• Customer Journey Maps
• Customer journey maps are visual representations of customer experiences with an organization. They provide a 360-degree view of how customers engage with a brand over time and across all channels.
• Customer journey maps are research-based tools. They show common customer experiences over time To help brands learn more about their target audience. 

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• Journey Mapping 101
• Journey maps are a common UX tool. They come in all shapes, sizes, and formats. Depending on the context, they can be used in a variety of ways. This article covers the basics: what a journey map is (and is not), related terminology, common variations, and how we can use journey maps.
• Definition of a Journey Map
• Definition: A journey map is a visualization of the process that a person goes through in order to accomplish a goal.
• In its most basic form, journey mapping starts by compiling a series of user actions into a timeline.
• Next, the timeline is fleshed out with user thoughts and emotions in order to create a narrative.
• This narrative is condensed and polished, ultimately leading to a visualization.
• Key Components of a Journey Map
• • Actor
   
  • Scenario + Expectations
   
  • Journey Phases
   
  • Actions, Mindsets, and Emotions
   
  • Opportunities
• Journey Map vs. Experience Map
• A journey map has a specific actor (a singular customer or user of a product) and specific scenario (of a product or service)
• an experience map is broader on both accounts — a generic human undergoing a general human experience.
• Journey Map vs. User Story Map
• User stories are used in Agile to plan features or functionalities. Each feature is condensed down to a deliberately brief description from a user’s point of view; the description focuses on what the user wants to do, and how that feature will help.
• Journey mapping is a process that provides a holistic view of the customer experience by uncovering moments of both frustration and delight throughout a series of interactions.
• Why Use Journey Maps
• The benefits of journey maps (and most other UX mappings) are two-fold. First, the process of creating a map forces conversation and an aligned mental model for the whole team.

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• Personas
• Personas are fictional characters, which you create based upon your research to represent the different user types that might use your service, product, site, or brand in a similar way.
• Creating personas will help you understand your users’ needs, experiences, behaviors and goals.
• Creating personas can help you step out of yourself.
• Personas provide meaningful archetypes which you can use to assess your design development against. Constructing personas will help you ask the right questions and answer those questions in line with the users you are designing for.
• Four Different Types of Personas
• 1. Goal-directed Personas
• 2. Role-Based Personas
• 3. Engaging Personas
• 4. Fictional Personas

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• How Might We (HMW)
• How Might We (HMW) is a design thinking method that allows designers to reframe and open up their problem statements for efficient, targeted and innovative ideation sessions to help solve design challenges.
• HMW is the bridge between the Define and Ideate stages of the design thinking process.
• “How might we” + Intended Action (as an action verb) + “for” + Potential User (as the subject) + “so that” + Desired Outcome.
• How to Create HMW Statements: Example
• Problem statement: A village community needs to decrease their use of single-use plastics and find better alternatives because it negatively impacts their environment. 

• HMW questions:

  • How might we encourage community members to adopt reusable alternatives for everyday items like bags and containers?

  • How might we collaborate with local businesses to reduce the use of single-use plastic in packaging?

  • How might we make sustainable alternatives more accessible and affordable for a diverse range of community members?

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• Problem Statements
• Well-constructed, valid and effective problem statements are vital for your design team to navigate the entire design process. Essential to design thinking, problem statements are what teams produce in the Define stage.
• The goal is to articulate the problem so everyone can see its dimensions and feel inspired to systematically hunt for suitable solutions.
• How to Define Problem Statements through a Point of View Madlib
• To define a problem statement, your team must first examine recorded observations about users
• capture your users’ exact profile in the problem statement or POV
• So, you need to synthesize research results and produce insights that form solid foundations.
• From these, you can discover what those specific users really require and desire—and therefore ideate effectively.
• Teams typically use a POV Madlib to reframe the challenge meaningfully into an actionable problem statement.
• You articulate a POV by combining these three elements—user, need, and insight

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• Creating Your Point Of View and Ask “How Might We”
• In the Define mode, you should end up creating an actionable problem statement which is commonly known as the Point of View (POV) in Design Thinking.
• "Your point of view should be a guiding statement that focuses on specific users, and insights and needs that you uncovered during the empathize mode.
• Your Point of View (POV) defines the RIGHT challenge to address in the following mode in the Design Thinking process
• A good POV will allow you to ideate and solve your design challenge in a goal-oriented manner in which you keep a focus on your users, their needs and your insights about them.
• Step 1
• Define the type of person you are designing for – your user. For example, you could define the user by developing one or more personas, by using affinity diagrams, empathy maps and other methods
• Select the most essential needs, which are the most important to fulfill.
• Work to express the insights developed through the synthesis of your gathered information.

• Step 2

  Write your definitions into a Point Of View template
• Step 3 – POV Madlib
• You can articulate a POV by combining these three elements – user, need, and insight – as an actionable problem statement that will drive the rest of your design work.
• [User . . . (descriptive)] needs [Need . . . (verb)] because [Insight . . . (compelling)]
• Step 4 – Make Sure That Your Point Of View is One That:

• • Provides a narrow focus.

  • Frames the problem as a problem statement.

  • Inspires your team.

  • Guides your innovation efforts.

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• Contextual Interviews
• The contextual interview is an important part of the contextual design movement which was developed by Beyer and Holtzblatt.
• Dan Ritzenthaler’s lead (he is the Senior Product Designer at HubSpot) who says; “I get very uncomfortable when someone makes a design decision without customer contact.”
• The Four Principles of Contextual Inquiry
• Context – as you might expect, the interview must take place in the context of use.
• Partnership – there is a need for the user and researcher to form a collaborative partnership to understand what the user is doing and why.
• Mutual interpretation – the researcher will explain their conclusions and interpretations with the user throughout the interview.
• Focus – the researcher must keep the interview focused on the topics which need to be explored to provide useful data for the improvement project’s scope.

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• Empathy Map
• an Empathy map will help you understand your user’s needs while you develop a deeper understanding of the persons you’re designing for.
• An Empathy Map lets us sum up our learning from engagements with people in design research. The map provides four significant areas to focus our attention on, thus providing an overview of a person’s experience.
• An Empathy Map consists of four quadrants, and these reflect four key traits which the user demonstrated—or possessed—during the observation/research stage. These four quadrants refer to some pretty important points—namely, what the user Said, Did, Thought, and Felt.
• Best Practices to Create an Empathy Map
• Step 1: Fill out the Empathy Map
• Step 2: Synthesize NEEDS
• Step 3: Synthesize INSIGHTS
• What makes empathy maps so useful for design thinking and product development is the way they delve into the user’s thoughts, feelings, words, and actions and so can offer a holistic view of the user’s experience.

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• Prioritization matrix: A 2D-visual that shows the relative importance of a set of items based on two weighted criteria.
• based on the Eisenhower Method
• 1. Establish the items, criteria, and scale you will use
• 2. Individually vote based on expertise
• 3. Draw a chart and use votes as a basis for placing items
• 4. Discuss and negotiate placement
• 5. Share out and drive action

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