Why journey maps must drive action, not art

Do you ever wonder about the "so what?" of your journey maps...

To this day, I often see that journey mapping is treated as a "documentation" exercise.

Basically as a way to visualize our customers experiences. And while having that visual overview is useful, it's just the beginning.

As you probably know, the real challenge is turning that understanding into action that actually impacts your customers (and your business). Not a small challenge by any means.

That's why this episode of The Journey Management Playbook is fully dedicated to it.

We're already into episode six of the series, and if you haven't seen the previous ones, you can find the full playlist in the show notes.

So far, we've gone from defining a business challenge to using AI to generate and enrich insights. We’ve covered how to structure and simplify your journey to be more action-biased.

But all of that work is just a foundation.

The journey map we've created is a reflection of the current state, and the key question still remains: What do we do now?

In this episode, Tingting Lin from TheyDo and I finally answer that question. We dive into the crucial building blocks of opportunities and solutions, and you’ll see what is key to turning your journey maps from static documents into dynamic drivers of lasting business impact.

We also tackle a few common pitfalls to avoid like:

• Jumping to solutions before defining opportunities.
• Cheating with the opportunity statement.
• The tendency to over-document.
• And turning journey management into a separate workflow.

As you'll hear, this episode is again packed with practical advice to help you move beyond mapping to true journey management in the most effective way.

What are your biggest challenges in moving from insights to action? Leave a comment on YouTube or Spotify, or reach out on LinkedIn. We'd love to hear from you.

Enjoy and keep making a positive impact!

Be well,

~ Marc

---[1. LINKS 🔗 ] ---

👉 Playbook Slides - https://go.servicedesignshow.com/ofmtc

✅ Sign up for TheyDo - https://go.servicedesignshow.com/prcde

--- [ 2. GUIDE ] ---

01:00 Recap from previous episode

04:00 Core Problem with Static Journey Maps

06:00 Introducing the "Solutions" Building Block

10:00 Defining "Opportunities"

12:00 The triple diamond workflow

15:30 Real-world opportunity

16:00 Why we separate Opportunities & Solution

18:30 Where to look for the opportunity first

22:00 Off-boarding Problem as a Case Study

24:30 Connecting the Problem to the Solution Quickly

28:00 Distinguishing Between Problems and Opportunities

32:00 Pain Point to an Opportunity

36:30 Importance of Language in Naming Opportunities

38:00 Debate About Using AI in this Process

40:00 Who are we writing these opportunities for

45:00 Connecting Opportunities to Strategic Objectives

47:00 Summary of Opportunities

49:00 Transitioning to "Solution" Blocks

51:00 Example of a Concrete Solution

59:45 Practicality of Using Solution Types

1:02:00 Defining Statuses

1:06:00 Connecting Solutions to Opportunities

1:08:00 Final Summary

--- [ 3. FIND THE SHOW ON ] ---

• YouTube ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/journey-management-playbook-06-youtube
• Spotify ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/journey-management-playbook-06-spotify
• Apple ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/journey-management-playbook-06-apple
• Snipd ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/journey-management-playbook-06-snipd