Watch this Tech Talk: https://do.co/video_rmojica Rafael Mojica, VP of User Experience at DigitalOcean, guides you through the benefits of understanding and minding your customers' journeys. Using data and design-driven techniques, Mojica shows efficient ways to plot out the journey and create more well-rounded experiences for your customers. About the Presenter Rafael Mojica, VP of User Experience at DigitalOcean, is a multidisciplinary interaction designer. He’s passionate about expanding the benefits of design thinking and communications into all aspects of a business. At DigitalOcean, he leads a strong team of professionals that are designing tools that help people build successful businesses on the cloud. New to DigitalOcean? Get US $100 in credit when you sign up: https://do.co/deploytoday To learn more about DigitalOcean: https://www.digitalocean.com/ Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/digitalocean Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DigitalOcean Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedigitalocean/ We're hiring: http://do.co/careers

2. Why should you care about
your customers’ journey?

3. A story about a journey

4. Prague Amsterdam

5. Prague AmsterdamBuying
Ticket

6. Prague AmsterdamNo
e-Boarding
Pass
Buying Ticket

7. Prague AmsterdamBoarding
Pass
No e-Boarding
Pass
Buying Ticket

9. Prague Amsterdam
Upside down
Boarding Pass
No e-Boarding
Pass
Buying Ticket

10. Prague Amsterdam
Upside down
Boarding Pass
No e-Boarding
Pass
Buying Ticket
“Which gate is
it?”
“When do we
board?”

12. Prague AmsterdamUpside down
Boarding Pass
No e-Boarding
Pass
Buying Ticket
“Which gate is it?”
“When do we
board?”
Boarding

13. Prague AmsterdamUpside down
Boarding Pass
No e-Boarding
Pass
Buying Ticket
“Which gate is it?”
“When do we
board?”
Boarding
[Machine can’t
read BP]
Manual entry
“Which is my seat
number?”

15. The decisions you make affect
multiple touch points

16. Why is regarding the full journey important?
● Your product/service does not live in isolation
● To your users/customers, you are ONE company
● There’s a domino-effect that happens throughout the journey
The sum of all touch-points affects the whole experience.
Prague AmsterdamUpside down
Boarding Pass
No e-Boarding
Pass
Buying Ticket Boarding

17. What can you do starting tomorrow?
Make a map

18. First: Know your Customers
● From where do they come?
● Where do they go / what do they do after?
● Why do they come to your product/service?
● What do they want to accomplish?
● Are/were they using one of your competitor’s product?
● …
Suggestion: Go through a PROTO-PERSONAS exercise

19. Proto-Personas
● Based on the UX technique of “Personas”
○ Paint a comprehensive, fictional, character that represent a set
of users
○ Require exhaustive research
● “Proto-Personas are a Persona hack that you create
using whatever data you have available”*
○ Equally effective to shift into a more empathetic mindset
BookimagefromMedium's"8EssentialBooksonUXResearch"
*”The User Experience Team of One” by Leah Buley

20. Proto-Personas Exercise
● Collect all the information you have about your users
● Group of 4-12 people
○ Bonus: People with direct access to your customers/users
● Set expectations
○ Un-scientific approach
○ Shift to a more empathetic mindset
○ All working towards the same type of user(s)
● “Paint” a picture, tell a story based on the data
● Identify any expectations
Caveat: This will help you move forward. Don’t settle.
Validate. Do more research after.
BookimagefromMedium's"8EssentialBooksonUXResearch"

21. Now what?
Let’s go on a journey!

22. Journey Plotting Exercise
● Embody one of your users (refer to proto-personas)
○ Go through it as they would. Bonus: Have them go through it with you.
● Document each and every step
○ It doesn’t have to be pretty but it has to be clear
● Document logic of flow
● Identify internal processes and touch-points

23. ● Iterate the fidelity of your diagram
● Use a timeline
● Document friction points, blockers, potential challenges, excessive and
missing steps, dead-ends, etc
● If necessary, separate each entity by “swimlanes”

24. Extreme Example (Service Blueprint)

25. How to use your new user journey map?
● Overlay voice of the customer and user data
○ Support engagement, frequently asked questions
○ Churn/NPS comments
○ Drop rates, error tracking
○ …
● Highlight each challenging step
● Validate the flow with others
● Share it within your organization
○ How can you “divide and conquer”?
● Prioritize changes
○ Update your roadmap accordingly Effort
Impact

26. Then what?
Use the map continuously

27. As you continue iterating / innovating
Time
Satisfaction
● Monitor the changes you made
● Design/Develop/Decide based on the journey
○ ID which touch-points need update based on your
plans
● Conduct usability tests on a full journey, not
just one touch-point
● Do Experience Reviews
● Work towards true MVPs

28. Experience Reviews?
Yes! We do them.

29. We go through “Experience Panels”
● Peer review of what a team is launching
● We go through the different touch points
○ Changes to existing points
○ New touch-points
● Evaluate the journey based on customers
desired outcomes
● Base grade of experience on our Design
Principles
Suggestion: Go beyond code review and/or design
review. Have teams work on all affected
touch-points. Request feedback on all of them.

30. True MVPs?!
Yes. It is not “viable” if it is not
comprehensive.

31. Is this a true MVP for a car?
Illustration: Wheel by DTDesign from the Noun Project

32. THIS is the true MVP for a car
Illustration: Scooter by ProSymbols from the Noun Project

33. A true MVP would account/acknowledge the path
Touch Point 1 Touch Point 1 Your Product
or Service
Touch Point 1

34. Another way to look at it
ImagefromInteractionDesignFoundation"UserNeeds?Looknofurtherthaneverydayneeds"
● Are you covering more than the
basic functionality?
● What can you do to make it close to
the “Convenient” level?
Bonus: Can you provide your users with a
hint of memorability?

35. The pyramid doesn’t have to be wide
Illustration: Maslow's hierarchy of needs by Trevor Dsouza from the Noun Project
● Try to cover all the needs as much
as you can
● Start from the bottom and try to
reach the top
● Don’t cover the whole level before
moving to the next one (Remember
the wheel?)

36. Parting Thoughts
● Your product or service doesn’t live in isolation
○ There’s an ecosystem of touch points around it
● Be mindful of the journey you’re creating
○ As a team, understand your users. Even if at a shallow level.
○ Understand the journey they traverse. Document it.
● Use the journey map as you make decisions
● Validate your decisions based on the map
● Adjust the map as you iterate
● Use the map to build true MVP that acknowledge all the needs and
touchpoints
Remember: Enjoy the journey!

37. Thank you!
You can reach me at:
● linkedin.com/in/rafaelmojica
● twitter.com/mexikansan