Journey maps are very popular tools at the moment, and with good reason. They’re a simple, fast, and effective way to help a team understand the experiences that customers are having with an organization from the customers’ point of view.

However, like many “simple” things, doing a mapping exercise well can be quite a bit more complicated than it first appears. Journey maps are actually a category of tools, not a single exercise.

Once you get on board with the basic idea — “Let’s map our customer experience to understand the current state and design a better one” —there can be a bewildering amount of vagueness about what to do next.

There are some beautiful examples of map artifacts online, but how do teams get there? We created a guide to help your team get started!