Co-Create a Shared Experience Map

As you work together to co-create a shared experience map, focus on synthesizing your work together rather than choosing the “best” drawing to move forward with.

Start by turning each of your individual maps into a collection of nodes and links. A node is a distinct moment in time, an action, or an event, while links are what connect nodes together. For example, my map of how customers entertain themselves might include the following nodes: hearing about a new show, discussing it with their significant other, a searching or browsing moment, the error case of not being able to find the content, the time spent being entertained, and the end of the entertainment session. Links help show relationships between the nodes. For example, I might loop back several times in this process. Perhaps I choose Netflix but can’t find anything to watch, so I switch to YouTube. Links can show the movement through the nodes.

Create a new map that includes all of your individual nodes. Arrange the nodes from all of your individual maps into a new, comprehensive map.

Collapse similar nodes together. Many of your individual maps will include overlapping nodes. Feel free to collapse similar nodes together. However, be careful. Make sure you are collapsing like items and not generalizing so much that you lose key detail.

Determine the links between each node. Use arrows to show the flow through the nodes. Don’t just map out the happy path. Remember to capture where steps need to be redone, where people might give up out of frustration, or where steps might loop back on themselves.

Add context. Once you have a map that represents the nodes and links of your customer’s journey, add context to each step. What are they thinking, feeling, and doing at each step of the journey? Try to capture this context visually. It will help the team (and your stakeholders) synthesize what you know, and it will be easier to build on this shared understanding.