What is 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. This broader lens helps organizations identify opportunities where their product could add value. Experience maps typically show stages as columns, with rows for actions, thinking, feeling, and pain points.
Applied example
A health insurance company creates an experience map for ‘managing a chronic condition.’ The map reveals that the most painful moments occur between diagnosis and finding the right treatment, a gap where the company has no touchpoint. This leads to a new post-diagnosis support program.
Why it matters
Experience maps prevent product teams from optimizing their own touchpoints in isolation by revealing the full context of a user’s goal, including the moments between interactions where the most important needs may go unmet.
