Glossary
Experience map
What is an Experience Map?
An experience map is a visualization of the end-to-end experience a person has as they try to accomplish a goal, showing stages, actions, thoughts, emotions, and pain points across all touchpoints and channels.
How it works
Unlike a customer journey map (which maps a specific persona's interaction with a specific product), an experience map is persona-agnostic and product-agnostic, focusing on the broader human experience of achieving a goal. For example, an experience map for 'getting healthy' would include research, doctor visits, gym experiences, diet changes, and social support, only some of which involve a specific product. The map helps a team see where its product fits into that larger experience. Experience maps typically show stages as columns, with rows for actions, thinking, feeling, and pain points.
Applied example
Suppose a health insurer maps the experience of managing a chronic condition. Interviews reveal that people struggle between receiving a diagnosis and finding suitable treatment—a period when they have little contact with the insurer. That finding could lead the team to test a post-diagnosis support service. The map helps identify the gap; it does not establish that the proposed service will solve it.
Why it matters
Your product may occupy only a few minutes of a much larger task. An experience map puts those minutes in context, including the gaps between interactions where needs may go unmet. Label whether the map describes research findings, a hypothesis or a proposed future experience so readers know what they are looking at.