What is a customer journey map (CJM) and how to make one

Step 1

Choose the actor and the scenario

A CJM is a map of one person's path to a goal, phase by phase: what they do, think and feel, and where it gets hardest. You start with the two elements Nielsen Norman Group puts first: the actor and the scenario with expectations. The actor is the person whose experience you describe: a specific type of user or a persona. The scenario is a situation with a goal the person wants to reach, plus their expectations. For a practice exercise, pick a familiar service your friends deal with: booking a doctor, moving to a new apartment, buying a first laptop.

• •one map, one actor and one scenario: "a student looking for a rental apartment in a new city for the first time";
• •write down the actor's expectations: what they consider a "normal" result, and in what time;
• •decide which map you're making: the current experience (as it is now) or a desired future one. For a first exercise, the current one is better.

💡 If the scenario takes minutes and happens entirely inside one app, you most likely need a user flow, not a CJM.

Step 2

Gather data about the real experience

NN/g stresses that the actor's actions on the map should be rooted in data. The simplest source for a study project is a few interviews with people who recently went through this path. Ask them to tell you how it went from the first thought to the result, and probe what they did, thought and felt at each stage.

• •ask about a specific case: "Tell me about the last time you booked a doctor's appointment";
• •write down exact quotes: on a map they sound more convincing than your summary;
• •note the channels: website, phone call, messenger, in-person visit, advice from friends;
• •add secondary sources if you have them: reviews, support requests, social media posts.

💡 If you have no data but still need a map, call it a hypothesis honestly and mark what you still need to check in conversations with people.

Step 3

Split the path into phases

Phases are the big parts of the journey that run across the map horizontally. Their number and names depend on the scenario. For renting a home, for example: realize you need an apartment — look for options — view apartments — negotiate and sign the lease — move in. Name the phases from the person's point of view, not the company's.

• •weak: "lead generation", "conversion" — that's business language, not a person's experience;
• •better: "looking for options", "going to view it", "signing the lease";
• •if there are so many phases that the map no longer fits in one glance, merge some of them.

Step 4

Fill in actions, mindsets and emotions

Under each phase, fill in the three rows NN/g describes as actions, mindsets and emotions. Actions are what the person does. Mindsets are their questions, motivations and information needs; ideally, these are verbatim quotes from research. Emotions are often drawn as a single line rising and falling between phases, so you can see right away where the experience is worst.

• •actions: "scrolls listings on three websites", "messages the owner";
• •mindsets: "Are these photos real?", "How much more will I have to pay on top?";
• •emotions: from hope at the start to anxiety before signing the lease;
• •add touchpoints: where exactly the person interacts with the service at each phase.

💡 A map is easy to build on a wall with sticky notes or on an online whiteboard: phases are columns; actions, mindsets and emotions are rows.

Step 5

Find opportunities and show the map

According to NN/g, the last element of a map is opportunities: insights into how to improve the experience. Look at where the emotion line drops lowest, where the person repeats actions or switches channels, where they have the most questions. For each such spot, write an opportunity and an idea for using it. Opportunities are what turn a map from an illustration into a tool.

• •phrase an opportunity through the problem: "People don't know the real total before viewing an apartment";
• •pick 1–2 opportunities and move on to design: a screen, a service, a message;
• •for a case study, show the path: research → map → opportunity → solution;
• •mark which parts of the map are backed by data and which are still assumptions.

💡 Show the map in the community and ask whether it's clear where the biggest problem is. If people need your explanations, the map should be simpler.