Quick Start
Tool KitQuick StartI need to identify where people are getting stuck
Tool KitQuick StartI need to identify where people are getting stuck
Need a breakthrough to help get you to the next step? These tools will help you uncover positive and negative points on your journey so you can move forward.
This tool is used in combination with Research Download to help you better understand the entire process and identify opportunities for improvement at each step.
Example: Let’s say that a corner store wants to understand why their milk sales decreased in the last several months.
To understand the issue, we need to lay out all the steps involved in the process of buying milk.
To create a comprehensive Journey Map, write out each step in the process — one per page — for the challenge you’re trying to solve. Limit the steps to no more than ten. If you find you have more steps, break them into multiple journeys.
Once you’ve created your Journey Map, refer to the insight you collected during Research Download and place each insight on the corresponding step in your Journey Map.
For example, if one of your insights mentions that the milk is hard to find in the store, you would place that on the step in the Journey Map associated with “locating milk.”
Once you have organized all of your insights, you may notice recurrent themes. These insights will help you narrow the ideas you need to solve this problem.
Think about the following:
One of the best ways to gather information about your challenge is to experience it for yourself. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and gather your own insight firsthand. It’s one of the best ways to gather meaningful insight into your challenge.
Example: If your challenge is improving the customer experience when buying vitamins at your local drug store, go be the customer. Shop around and see what it’s like: Is it easy to find what you’re looking for? Is the selection overwhelming? Or, is it so well organized that it’s easy to look through all the options and make a selection?
For example, people will sometimes forget steps when describing how they do something. Or, they may explain something one way, and do it a different way… without even noticing!
By observing people, you can see exactly how they engage with your challenge.
Example: If you’re designing a new shopping cart for a supermarket, a shopper may describe how they shop but forget to point out that they often carry a cup of coffee, which makes it hard to push the cart with one hand. If you observe the shopper, you’d notice that detail.
Conducting interviews is a key part of doing primary research and learning what people want and need. Interviewing also helps identify barriers and obstacles that provide an opportunity for improvement.
The Related Worlds exercise helps you look at ways other industries have solved similar problems, so you can apply those principles to your issue.
Example: A hospital rethinking their patient experience may want to look at the ways five-star hotels, luxury car dealerships, and country clubs treat their guests. While a hospital’s purpose is different from these other places, hospitals could learn a lot about a premier guest experience by looking at how car dealerships greet customers, how a luxury hotel moves people from check-in to their rooms, and how a country club makes members feel like they belong.
Independence Blue Cross is a subsidiary of Independence Health Group, Inc. — independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, serving the health insurance needs of Philadelphia and southeastern Pennsylvania.