Prioritizing and Planning Improvements

Customer journey maps reveal patterns, pain points, and findings across the customer experience. The challenge lies in determining which discoveries merit deep exploration versus simple fixes. Most maps contain useful findings that suggest direct improvements, while rare insights demand collaborative exploration.

For findings, you can often suggest straightforward improvements. For genuine insights, convene collaborative sessions using "How might we" questions to explore solution spaces. If you discover an insight like "Customers interpret detailed bills as transparency but simple bills as hiding fees," you'll need co-creation workshops to navigate this complexity. The distinction matters: findings get fixed, insights get explored.

After exploration, both findings and insights follow similar implementation paths: prioritizing, prototyping, testing, and refining solutions.

Once you've identified opportunities from journey insights, the next step involves creating diverse solution concepts. Effective ideation requires both creative exploration and practical thinking. The goal is generating multiple options before committing to any single approach. Begin with divergent thinking exercises.

Use divergent techniques like brainstorming, mind mapping, or the 6-3-5 method where 6 people independently write 3 ideas each in 5 minutes. Encourage wild ideas initially, as they often spark more practical innovations. Remember that quantity leads to quality in ideation. After generating ideas, converge by grouping similar concepts and identifying themes.^[1]

Evaluate each concept against your original insight to ensure alignment. Consider both incremental improvements and transformative changes, as different situations call for different levels of innovation.

The Kano model helps teams prioritize improvements by understanding how different features impact customer satisfaction. Developed by Professor Noriaki Kano, this framework reveals that not all improvements create equal value. Some features delight customers, while others merely prevent dissatisfaction.

The model classifies customer needs into 5 distinct categories:

• Basic needs: Must-have features that customers expect. Their absence causes frustration, but their presence goes unnoticed (e.g., working search function on an e-commerce site)
• Performance needs: Features where more is better. Satisfaction increases linearly with improvement (e.g., faster page load times)
• Excitement needs: Unexpected features that delight customers and create competitive advantage (e.g., AI-powered size recommendations in a shopping app)
• Indifferent needs: Features customers don't care about either way (e.g., animated page transitions)
• Reverse needs: Features that some customers prefer absent (e.g., auto-playing videos)

To apply this model, survey your customers about each potential improvement twice: how they'd feel if the feature was present, and if it was absent. Their responses reveal which category each improvement belongs to, guiding investment decisions.

Impact/effort matrices help teams prioritize improvements by plotting them on two dimensions: the positive impact on customers and the effort required to implement. This visual tool prevents teams from pursuing complex solutions when simpler alternatives exist. It ensures resources focus on changes that deliver maximum value.

To create the matrix, draw 4 quadrants. The horizontal axis represents implementation effort (low to high), while the vertical axis shows customer impact (low to high). This creates 4 categories:

• Quick wins (high impact, low effort): Implement these immediately
• Major projects (high impact, high effort): Plan carefully and allocate sufficient resources
• Fill-ins (low impact, low effort): Consider for spare capacity
• Thankless tasks (low impact, high effort): Generally avoid these

Score each improvement idea from your journey map on both dimensions using consistent criteria. For impact, consider factors like customer satisfaction improvement, complaint reduction, or revenue potential. For effort, evaluate development time, cost, and complexity. Plot ideas on the matrix to visualize priorities.

While friction points cause minor slowdowns or annoyances in the customer journey, barriers to value completely prevent customers from receiving the benefits your product promises. Think of friction as speed bumps and barriers as roadblocks. Understanding this distinction helps teams prioritize which issues demand immediate attention.

Barriers to value manifest in 3 main forms:

• Access barriers prevent customers from even starting their journey (e.g., incompatible devices, geographic restrictions).
• Comprehension barriers stop progress when customers can't understand how to extract value (e.g., complex pricing that obscures savings).
• Activation barriers occur when customers understand the value but can't achieve it due to system limitations.

For example, a fitness app might have friction in its onboarding (too many questions), but a true barrier exists if the workout videos won't load on certain devices. The friction is annoying; the barrier makes the product worthless. Review your journey map for moments where customers completely stop rather than just slow down.

Customer journey improvements only matter if they drive measurable business results. Connecting each proposed change to specific key performance indicators (KPIs) ensures your efforts align with organizational goals. This connection transforms journey mapping from an abstract exercise into a strategic business tool.

Start by identifying which KPIs your journey impacts. Common metrics include conversion rates, customer lifetime value, support ticket volume, and Net Promoter Score. Map these KPIs to specific journey stages. For instance, improvements to the onboarding phase might affect activation rates, while checkout optimizations impact conversion.

Create clear hypotheses linking improvements to outcomes. Instead of "Simplify the payment process," articulate "Reducing payment steps from 5 to 3 will increase checkout completion by 15%." This specificity enables measurement and learning. Track both leading indicators (immediate changes) and lagging indicators (long-term impact) to understand the full effect of your improvements.^[2]

A roadmap transforms your prioritized improvements into an actionable timeline. Unlike random feature releases, a customer journey-based roadmap ensures changes build upon each other logically. This strategic sequencing maximizes impact while managing dependencies and resource constraints.

Structure your roadmap in phases that reflect customer value delivery, not just technical milestones. Phase 1 might address critical barriers and quick wins to show immediate impact. Phase 2 could tackle performance improvements that enhance the core experience. Phase 3 might introduce excitement features that differentiate your offering.

Consider dependencies between improvements when sequencing. For example, implementing a new payment system might be prerequisite for adding subscription options. Also factor in seasonal patterns, resource availability, and change management needs. A retail journey roadmap should account for holiday freezes, while B2B improvements might align with fiscal year planning.

Customer journey improvements compete for limited resources including budget, developer time, and organizational attention. Effective allocation ensures maximum customer impact while maintaining operational sustainability. Poor resource planning causes promising initiatives to fail regardless of their potential value.

During resource planning, consider not just development hours but also design time, testing resources, change management effort, and ongoing maintenance needs. A seemingly simple improvement might require extensive stakeholder training, making it more resource-intensive than initially apparent.

Balance your portfolio across different resource needs and timelines. While one team implements quick wins, another might tackle infrastructure improvements. This parallel approach maintains momentum across multiple fronts. For example, while engineers build a new recommendation engine, content creators could improve help documentation. Both enhance the journey using different resource pools.