How to run a customer journey mapping workshop

A journey map made by one person is a document. A journey map made by the people who run each part of the journey is an agreement: they've looked at the customer's experience together and decided what to change. A short, well-prepared workshop is the quickest way to get there.

This guide assumes you know what goes in a map. If not, read what a customer journey map is first.

Who should you invite?

Aim for five to eight people. With fewer, parts of the journey go missing; with more, not everyone gets to speak.

• One person from each team the customer deals with in this journey. For a hotel stay, that might be reservations, front office, housekeeping and the restaurant.
• At least one person who talks to customers every day, such as a support agent or a receptionist. They know the questions customers really ask.
• Someone who can approve changes, at least for the last part of the session. Without them, the changes stay ideas.
• A facilitator who runs the session and keeps time. It works best when this isn't the most senior person in the room, so others speak freely.

How should you prepare?

Most of a good workshop happens before it starts.

1. Agree the question and the scope with whoever asked for the workshop: which journey, which customer, and which decision the map should help with. Steps 1 and 2 of how to create a customer journey map cover this.
2. Collect evidence: a handful of real customer quotes, a few numbers (waiting times, drop-out, complaints per month) and some recent reviews. Print them or put them on one slide.
3. Draft the map beforehand. People react to a draft much faster than they fill a blank wall. Start from a template if your journey is close to one, as a hotel team might with this one:

4. Send a short note a few days before: the question, the customer, the agenda and a link to the draft. Ask everyone to bring one example of a customer problem from their own area.
5. Set up the space. In a room, show the map on a large screen or print it on a long sheet of paper. Online, one person shares their screen and edits the map while the others talk.

What is a good agenda for a 90-minute workshop?

Starts at	What happens	What you have at the end
0:00	Welcome and goal (10 min): the question, the customer and the rules: the customer's view, and evidence over opinion	Everyone knows why they're there
0:10	The evidence (10 min): read the customer quotes and numbers out loud	A shared picture of the problem
0:20	Walk the steps (25 min): go through the draft step by step; fix the order, add missing steps and touchpoints	An agreed list of steps
0:45	Feelings and pain points (15 min): rate each step's feeling and add its pain points, marking guesses as assumptions	The feeling curve and its low points
1:00	Ideas (15 min): ideas for the lowest points only	A few ideas for each low point
1:15	Choose (10 min): everyone votes for the ideas that would help customers most for the effort	Two or three chosen changes
1:25	Next steps (5 min): an owner and a date for each change, and who updates the map	Owners, dates and a follow-up

How do you keep the session on track?

• Keep the customer in the room. Put the customer description at the top of the map, and read a real quote at the start of each phase.
• Save solutions for the ideas slot. People jump to fixes as soon as they see a problem. Write the idea down where everyone can see it and come back to it later.
• Time-box the walk-through. If a step starts a long debate, mark it as an open question and move on.
• Ask the quieter people first when you rate feelings, so the most senior person's view doesn't set the score.

What are the most common mistakes?

• Mapping your process instead of the customer's journey. If the steps sound like department names, such as "Fulfilment" or "Finance check", rewrite them as things the customer does.
• A journey that's too big. "Everything from awareness to renewal" in 90 minutes leaves no time for the low points. Map one part well.
• No evidence in the room. Without quotes and numbers, the loudest opinion wins.
• Skipping the feelings. They show which steps matter most. Without them, every step looks equally important.
• Ending without owners. A workshop that ends with a wall of ideas and no names next to them usually changes nothing.
• Polishing the map instead of using it. The map needs to be clear, not beautiful.

What should you do after the workshop?

• Tidy the map within a day or two, while people still remember the discussion. Keep the assumptions marked.
• Share it with everyone who took part and with the teams who couldn't come. In Journey Maps, you can export a one-page PDF or send a read-only link.
• Check the assumptions. Turn the biggest open questions into a few customer conversations or a look at the data.
• Follow up with the owners on the dates you agreed, and note the changes on the map.
• Map the journey again once the changes are live. The new curve next to the old one shows whether the experience improved.

For the method behind each part of the session, see how to create a customer journey map, step by step, or browse the customer journey map templates for a starting point.

More guides

• What is a customer journey map? (With examples): What a customer journey map is, what goes in one (phases, steps, touchpoints, feelings, pain points and ideas), when to use one, and examples to open.
• How to create a customer journey map, step by step: A practical method for creating a customer journey map: choose the journey and the customer, map the steps and feelings, check the evidence, decide what to fix.