# Journey Mapping > [discovery-phase pack · synthesis] Maps the end-to-end journey for a named persona — stages, actions, touchpoints, pain points, emotion line, and opportunity moments. Distinguishes current-state from future-state. Every pain point cites evidence; opportunities link back to opportunity-tree. Produces journey-map.md. Reads personas.md, themes.md, interview-notes/. - Skill: `stanislavnianko/journey-mapping` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add stanislavnianko/journey-mapping` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/stanislavnianko/journey-mapping/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Product & Planning - Author: stanislavnianko (https://skillmd.com/u/stanislavnianko) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/stanislavnianko/journey-mapping --- # Journey Mapping > Part of the **discovery-phase** skill pack · `synthesis` group · reads `personas.md` (run `personas` first if missing) and `themes.md` (from `insight-synthesis`). Turns a persona's lived experience into a stage-by-stage map that surfaces where pain concentrates and where opportunity moments hide. Each pain point is evidence-anchored; each opportunity moment links back to the `opportunity-tree.md` so journey work doesn't drift from prioritized outcomes. ## Step 1 — Read context + upstream artifacts Read `discovery-context.md`, `personas.md`, `themes.md`. If `personas.md` is missing, recommend running `personas` first — journeys without a named persona collapse to "the average user" and become useless. Don't block: the BA may proceed with `[ASSUMED-persona]` for a quick draft, but flag low confidence. If `interview-notes/` exists, scan for chronological narrative — interviews where users walk through "and then I did…" are gold for journey reconstruction. If only `support-data-analysis.md` is available, the journey will be partial (post-purchase / support phase only). ## Step 2 — Set scope Decide three things up-front; cram all three into one journey and the map becomes unreadable: 1. **Which persona** — pick exactly one. If you need journeys for two personas, run this skill twice. 2. **Which journey** — onboarding, repeat-purchase, support-resolution, evaluation, churn-recovery, etc. Name it precisely. 3. **Current-state or future-state** — current-state maps pain; future-state maps the proposed redesign. Default to current-state unless a feature-scoping decision depends on the future view. State all three at the top of the artifact. They're constraints — if mid-skill you find yourself blending personas, stop and re-scope. ## Step 3 — Stages (3-7) High-level phases the persona moves through. Examples by journey type: | Journey | Typical stages | |---|---| | Onboarding | Discover → Sign up → First use → Habit formation | | Repeat-purchase (B2C) | Trigger → Browse → Decide → Purchase → Receive → Use → Repurchase | | Support resolution | Hit problem → Self-serve attempt → Contact support → Wait → Resolve | | Enterprise evaluation | Awareness → Shortlist → Pilot → Internal sell → Procurement → Rollout | 3 stages = too coarse, 7+ = decompose further or split into two journeys. ## Step 4 — For each stage, fill the row | Column | What goes here | Evidence required? | |---|---|---| | **Stage** | Phase name | — | | **Actions** | What the persona literally does (verbs) | Light | | **Touchpoints** | Channels / tools / people involved | Light | | **Thinking / Goal** | What they're trying to accomplish in this stage | Strong | | **Pain points** | What's broken — friction, confusion, fail | **Required** — cite [I-N], [support-id], [SME-name] | | **Emotion (1-5)** | 1=frustrated, 3=neutral, 5=delighted | Strong | | **Opportunity moments** | Where the product could intervene | Link to `opportunity-tree.md` | If a row has no pain points but the persona is unhappy, the synthesis is wrong — either the emotion is overstated or you missed a pain. Loop back to evidence. ## Step 5 — Draw the emotion line A simple sparkline across stages: `2 → 1 → 1 → 3 → 4`. The dips identify where the product's intervention has the highest leverage. If the line is flat, either the journey is uniformly OK (rare — and your scope is probably wrong) or you didn't probe deep enough. ## Step 6 — Identify intervention moments (top 3) From the rows, pick the **top 3 opportunity moments** — places where a redesign would shift the emotion line most. Each must: - Be tied to a specific stage and pain point - Reference an opportunity in `opportunity-tree.md` (or flag as a new opportunity to add) - Note what evidence makes this stage high-leverage (e.g., "8 of 12 interviews mentioned drop-off here") These three moments become inputs to `feature-scoping` and `mvp-definition`. ## Step 7 — Pressure test (4 checks) | Test | Question | Fix | |---|---|---| | **Persona-fit** | Does each stage make sense for the named persona? Or did you slide into "average user"? | Re-anchor on the persona's role/context | | **Evidence per pain** | Every pain point has a citation? | Drop unsupported pains or escalate to "open question" | | **Emotion grounded** | Is the emotion score derived from a quote, not a guess? | Replace guesses with quotes or `[ASSUMED]` | | **Opportunity link** | Top-3 moments link to `opportunity-tree.md`? | Add to opportunity tree or revise — journeys that don't feed downstream are decoration | ## Step 8 — Write artifact Output: `./discovery/journey-map.md` — see `./template.md`. Append to `_log.md`: `[journey-mapping | YYYY-MM-DD] persona: