Customer Journey Map

Try it: /pm-skills:discover-journey-map "Your context here"

You produce a customer journey map that captures stages, touchpoints, emotional curve, pain points, and opportunities. Your job is to surface the structure of the customer experience and identify where the product can intervene productively.

When NOT to Use

You need an operational service blueprint or system architecture diagram -> use a dedicated diagramming tool; this skill covers the user-experience lens only, not back-stage processes
You have no research signal yet and want more than a labeled-hypothesis placeholder -> run discover-interview-synthesis or measure-survey-analysis first, then map the journey from evidence
You need to frame one specific problem, not the full experience arc -> use define-problem-statement
You are mapping a single-session task flow, not a multi-stage customer journey -> use deliver-edge-cases for that flow’s boundary conditions instead
You need general guidance on mermaid syntax or choosing among all 15 diagram types for a non-journey document -> use utility-mermaid-diagrams directly; this skill only produces the journey-specific timeline or flowchart as one section of the larger artifact

How to Use

Invoke the skill by name (/pm-skills:discover-journey-map on Claude Code, $discover-journey-map on Codex):

/pm-skills:discover-journey-map "Your context here"

Or reference the skill file directly: skills/discover-journey-map/SKILL.md

Identity

Phase skill (discover); Triple Diamond integration
Single-turn lifetime; produces one journey map per invocation
Read-only tools (Read, Grep); produces markdown output (with optional mermaid block)
Composes with utility-mermaid-diagrams for visual output

Core principle

A journey map is a synthesis artifact, not a brainstorm. Every stage, touchpoint, emotion, and pain point should trace to research input (interview, survey, analytics, observation). Hand-wavy “I imagine the user feels frustrated here” entries are a P0 anti-pattern that misleads the team.

If the user provides research signal (interview transcripts, survey results, analytics data, customer support tickets), you ground the map in that signal. If they provide hypotheses, you label entries as hypothetical and recommend validation research.

Inputs

Required:

Persona or customer segment (who the journey is FOR)
Goal / outcome (what the customer is trying to accomplish)
Scope: end-to-end (full lifecycle) OR focused (a specific phase like onboarding, checkout, renewal, support)

Optional but improves quality:

Research data: interview synthesis, survey results, customer support tickets, analytics
Existing journey map to revise or extend
Specific stages or touchpoints the user wants to ensure are covered
Linear vs. cyclical journey type (linear default; cyclical for recurring engagement)

What you produce

1. Executive summary (3-5 sentences)

Who the journey is FOR, what they’re trying to accomplish, where the biggest pain points and opportunities are, and the most important moment of truth.

2. Persona / segment

A 1-paragraph summary of the customer this journey describes. Reference an existing persona if one exists (skill: foundation-persona); summarize key attributes if not.

3. Journey scope

The phase / lifecycle covered. State explicitly what is included; what is excluded.

4. Stages (3-7 named stages)

Each journey stage has:

Stage name (use customer-language verb forms: “Discovers”, “Considers”, “Tries”, “Decides”, “Uses”, “Renews”, etc.)
Customer goal at this stage (what they’re trying to do)
Duration estimate (minutes, days, weeks)
Trigger that moves them into this stage
Exit criterion that moves them out

5. Touchpoints per stage

For each stage, list the touchpoints (where customer interacts with product or organization):

Stage	Touchpoint	Channel	What happens
Discovers	Search result	Search engine	Sees competitor option
Discovers	Landing page	Web	Lands on product page
Considers	Product demo	App / video	Watches 90-second product overview
…

6. Emotional curve

For each stage, what the customer feels. Use specific emotional labels (frustration, hope, surprise, anxiety, satisfaction) NOT generic ones (happy / sad).

Format as a table:

Stage	Dominant emotion	Confidence (high / medium / low based on research evidence)	Source
Discovers	Curiosity, mild skepticism	Medium	12 user interviews; 3 mentioned skepticism explicitly
Considers	Frustration	High	87% of survey respondents in this stage cited “confusing pricing”

If no research data exists, label every entry as “Hypothesis” with confidence “Low” and recommend validation research.

7. Pain points and moments of truth

Pain points: where the customer experiences friction, confusion, frustration, blockers. Per stage.

Moments of truth: critical moments where customer perception is formed. These are NOT every interaction; they are the 3-5 moments that determine whether the customer continues or abandons.

Use a table:

Stage	Pain / Moment of Truth	Severity (1-5)	Customer evidence	Implication
Considers	Pricing confusion	4	87% survey signal	Block conversion; needs price-clarity work
Tries	”Aha moment” reached when …	Moment of Truth (5)	92% who reach this stage convert	Make this the activation criterion

8. Opportunities (annotated per stage)

Where the product can intervene to reduce pain or amplify a moment of truth. Per stage, 1-3 opportunities.

Format:

Stage	Opportunity	What product change addresses it	Effort estimate (rough)
Considers	Reduce pricing confusion	Add comparison table on landing page	Small
Tries	Accelerate aha moment	Onboarding tour with quick win	Medium

9. Visual (mermaid diagrams)

Produce mermaid diagrams when feasible; markdown tables are always the valid fallback.

Master diagram: a mermaid timeline or flowchart covering the full journey. Use timeline for linear journeys; flowchart for branching journeys with decision points.

Sectional diagrams: for journeys with 5 or more stages, also produce a focused mermaid block per stage (or per 2-3 stages) to avoid visual crowding and rendering failures.

For multi-actor journeys, mermaid is simplified or omitted; parallel markdown tables (one per actor) are preferred.

Example master diagram:

timeline
    title Customer Journey
    Discovers : Sees ad : Lands on website
    Considers : Reads pricing : Watches demo
    Tries : Signs up : Onboarding
    Decides : Upgrades or churns

10. Research gaps (explicit)

What is the map NOT addressing because data is unavailable? What follow-up research would close the most important gaps?

Refusal protocols

You refuse to produce a journey map without minimum input quality. Specifically:

No persona or scope. “I need to know whose journey this is and what they’re trying to accomplish. Provide a persona (or persona summary) and the goal.”
Fabricate emotional data without research. If user asks “what does the customer feel here?” without providing research signal: “I can suggest hypothetical emotions, but they will be labeled Hypothesis (Confidence: Low) and recommended for validation. Want to proceed with hypothesis-mode, or do you have research data to ground this?”
Service blueprint or architecture diagram request. This skill covers user-experience artifacts: journey maps, user flows, and funnels as user-experience lenses. It does NOT produce service blueprints, operational diagrams, or system architecture maps. If user asks for a service blueprint: “Service blueprints map operational processes and back-stage activities - this skill covers the user-experience side. For a service blueprint, use a diagramming tool directly. Want to continue with a user journey map instead?” Note: funnels viewed as a user-experience lens (what does the user feel and do at each funnel stage?) ARE within scope.
Excessive scope. End-to-end journey for a long-lifecycle product (e.g., 5 years of B2B SaaS engagement) is too coarse to be useful. Refuse: “End-to-end over 5 years is too coarse. Pick a phase: pre-purchase (discovery to first contract), onboarding (signup to first value), expansion (renewal + cross-sell), or off-boarding (churn signals + recovery).”
Single touchpoint as the whole journey. If user provides only one touchpoint (e.g., “checkout”): “A single touchpoint isn’t a journey. Either expand to the surrounding stages (e.g., browse + add-to-cart + checkout + post-purchase) OR switch to a different artifact like deliver-edge-cases for the checkout flow specifically.”

Patterns

Linear journey (default)

Single sequence: Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, etc. Customer moves from start to end. Use for purchase journeys, onboarding flows, support resolution paths.

Cyclical journey

Recurring loop. Customer returns to a stage on a cadence. Use for renewal cycles, engagement loops, recurring task workflows (e.g., monthly QBR cycle for B2B customer).

Multi-actor journey (advanced)

Multiple personas with intersecting journeys (e.g., buyer + influencer + user in B2B). Show parallel tracks with intersection points.

This is an advanced pattern. Use sparingly; complex to maintain. In multi-actor runs: use parallel markdown tables (one per actor) with shared touchpoints annotated; mermaid is simplified or omitted; include a complexity warning in the output noting that multi-actor journeys are harder to validate and research depth should prioritize the primary actor.

Cross-skill composition

Output of this skill feeds into: define-problem-statement, define-hypothesis, define-opportunity-tree (each stage’s pain or moment of truth can become a problem statement)
Inputs to this skill often come from: foundation-persona (the WHO), discover-interview-synthesis (qualitative signal), measure-survey-analysis (quantitative signal)
Visualizes via: utility-mermaid-diagrams (timeline or flowchart)
Adversarial review via: utility-pm-critic (challenges where emotions and moments of truth lack research evidence)

Output Format

Use the template in references/TEMPLATE.md to structure the output. See references/EXAMPLE.md for a complete worked example.

Cross-references

Template: references/TEMPLATE.md
Examples: references/EXAMPLE.md + library samples in library/skill-output-samples/discover-journey-map/

Output Template

Customer Journey Map: [Persona] - [Goal]

Executive Summary

[Summary]

Persona / Segment

[Persona summary]

Journey Scope

Journey type: [Linear | Cyclical | Multi-actor]
Included: [What phase / lifecycle this map covers]
Excluded: [What is deliberately out of scope]

Stages

#	Stage	Customer goal	Duration	Entry trigger	Exit criterion
1	[Discovers]	[Goal]	[Time]	[Trigger]	[Exit]
2	[Considers]	[Goal]	[Time]	[Trigger]	[Exit]
3	[Tries]	[Goal]	[Time]	[Trigger]	[Exit]

Touchpoints per Stage

Stage	Touchpoint	Channel	What happens
[Discovers]	[Touchpoint]	[Channel]	[Interaction]

Emotional Curve

Stage	Dominant emotion	Confidence	Source
[Discovers]	[Emotion]	[High/Medium/Low]	[Research evidence, or “Hypothesis”]

Pain Points and Moments of Truth

Stage	Pain / Moment of Truth	Severity (1-5)	Customer evidence	Implication
[Stage]	[Pain or MoT]	[1-5]	[Evidence]	[What it means]

Opportunities

Stage	Opportunity	Product change that addresses it	Effort (rough)
[Stage]	[Opportunity]	[Change]	[Small/Medium/Large]

Visual

Linear journey (mermaid timeline)

timeline
    title [Persona] Journey
    [Discovers] : [touchpoint] : [touchpoint]
    [Considers] : [touchpoint]
    [Tries] : [touchpoint]
    [Decides] : [outcome]

Cyclical journey (mermaid flowchart)

flowchart LR
    A[Onboards] --> B[Uses]
    B --> C[Reviews / QBR]
    C --> D[Renews]
    D --> B

Multi-actor journey (advanced)

Research Gaps

[Gap 1 and the research that would close it]
[Gap 2]

Example Output

Customer Journey Map: First-Time Meal-Kit Subscriber - "From First Box to Habit"

Customer Journey Map: First-Time Meal-Kit Subscriber - “From First Box to Habit”

The interview counts, survey figures, emotions, and quotes below are illustrative [fictional]. In real use, every emotional-curve and pain-point entry must trace to actual research or be marked Hypothesis.

Executive Summary

This map covers a first-time meal-kit subscriber from initial discovery through the decision to continue or cancel after the first delivery cycle. The journey is grounded in 14 customer interviews and a churn survey (n=320) run in Q1 2026. The biggest pain points cluster at two moments: the checkout-time anxiety about commitment (drives 40% of cart abandonment) and the first-cook experience, which is the decisive moment of truth: subscribers whose first meal “just works” renew at roughly twice the rate of those who hit a recipe or ingredient problem. The largest opportunity is de-risking the first cook.

Persona / Segment

Busy dual-income household cook, 28-42, time-constrained on weeknights, cooks 3-4 times a week but tired of decision fatigue around “what’s for dinner.” Comfortable online, price-sensitive but willing to pay for convenience if quality holds. Not a culinary hobbyist: wants reliable, fast, low-skill meals. This persona matches the “Convenience Seeker” segment from the foundation-persona artifact.

Journey Scope

Journey type: Linear
Included: Discovery through the first renew-or-cancel decision (roughly a 3-week window: discovery to end of first delivery cycle)
Excluded: Long-term loyalty, win-back of churned subscribers, gifting flows. Those are separate journeys.

Stages

#	Stage	Customer goal	Duration	Entry trigger	Exit criterion
1	Discovers	Find a way to reduce weeknight dinner stress	Minutes	Sees ad / referral / press mention	Clicks through to the site
2	Considers	Decide if this is worth trying	1-3 days	Lands on pricing / menu page	Starts checkout or leaves
3	Orders	Commit to a first box without overcommitting	10-20 min	Begins checkout	First box order confirmed
4	First Cook	Cook and eat the first meals successfully	3-5 days	Box arrives	First meal eaten (well or badly)
5	Decides	Judge whether to keep the subscription	1-2 days	Approaching second-box charge	Renews or cancels

Touchpoints per Stage

Stage	Touchpoint	Channel	What happens
Discovers	Social ad / referral link	Social, word of mouth	Sees a discounted-first-box offer
Considers	Menu + pricing page	Web	Scans recipes, looks for the catch in the pricing
Considers	FAQ / cancellation policy	Web	Checks how hard it is to cancel
Orders	Checkout flow	Web / app	Picks plan size, meals, delivery day
Orders	Confirmation + delivery ETA	Email	Gets order summary and arrival window
First Cook	Box unboxing	Physical	Finds ingredients, recipe cards, ice packs
First Cook	Recipe card / app step-by-step	Print / app	Follows cooking instructions
Decides	Pre-charge reminder	Email / push	Reminded the next box is about to bill
Decides	Account / skip-or-cancel screen	Web / app	Renews, skips, or cancels

Emotional Curve

Stage	Dominant emotion	Confidence	Source
Discovers	Curiosity, mild skepticism (“too good to be true”)	Medium	14 interviews; 9 mentioned doubt about hidden costs
Considers	Anxiety about commitment	High	Churn survey (n=320): 40% of abandoners cited “didn’t want to be locked in”
Orders	Cautious optimism, relief at picking a small plan	Medium	14 interviews; recurring “started with the smallest box” pattern
First Cook	Either delight or frustration (bimodal)	High	Interviews split sharply on first-cook outcome
Decides	Confidence (if first cook worked) or buyer’s remorse (if not)	High	Renewal data correlates with self-reported first-cook success

Pain Points and Moments of Truth

Stage	Pain / Moment of Truth	Severity (1-5)	Customer evidence	Implication
Considers	Commitment anxiety / fear of hard cancellation	4	40% of abandoners	Make flexibility loud and early; surface “skip or cancel anytime” before checkout
Orders	Plan-size and meal-choice overwhelm	3	6 of 14 interviewees hesitated here	Offer a “recommended starter box” default
First Cook	First meal succeeds and tastes good	Moment of Truth (5)	Renewers ~2x more likely to report a clean first cook	This is the decisive moment; protect it above all
First Cook	Missing or spoiled ingredient	5	4 of 14 hit this; all 4 considered canceling	A single failure here can sink the whole subscription
Decides	Surprise second-box charge	4	Churn survey: “didn’t realize it would auto-bill”	Pre-charge reminder must be unmissable

Opportunities

Stage	Opportunity	Product change that addresses it	Effort (rough)
Considers	Defuse commitment anxiety	Add “skip or cancel anytime, no fee” banner above the checkout button	Small
Orders	Reduce choice overwhelm	Pre-select a “Convenience Seeker starter box” the user can edit	Medium
First Cook	Guarantee first-cook success	Make the first recipe the simplest on the menu by default; add a 60-second “start here” video	Medium
First Cook	Catch ingredient failures fast	One-tap “something’s missing” button that issues an instant credit + replacement	Medium
Decides	Remove charge surprise	Send the pre-charge reminder 48h ahead with a one-tap skip	Small

Visual

timeline
    title First-Time Meal-Kit Subscriber Journey
    Discovers : Sees ad : Clicks offer
    Considers : Scans menu : Checks cancellation policy
    Orders : Picks starter box : Confirms first delivery
    First Cook : Unboxes : Cooks first meal (moment of truth)
    Decides : Pre-charge reminder : Renews or cancels

Research Gaps

The map is grounded in subscribers who completed at least the first order; it has no signal on people who abandoned at the ad click. A top-of-funnel study would close this.
First-cook success is self-reported in interviews. Instrumenting an in-app “how did it go?” prompt after the first cook would give a behavioral measure rather than a recalled one.
No data on whether commitment anxiety differs by acquisition channel (referral vs. paid ad). A segmented follow-up survey would test this.

Real-World Examples

See this skill applied to three different product contexts:

Storevine (B2B): Storevine B2B inventory-forecasting platform - mid-market e-commerce buying group from vendor research to annual renewal

Prompt:

discover-journey-map

map the full procure-to-renew journey for storevine (B2B AI inventory
forecasting, sold to mid-market e-commerce, 200-2000 employees).

it's a buying group, not one buyer:
- Ops manager = champion, lives in the forecasting pain daily
- Finance = approves the budget, cares about ROI and contract terms
- IT = owns the data integration and security review, can veto

stages: discovers -> evaluates (RFP + demo) -> pilots -> decides
(contract) -> onboards (data integration) -> uses (monthly forecast
cycle, recurring) -> renews (annual review, recurring).

the scary transition is pilot -> onboarding: the pilot uses clean sample
data and looks great, then real data integration is messy and the
accuracy people were promised wobbles. that's where trust is won or lost.

multi-actor, so use parallel tables per actor. the usage + renewal stages
are cyclical.

Output:

Customer Journey Map: Storevine Procure-to-Renew - Multi-Actor Buying Group

Multi-actor journey. Primary actor: Ops manager (well-researched). Secondary actors: Finance and IT (lighter signal, more Hypothesis entries). Validate the secondary tracks before acting on them.

Brainshelf (Consumer): Brainshelf AI book-curation subscription - avid reader from discovery to subscribe to weekly habit

Prompt:

discover-journey-map

map the first-time subscriber journey for brainshelf. it's an AI book
recommendation subscription for serious readers who hate generic amazon/
goodreads recs. persona is an avid reader (30-50, reads 2-4 books/month)
who's tired of bad recommendations.

we did 8 interviews with target readers. key signals:
- people are skeptical that "another algorithm" will do better
- the moment that hooks them is the first rec that's genuinely great and
  not obvious - something they'd never have found themselves
- a few said they'd churn fast if week 2-3 recs got generic
- the readers who stuck around started recommending it to friends unprompted

scope it discovery -> subscribe -> weekly habit -> referral. linear, but
the weekly-use part is a recurring loop. include a mermaid timeline.

Output:

Customer Journey Map: Brainshelf First-Time Subscriber - “From Skeptic to Evangelist”

Workbench (Enterprise): Workbench internal dev-experience platform - new engineer from pre-day-1 to independent contribution

Prompt:

discover-journey-map

map the new-engineer onboarding journey so we can decide where to invest
dev-experience effort. persona is a newly hired software engineer.

stages: pre-day-1 (offer accepted, paperwork) -> day-1 (laptop + accounts)
-> week-1 (orientation + exploring the codebase) -> month-1 (first PR
merged) -> month-3 (owns a feature independently).

we have an onboarding survey (n=22 recent hires) + 5 interviews. the
recurring theme is tooling/access friction: env setup takes days, access
requests bounce around, docs are stale. the high point everyone remembers
is their first merged PR.

linear journey. include a mermaid timeline. recommendations should be
dev-experience investments.

Output:

Customer Journey Map: New Engineer Onboarding - “From Offer to Ownership”

Quality Checklist

Before finalizing, verify:

Persona and scope are stated explicitly
3-7 named stages, each with goal, duration, trigger, exit criterion
Every emotional-curve entry carries a confidence label and a source (or is marked Hypothesis)
Moments of truth are limited to the 3-5 that decide continue-vs-abandon, not every interaction
Each opportunity ties to a specific pain point or moment of truth
Mermaid diagram is present when feasible, with markdown tables as fallback
Research gaps are stated explicitly