Illustrating the user experience with customer journey maps

Understanding the full scope of a customer's interaction with a product is crucial for building successful products, which can be achieved through customer journey maps. These maps are flowcharts that illustrate the various phases a customer experiences before, during, and after their interaction with a product, offering different insights for product designers, UX designers, marketers, and more. The article discusses real-life examples from companies like Spotify, TurboTax, ElderCare, and Rail Europe, highlighting how each uses journey maps to improve customer experiences and meet specific business objectives. For instance, Spotify's map focuses on identifying stages where users might share music, while ElderCare categorizes and specifies the timeframe for each stage. Despite differences in design and focus, these maps help identify customer touchpoints, emotions, and opportunities for improvement, ensuring that the product experience is continuously optimized based on customer needs and behaviors.