DESIGN PROFESSIONALS: AN ONLINE WHITEBOARDING HANDBOOK INVISION

1
 INTRODUCTION

Journey maps are

commonly used in
the planning process
of a product,
for viewing business operations from a customer’s
POV, and to empower a better digital experience.
A journey map helps organizations develop a deeper
understanding of the paths prospect and current
customer personas take to get to a desired end goal.
INVISION

A journey map can come in many forms, but

the general idea stays the same — visualize an
experience within your design, product, or process
FLOWCHARTING: AN ESSENTIAL FIELD GUIDE

from a user perspective to better understand

their interactions with your company and uncover
opportunities for improvement.

2
 In this guide, we will explore:

• What is a journey map and why is it important?

• How can you use journey mapping within your

team?

• Are there different types of journey maps?

• How do you create a successful journey map?

INVISION
FLOWCHARTING: AN ESSENTIAL FIELD GUIDE

Let’s get
started.
3
 What are
journey maps?
You’ve probably heard the overused Ralph Waldo Emerson quote,
“it’s about the journey, not the destination.” In the case of journey
mapping, it’s a little bit of both — there should be equal attention
paid to the entire path that current customers or potential buyers
take to the desired end goal. In practice, a journey map is a
diagram that uses customer data, interactions, and real users to
help you make the most impactful user experience possible.

Why do journey maps matter?

So, why is journey mapping important to your planning

INVISION

processes? For instance, when designing or creating products

that are both useful and memorable, there is nothing that’s more
paramount than cultivating a user-centric approach to your
FLOWCHARTING: AN ESSENTIAL FIELD GUIDE

work. You can design just for the sake of aesthetics, but in order
for the design to be successfully used there needs to be an
understanding of the real needs and actual experience of an end
user. This is where journey mapping comes in.

4
How do journey maps take shape?

Visually, a journey map is a diagram that displays a process that a

user goes through in a sequential timeline. It can include images
or mockups of each process a user has to ‘journey’ through, with
arrows indicating the order of each step. Typically, a journey map
focuses on showing the following:

• How users discover your product

• Their first experience with your product
• How they move through your product
• Their interactions throughout the experience
• Do your users have a meaningful journey while make it to your
desired end goal

Additionally, the map can include insights and notes from your
team about each step in the process.

5
How do you
journey map
successfully
with your team?
Journey maps are frequently used by many teams, including:

• User experience research teams to determine customer

experiences within a product
• Digital product designers to understand user interactions and
to improve or make changes to their design
• Marketing teams to learn more about how their audience
moves through their site on the path to purchase

To construct a successful journey map with your team, there are

key components that give the map value, including establishing
an end goal. An end goal gives you a reason to create the map.
Before you even start building a journey map, ask yourself key
questions to identify your goal. Do you want someone to reach a
certain page in your product? Or maybe sign up for a free offer?
Define the end goal of the journey map to produce a successful
diagram of a user’s experience in reaching that end goal.

6
A journey map should also give you a tangible starting point. A
key component to a journey map is to use real users and their
data to create journey maps that are realistic to the user’s POV.
Employ user research to map a user’s real journey and the ideal
end goal. Real journeys lead to real feedback. This feedback in
turn creates meaningful changes and insights for a better journey.

Another key component is ensuring that all colleagues

have visibility of the journey map. We recommend a digital
collaboration platform. This gives your team the ability to identify
inconsistencies and pain points within a typical user journey.
Shared visibility also secures common ground where everyone
from individual teams to leadership-level stakeholders can
translate and discuss the journey map with ease.

7
 Dos and Don’ts of
Journey Maps
So what should and shouldn’t be included in a journey map? Well,
there are plenty of dos and don’ts that help you create the best
journey map possible.

Dos
• Utilize user research to compile data needed for a better idea
of a user’s journey
• Focus on audience’s issues they encounter and how to
solve those issues within their journey for a more seamless
experience
• Establish your end goal because one is needed to understand
what you’re journey mapping for
• Make your journey map visible so everyone working on it can
share input, make updates, and ask questions

Don’ts
• Don’t wait to bring in key cross-functional stakeholders. Invite
INVISION

them into the process early in order to ensure alignment every

step of the way.
• Don’t forget about all users. This is a user-centric journey so
FLOWCHARTING: AN ESSENTIAL FIELD GUIDE

don’t forget to map for both internal and external users.

• Don’t get too focused on one user’s feedback on their journey.
It’s about the group of users or persona, not one specific user
with negative feedback.
• Try not to distort your audience by using inaccurate data
or none at all. Using real users’ journeys to receive critical
feedback and insights is a must.

8
 One useful
journey map
to always know
One frequently used journey map is a customer journey map.
Commonly referred to as a CJM, they ensure the solutions your
team ideates, prototypes, and tests will be much more informed—
and they’ll ultimately save you from costly redos or major errors.
INVISION
FLOWCHARTING: AN ESSENTIAL FIELD GUIDE

9
 Customer journey maps emphasize user needs in the design
process from beginning to end. They demonstrate:

• A company’s goals
• How they’re not meeting the user’s needs and the
solutions for those needs
• Help clearly identifying the user’s experience from start to
end

They place real user data (through personas) in front of team

members, decision-makers, and key stakeholders. In turn, this
generates one essential element to good user experiences and
that is empathy.

A customer journey map has five key steps in pinpointing a user’s

journey to ease their path to an end goal for a more successful
product, service, or experience.
INVISION
FLOWCHARTING: AN ESSENTIAL FIELD GUIDE

10
 Step 1: Define the user
Start with data. You need to understand and empathize with your
users before the process even begins. This analysis should help
you create the ideal user persona (aka who the customer journey
map is focused on).

Step 2: What is the problem?

Define the key problems users are experiencing along their
journey. This should be a shared goal, so be sure to collaborate
with your team on a collective vision.

Step 3: The design process

Narrow down your team’s ideas to create a user-centric solution
and/or design to your established problem you are solving for.

Step 4: Prototype your design

Whether creating a low-fidelity or high-fidelity prototype, keep
your CJM handy. It will be your reference to ensure you’re creating
a user-centric solution.
INVISION

Step 5: Testing
Your CJM should be a reference to conduct your prototype
testing. Testing shows the improved journey in comparison to
FLOWCHARTING: AN ESSENTIAL FIELD GUIDE

where or what you started with.

Take a look at how American Express makes seamless,

personalized digital experiences with customer journey mapping.

11
 How to
Journey Map Here is how to
make your very
own journey map.
INVISION
FLOWCHARTING: AN ESSENTIAL FIELD GUIDE

Step 1: Begin with your goal.

What is your end goal? Establish what you want to get out of
this journey.

12
 Step 2: Create your user persona.
You should create a proto-persona, ideal target users and/or the
audience of a product based on the assumptions of stakeholders,
of whomever you currently consider your primary user. This can
be done by leveraging user research to better understand what
type of user is being targeted in your journey map. Take into
account internal, external, and any other users you can think of to
create the ideal persona.

When building your ideal persona, make sure you do not neglect
the user’s needs and problems. Once you formulate the user
persona, then you can get started on building out your journey
map.

Step 3: Create your map.

Your map should be heavily user-focused while still being
considerate of your company’s goals and needs. When creating
your map, keep your design challenge and proto-persona in clear
eyesight—you should be checking in with your team on both
references as you lay your map out.
INVISION

Now you can either create your map from scratch or use a digital
platform that already has templates for journey mapping. Either
FLOWCHARTING: AN ESSENTIAL FIELD GUIDE

way, the map should visualize each step in your customer’s

experience (see below). This is a great time to use graphics or
images to see what step the user is on and connect the steps in
order by using arrows. See below for an example.

13
 Step 4: Gain insights.
For each step in your journey map, you will gather qualitative and
quantitative insights. For example, you could find usage data for a
certain page your user visits that might be useful knowledge. You
should record any valuable data within your journey map to better
understand your audience’s data and see patterns.

Step 5: Follow up with your team.

Did you draw any questions, ideas, or conclusions from your
customer journey map? Write them down and share with your
team to create a conversation. Perhaps you have the answer to
some questions or a solution to a problem? This would be the
step to discuss those valid points with your team.
INVISION

Now enough talk about journey maps, get started making them!
FLOWCHARTING: AN ESSENTIAL FIELD GUIDE

14
 Still a little stuck?
Lucky for you, the

Appendix:
appendix is here to help.

How to journey
map in Freehand
To create a customer journey map in Freehand:

Open your Freehand document.

Click the add-ons menu (•••) and select Customer Journey Map.

Scroll through the free template and decide what components to

use, or use the example to get started.

Click and drag components within the map together. To resize

a component, click and drag the handles to the desired size.
You can edit an object as needed. To edit text, double-click the
INVISION

component and enter your text.

Step 1: Log onto Freehand or sign up for Freehand to access

FLOWCHARTING: AN ESSENTIAL FIELD GUIDE

flowchart templates

The easiest way to start your journey map is to sign up for

Freehand or log into your account.

15
 Step 2: Create your workspace with Freehand

Once you are logged into Freehand, navigate to the upper right
hand corner of the page where you can click the pink Create
button and choose View All Templates.

From there, InVision Freehand has access to hundreds of

templates. For a more general customer journey map, we
recommend trying the Customer Journey Template. From there
you can edit and manipulate the components and elements of the
template.
INVISION
FLOWCHARTING: AN ESSENTIAL FIELD GUIDE

Step 3: Create your map

You can also opt to forego the template and create your own
journey chart with Freehand. If you prefer more creative liberty
and love to start from scratch, check out the steps below.

16
 • In your Freehand workspace, click the rectangle shape tool
and select the shape you desire. Click anywhere on the shape
to drag it to where you want it, enlarge it, etc.

• Double click on the shape to add text and type away your
user’s step-by-step journey within the rectangle (just click
outside the shape when you’re done)

• Add another rectangle shape below your map when done with
mapping out your user’s journey to make notes about certain
steps within the journey. These notes can be insights or other
important information.

• If you are having trouble creating a journey map from scratch,

feel free to explore more on journey maps here.
INVISION
FLOWCHARTING: AN ESSENTIAL FIELD GUIDE

Step 4: Collaborate with your team

After you have created your journey map with important notes, it
is time to collaborate with your team on any problems, questions,
etc. they may have.

17
FLOWCHARTING: AN ESSENTIAL FIELD GUIDE INVISION

now
in Freehand
Journey Map

18
Freehand Templates
Browse all templates

Ice breakers Brainstorming

Template Template
Preview template Preview template

Marketing
Crazy 8’s Strategy
Template Template
Preview template Preview template

Product
Planning Design Sprint
Template Template
Preview Template Preview template

Customer
Journey Map Flowchart
Template Template
Preview template Preview template