Learning objective
By the end of this lesson, you can define customer-centred stages and attach evidence without confusing a journey map with an internal process flow.
Why it matters
Journey maps often fail before the workshop begins. Their columns are named after departments:
Marketing → Sales → Operations → Support
Customers do not experience these as meaningful stages. They experience a goal, uncertainty, effort, progress and setbacks.
An evidence spine keeps the map anchored to the customer’s changing situation.
Core concept: goal, stage, evidence
Build the spine in this order:
- Goal: what meaningful result is the customer pursuing?
- Boundary: when does that goal become active, and when is it resolved?
- Stages: how does the customer’s mode of action change?
- Evidence: what demonstrates actions, questions, effort and outcomes at each stage?
Use internal process data only when it explains a customer event.
Visual explanation
Text alternative: a customer goal develops through discovery, evaluation, starting, use and resolution. Research and operational evidence anchor every stage.
Worked example
An IT service maps its process as:
Ticket received → triage → assign engineer → resolve → close
Customer research suggests a different spine:
- Recognise risk: work is blocked and impact is uncertain.
- Seek credible help: decide where and how to ask.
- Establish shared understanding: explain the problem and provide evidence.
- Wait and stay informed: judge whether progress is real.
- Recover work: verify the fix and resume activity.
- Regain confidence: understand prevention and next steps.
The second spine makes repeated information, invisible waiting and weak closure visible.
Common mistake
Mistake: drawing an emotion curve from the team’s imagination.
Instead, connect every emotional rise or fall to a source: interview account, observed behaviour, complaint, abandonment event or support record. If evidence is missing, label the point as an assumption.
Quick check
Which stage label is most customer-centred?
A. CRM hand-off
B. Tier 2 support
C. Confirm that work can safely resume
D. Operations approval
Answer: C. It describes progress meaningful to the customer rather than an internal owner.
Practical prompt
Choose one customer goal. Write:
- the event that activates it;
- the meaningful end state;
- four to six customer-centred stages;
- one evidence source for each stage;
- one stage that is currently based only on assumption.
Summary
- A journey follows a customer goal, not an organisation chart.
- Boundaries should include relevant activity before and after the core service.
- Evidence belongs on the map.
- Assumptions should remain visible as assumptions.
Next lesson
Continue to Business Model Canvas: Turn the Canvas into Testable Hypotheses to connect the customer journey with the organisation’s delivery and economic model.