Kalbach Experience Mapping

Mapping Experiences

Author: James Kalbach | Pages: ~398 | Chapters: 13 | Generated: 2026-08-18

How to Use This Skill

• Without arguments — load Core Frameworks below for reference.
• With a topic — ask about service blueprints, jobs to be done, alignment workshop, or another indexed topic; I find and read the relevant chapter.
• With a chapter — ask for ch09; I load that specific chapter file.
• For a blank map to fill in — ask for a "template" (customer journey map, service blueprint, experience map, mental model diagram, spatial map, or the generic alignment diagram); I load templates.md and hand you the structure, ready to copy.
• For a fast decision — ask "which diagram type" or "when should I use X"; I check cheatsheet.md first — it's built for exactly that.
• Browse — ask "what chapters do you have?" for the full index below.

When you ask about a topic not covered in Core Frameworks, I will read the relevant chapter file before answering.

Core Frameworks & Mental Models

Alignment diagrams are the book's umbrella concept: any diagram that places an individual's experience and an organization's offering side by side, joined at an explicit interaction layer (touchpoints / line of interaction / center line / midpoint). The goal is shared understanding across silos, not a prescriptive answer. Six archetypes recur — Alignment Diagram (generic), Customer Journey Map, Experience Map, Service Blueprint, Mental Model Diagram, Spatial Map/Ecosystem Model — see cheatsheet.md §1 for the full trade-off table on which to pick, and templates.md for a blank, fillable structure of each.

The Seven Principles of Alignment (Ch1) — audit any diagram against these before treating it as done: Holism (frames the person's broader context, not one product), Multiplicity (layers several facets per side, not one action trace), Interaction (an explicit touchpoint layer joins both halves), Visualization (one graphical overview a linearized report can't match), Self Evidence (someone can orient with no verbal explanation), Relevance (speaks to a real organizational challenge), Validity (grounded in direct research contact, not assumption).

The Four-Phase Process (Ch4–7) is the book's core methodology — use it end to end for any mapping project:

1. Initiate — frame before researching: sketch a Customer Value Chain, decide (proto-)personas, pick a diagram type, scope the level of formality to project size × group size. Failure mode: fixing formality regardless of scope, or picking a type by label instead of story shape.
2. Investigate — ground in evidence in this order: existing data → internal interviews → field research. Use the Critical Incident Technique to surface concrete stories, not opinions; run findings through Evidence → Interpretations → Experience Implications before drafting. Failure mode: treating internal-stakeholder claims as fact.
3. Illustrate — compile findings into one low-noise diagram via Simplify, Amplify, Clarify, Unify. Default layout is a table or timeline; deviate only if the shape itself carries the message. Failure mode: dumping all research in wholesale (chartjunk).
4. Align — run an Alignment Workshop (Empathize → Envision → Evaluate → Plan Experiments) to turn the diagram into tested decisions: score ideas on a Feasibility-vs-Value Matrix, write hypothesis statements, assign owners. Failure mode: presenting the diagram instead of opening it up for work.

Jobs To Be Done (Ch2, Ch3, Ch11): the functional, emotional, and social outcome a person seeks by "hiring" a solution — scope research and diagrams around the job, not the product category. Pair with Opportunity Score (importance + satisfaction gap) to rank unmet jobs. Moments of Truth / Zero Moment of Truth (Ch2, Ch10): emotionally charged touchpoints where investment meets a desired outcome — ZMOT is the pre-purchase research phase before the classic First Moment of Truth.

Mental Model Diagrams (Ch12, Indi Young's technique): comb research transcripts into Boxes (one thinking process each, written as "[I] + verb + noun + qualifiers"), cluster into Towers by affinity, group Towers into Mental Spaces — then map organizational Support beneath each Tower. Hierarchical, not chronological; don't force a timeline onto it.

Service Blueprints (Ch9): separate onstage (frontstage, visible to customer) from backstage actions along a Line of Visibility; add Expressive Service Blueprinting (an emotion layer) only when the standard blueprint would flatten the emotional driver — not by default.

Current-state vs. future-state mapping (Ch8): band a simple future vision onto the current-state diagram; build a separate future-state map only if the vision is genuinely complex. Develop empathy before applying it — solutions built without first gaining empathy miss real needs, even when well-intentioned.

Strategy connection (Ch3): strategy myopia — mistaking a product/technology category for the human need it serves (Kodak's failure) — is the anti-pattern experience diagrams are positioned to correct. Business Model Canvas and Value Proposition Canvas (Osterwalder) are adjacent strategic tools the book references but doesn't own; use them alongside, not instead of, an alignment diagram.

For the full decision table, tells & smells, and principle checklist: cheatsheet.md. For every named technique with when-to-use/how/trade-offs: patterns.md.

Chapter Index

Topic Index

• Alignment Diagram (generic) → ch01
• Alignment Workshop → ch07
• Archetypes (6 diagram types) → ch01
• Blue Ocean Strategy / Strategy Canvas → ch03
• Business Model Canvas / Value Proposition Canvas → ch03
• Consumer Insight Maps → ch13
• Critical Incident Technique → ch05
• Current-State / Future-State Maps → ch04, ch08
• Customer Journey Map → ch01, ch10
• Customer Value Chain → ch04
• Ecosystem Model / Gigamap → ch13
• Experience Map → ch01, ch11
• Expressive Service Blueprinting → ch09
• Feasibility-vs-Value Matrix → ch07
• Four-Phase Process (Initiate/Investigate/Illustrate/Align) → ch04, ch05, ch06, ch07
• Jobs To Be Done → ch02, ch03, ch11
• Job Map → ch11
• Level of Formality → ch04
• Line of Visibility / Frontstage-Backstage → ch09
• Mental Model Diagram → ch01, ch12
• Moments of Truth / Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) → ch02, ch10
• Opportunity Score → ch02
• Proto-Persona → ch04
• Seven Principles of Alignment → ch01
• Service Blueprint → ch01, ch09
• Simplify / Amplify / Clarify / Unify → ch06
• Spatial Map → ch01, ch13
• Strategy Myopia → ch03
• Transitional Volatility → ch02
• Workshop Facilitation → ch07

Supporting Files

• glossary.md — 74 key terms with definitions
• patterns.md — 28 named techniques: when to use, how, trade-offs
• cheatsheet.md — diagram-type trade-off table, decision rules, tells & smells, 4-phase process, principle checklist
• templates.md — blank, fillable structure for each of the 6 diagram archetypes, with fill-in steps tied to the 4-phase process

Scope & Limits

This skill covers the book content only, synthesized and reorganized — not the verbatim text. templates.md reconstructs each archetype's rows/lanes from the book's own descriptions; it does not reproduce any of the book's real-company example diagrams. For hands-on facilitation in your own organization, combine with project-specific context. For topics beyond this book (e.g. Business Model Canvas mechanics in full), check a dedicated skill or ask directly.