This article covers how to use what you learnt from mapping people\u2019s current journeys<\/a> to create a master journey. Then it explains how to use that to create an ideal future journey map.<\/p>\n You should always map current journeys<\/a> first if you\u2019re working on a service that already exists. <\/p>\n Part 1 in this series explained how to map individual users\u2019 existing journeys. The next step is to combine these maps into one.<\/p>\n This is like creating a \u2018master\u2019 journey where you bring everything you\u2019ve learned into one document. It won\u2019t be representative of a real person\u2019s experience but it will be based on insights from real people. Use the same type of template you used to map your individual journeys. Include all the actions, needs, thoughts, feelings and problems, or pain points, in one map.<\/p>\n There are no rules around how often something should be mentioned as a problem for it to be included.<\/p>\n Combining individual maps into a master journey highlights where the recurring pain points are for users. For example, in a 1-1 support service clients might tell you about the difficulty of contacting part time case workers. Case workers themselves might tell you about the difficulty of using two different recording systems and impact on their availability for clients. <\/p>\n Pay attention to all the pain points. Anything users found hard or frustrating. Maybe they were mentioned more frequently or users may have been more animated when they described their experiences. They may have told you how frustrating it was in different ways. <\/p>\n Before mapping future journeys it\u2019s useful to do some rough prioritisation<\/a> based on your master journey. This is because it\u2019s not always possible to fix everything at once. Do this before or during the next step.<\/p>\n A simple way to prioritise is by plotting \u2018pain to users\u2019 against \u2018ease of fix\u2019. It\u2019s useful to do this activity with people who deliver and manage the service and understand how easy or cheap certain things would be to fix.<\/p>\n Think about these fixes at a fairly high level. You don\u2019t need to know precisely how you\u2019ll implement each one. For example if the pain point relates to a piece of third party software that you use but can\u2019t customise it would be more difficult to fix.<\/p>\n \u200d<\/p>\n Once you have your master journey map and roughly prioritised pain points, it\u2019s time to start thinking in more detail about how to fix the problems. This is best done as a collaborative exercise in a workshop<\/a>.<\/p>\n People you might invite to a workshop:<\/p>\n Diversity of thought and experience is valuable in workshops like this. Aim for breadth of expertise rather than volume of people.<\/p>\n Workshops like this are best run in person because you\u2019ll often need to sketch out your ideas.<\/p>\n A typical plan for a workshop like this might be:<\/p>\n The ideation method you choose will depend on how much scope there is for creativity and change to your service.<\/p>\n If the solution is fairly limited or obvious it might be that everyone just has a go at sketching out what the fix might be. For example reordering content on a website page.<\/p>\n If there could be a range of different solutions you could use a method like rapid eights<\/a> that helps people get creative and generate lots of ideas.<\/p>\n End the workshop by running a prioritisation exercise to decide which of the ideas generated are most viable and would be easiest to implement.<\/p>\n Now you have an idea of how you\u2019re going to fix some of the problems, you should have enough information to start your future journey map.<\/p>\n It\u2019s important to remember at this stage that the map you\u2019re creating is an ideal of the future based on the research evidence you have access to.<\/p>\n Make a copy of your as-is master map. Then do 3 things to it, in sequence:<\/p>\n As you add changes to the map be ready for them to affect the order of when and how things happen within the service. For example you might be asking users to input particular data too early in the process. <\/p>\n You should now have a visual representation of how you hope the service will operate once you\u2019ve implemented your ideas for fixing it.<\/p>\n As you move into implementing some of the proposed changes it\u2019s important to test these changes<\/a> with service users to check they are having the desired effect. Your future journey map will then evolve as you do this and learn more about your users’ experiences.<\/p>\n For another approach to journey mapping try IDEO.org\u2019s journey map guide<\/a> or GOV.UK\u2019s guide to creating an experience map<\/a>.<\/p>\n Useful guides to ideation and idea prioritisation:<\/p>\n \u200d<\/p>\n — <\/p>\n \u200d<\/p>\n Image credits: Thanks to Molly and Morrighan at DXW<\/a> for sharing journey maps. Prioritisation matrix by Emma Parnell.<\/p>\n1. Combine several people\u2019s journeys<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Templates<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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2. Identify pain points<\/strong><\/h2>\n
3. Prioritise things to fix<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/promo.cymru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/6451242669659846b7212b46_priority-grid.png\")
<\/div>4. Work together to fix the problems<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Who to include<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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How to run a workshop<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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5. Create a future journey map<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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![](\"https:\/\/promo.cymru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/645a0ace01db8b0d1fea06a9_2future-journey-map.png\")
<\/div>![](\"https:\/\/promo.cymru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/6452624df73001df7a2414ac_FINAL_-Visual-Scouts-Volunteer-Journey-Blueprint-1-1024x569-1.jpg\")
<\/div>Useful information<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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