# Customer Journey Maps > A Customer Journey Map (CJM) is a visualization of the complete story of a user's interaction with a product or service over time and across different channels. *Tags: ux, artifact, research, strategy, mid-level* --- > [!info] Quick Definition > A Customer Journey Map (CJM) is a visualization of the complete story of a user's interaction with a product or service over time and across different channels. It narrates the experience from the user's perspective, highlighting their actions, thoughts, feelings, and pain points at each stage. ## What are Customer Journey Maps? If [Personas](/en/artifacts/personas/) are a photo of your user, a Customer Journey Map is a movie about them. It doesn't focus on a single moment, but maps the entire experience of a user as they try to achieve a goal, from the moment they realize they have a need until they resolve it and beyond. A typical CJM is structured as a timeline and contains several layers of information: - **Journey Phases:** The main stages the user goes through (e.g., Discovery, Consideration, Purchase, Use, Support). - **User Actions:** What does the user do in each phase? - **Thoughts and Feelings:** What does the user think and feel? (e.g., "I'm confused," "This is exciting," "I'm frustrated"). This is often represented with an emotion line that rises and falls. - **Touchpoints:** Where does the user interact with the company? (e.g., website, app, email, physical store, social media). - **Pain Points:** What problems or frustrations do they encounter? - **Opportunities:** How could the company improve the experience at each pain point? ## Why are they important? - **They provide a holistic view:** They break down departmental silos (marketing, sales, product, support) and show the complete experience from the customer's perspective. - **They identify key moments:** They reveal the points of greatest frustration (where customers might abandon) and greatest delight (which can be amplified). - **They generate empathy at an organizational level:** They help the entire company understand and empathize with the real customer experience. - **They align the team around the user:** They serve as a single source of truth about the customer experience, helping to prioritize improvements that will have the greatest impact. ## How are they made? 1. **Choose a Persona and a scenario:** A CJM is created for a specific [[Personas]] and a concrete scenario. (e.g., "The journey of Ana, the student, to buy a new backpack online"). 2. **Define the journey phases:** Based on your research, define the logical stages the Persona goes through. They don't have to be the same for every business. 3. **Gather the information:** Use data from your research ([[User Interviews]], surveys, data analysis, etc.) to fill in the Persona's actions, thoughts, and feelings in each phase. 4. **Map the touchpoints:** Identify where and how the Persona interacts with your company at each step. 5. **Identify pain points and opportunities:** This is the most important outcome. Where does the Persona get frustrated? How could you solve that problem? Where could you exceed their expectations? 6. **Visualize the map:** Create a clear and visual diagram. Use an emotion line to show the highs and lows of the journey. Use real user quotes to bring the thoughts and feelings to life. 7. **Share it and use it:** A CJM stored in a folder is useless. Share it with the entire company and use it to guide strategic and design decisions. ## Mentor Tips - **Base your map on reality, not fiction:** The validity of a CJM depends on the research that supports it. If you make it up, it's just a pretty story with no strategic value. - **Don't do it alone:** Creating a CJM is an incredibly valuable team activity. Involve people from different departments to get a 360-degree view. - **Focus on emotion:** The line showing the user's feelings is often the most powerful part of the map. Visually highlight the lowest points; that's where the greatest improvement opportunities lie. - **Distinguish between current and future journeys:** Sometimes it's useful to create two maps: one showing the current experience with all its problems (Current State) and another visualizing the ideal experience you want to create (Future State). ## Resources and Tools - **Creation Tools:** - **[Miro](https://miro.com/):** Ideal for collaborative CJM creation with very comprehensive templates. - **[Smaply](https://www.smaply.com/):** A specialized tool for creating Personas and Journey Maps. - **[UXPressia](https://uxpressia.com/):** Another platform dedicated to customer experience visualization. - **Articles and Guides:** - **[Journey Mapping 101](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/journey-mapping-101/)** - Nielsen Norman Group - **[How to Create a Customer Journey Map](https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2015/01/all-about-customer-journey-mapping/)** - Smashing Magazine - **[The 5 Steps of a Successful Customer Journey Mapping Process](https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/the-5-steps-of-a-successful-customer-journey-mapping-process)** - Interaction Design Foundation --- Source: https://www.fernandoux.com/en/wiki/artifacts/customer-journey-maps/