "A single touchpoint isn't a journey. Either expand to the surrounding stages (e.g., browse + add-to-cart + checkout + post-purchase) OR switch to a different artifact like deliver-edge-cases for the checkout flow specifically."
• Multi-actor complexity: Multi-actor journeys are advanced and complex to maintain. Use parallel markdown tables (one per actor) with shared touchpoints annotated; include a complexity warning noting that multi-actor journeys are harder to validate and research depth should prioritize the primary actor.

Verification

Before finalizing, verify the following checklist:

• Persona and scope are stated explicitly.
• 3-7 named stages, each with goal, duration, trigger, exit criterion.
• Every emotional-curve entry carries a confidence label and a source (or is marked Hypothesis).
• Moments of truth are limited to the 3-5 that decide continue-vs-abandon, not every interaction.
• Each opportunity ties to a specific pain point or moment of truth.
• Mermaid diagram is present when feasible, with markdown tables as fallback.
• Research gaps are stated explicitly.

Related skills

• Inputs: foundation-persona (the WHO), discover-interview-synthesis (qualitative signal), measure-survey-analysis (quantitative signal)
• Outputs feed into: define-problem-statement, define-hypothesis, define-opportunity-tree
• Visualization: utility-mermaid-diagrams (timeline or flowchart)
• Adversarial review: /pm-critic (challenges where emotions and moments of truth lack research evidence)
• Companion command: commands/journey-map.md