nandanosql Purpose
Map the complete customer experience across all touchpoints — from first awareness through active use and advocacy. Identifies pain points, emotional states, and opportunities at every stage so you can prioritize improvements where they matter most.
This is not a feature flow or wireframe. It's a holistic view of the customer's experience with your product and brand.
Key Concepts
Journey Map Structure (NNGroup Framework)
A journey map is a table with stages as columns and lens rows:
| Lens | What It Captures |
|---|---|
| Stage | Phase of the customer lifecycle |
| Actions | What the user does at each stage |
| Touchpoints | Where interaction happens (channels, interfaces) |
| Thoughts | What the user is thinking |
| Emotions | How the user feels (plotted as high/low) |
| Pain Points | Frustrations and barriers |
| Opportunities | Where you can improve the experience |
Standard Stages
- Awareness — How they discover you exist
- Consideration — How they evaluate you vs. alternatives
- Acquisition — How they sign up / buy
- Onboarding — How they get started
- Usage — How they use the product day-to-day
- Retention — What keeps them (or doesn't)
- Advocacy — How they recommend you (or churn)
When to Use This
- Before redesigning a flow or experience
- When churn or drop-offs are unexplained
- To align cross-functional teams on the user experience
- Before writing PRDs (to see the big picture)
When NOT to Use This
- For detailed UI flows (use wireframes or user flows)
- When you have no customer data at all (do discovery first)
- For technical system architecture (use system diagrams)
Application
Step 1: Define Scope and Persona
**Journey for:** [Persona name from proto-persona]
**Scope:** [Start point → End point of the journey]
**Goal:** [What are we trying to learn from this map?]
**Data sources:** [Analytics, interviews, support data, etc.]
Step 2: Map Each Stage
For each stage, fill in:
## Stage: [Stage Name]
**User Goal:** [What they're trying to accomplish]
**Actions:**
1. [Action 1]
2. [Action 2]
3. [Action 3]
**Touchpoints:** [Website, email, app, sales call, support, etc.]
**Thoughts:** "[What they're thinking in their own words]"
**Emotion:** [😊 Positive / 😐 Neutral / 😤 Frustrated / 😡 Angry]
**Pain Points:**
- [Pain 1 — with severity: High/Med/Low]
- [Pain 2]
**Opportunities:**
- [How we could improve this stage]
Step 3: Plot the Emotional Arc
**Emotional Journey:**
😊 High ──┐ ┌──────┐
│ │ │
😐 Mid ───┤ ─── ┐ │ └── ┐
│ │ │ │
😤 Low ───┘ └───┘ └──
Stage: Aware Consider Acquire Onboard Use Retain Advocate
Identify the lowest emotional points — these are your highest-priority improvement areas.
Step 4: Prioritize Opportunities
| Opportunity | Stage | Impact | Effort | Priority |
|-------------|-------|--------|--------|----------|
| [Opp 1] | [Stage] | [H/M/L] | [H/M/L] | [1-5] |
| [Opp 2] | [Stage] | [H/M/L] | [H/M/L] | [1-5] |
Examples
✅ Good Example
## Stage: Onboarding
**User Goal:** Set up my account and see first results
**Actions:**
1. Creates account (email/Google SSO)
2. Invited to connect data source
3. Waits for data sync
4. Views first dashboard (if they get here)
**Touchpoints:** Web app, setup wizard, email confirmations
**Thoughts:** "This better be worth it... Where are my credentials?
Why is this taking so long? I'll come back later..."
**Emotion:** 😤 Frustrated (drops from 😊 after sign-up excitement)
**Pain Points:**
- Data source connection requires admin credentials user doesn't have (High)
- Sync takes 15+ minutes with no progress indicator (Med)
- First dashboard is empty template, no sample data (Med)
**Opportunities:**
- Offer sandbox data for immediate first-value experience
- Add credential-free connection option (OAuth)
- Show progress bar during sync with estimated time
❌ Bad Example
## Onboarding
- Users sign up and set up their account
- It could be better
Why this fails: No actions, no emotions, no pain points, no evidence, no actionable insights.
Quality Rubric
Score each dimension 0-2. Target: 8+ out of 10.
| Dimension | 0 (Missing) | 1 (Partial) | 2 (Excellent) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Completeness | 1-2 stages | Most stages covered | All lifecycle stages |
| Evidence | All assumed | Mix of data + assumption | Data-backed per stage |
| Emotions | Not tracked | General sentiment | Per-stage with quotes |
| Pain Points | Not identified | Listed without severity | Specific + severity + frequency |
| Opportunities | None listed | Generic improvements | Actionable with impact estimates |
Common Pitfalls
Pitfall 1: Inside-Out Mapping
Symptom: Journey stages map to your internal process (Marketing → Sales → Onboarding), not the customer's experience.
Fix: Write labels from the customer's perspective: "Discovering options," "Trying it out," "Getting started."
Pitfall 2: Happy Path Only
Symptom: Journey shows the ideal flow. No drop-offs, no confusion, no negative emotions.
Fix: Include failure paths. The most valuable insights come from where things go wrong.
Pitfall 3: No Data, All Assumptions
Symptom: Every cell is filled with what the team thinks happens.
Fix: Mark assumption vs. evidence. Then prioritize research to validate the biggest assumptions.
References
Related Skills
skills/discovery/proto-persona/SKILL.md— Define who the journey is forskills/discovery/problem-statement/SKILL.md— Pain points become problem statementsskills/discovery/discovery-interview-prep/SKILL.md— Validate the journey with users
External Frameworks
- NNGroup Journey Mapping Guide — Nielsen Norman Group
- Service Design Blueprint — Bitner et al.
Skill type: Component Domain: Discovery & Research Prerequisites: proto-persona