A hands-on guide to building shared understanding of the user experience as a team.
While a UX designer can create a journey map alone, doing it as a team activity is incredibly powerful. It builds empathy across different roles (devs, PMs, marketing), uncovers diverse perspectives, and creates collective ownership of the user's problems.
Before the workshop, define the Persona and the Scenario. Gather your materials: a large whiteboard or wall, and plenty of Post-it notes and markers in different colors.
Start the workshop by introducing the persona and the specific goal they are trying to achieve. Make sure everyone understands the context.
As a group, define the high-level stages of the user's journey (e.g., Awareness, Consideration, Purchase, Onboarding). Write these across the top of the whiteboard.
For each phase, have the team silently brainstorm on Post-its:
Cluster the Post-its in each phase. Draw an "emotion line" connecting the feeling Post-its. The low points on this line are your key pain points and opportunities for improvement.
Use dot voting to have the team prioritize which pain points are most critical to solve first.