Current vs future

The beauty of any type of map is that you can display the way things are right now or the desired state of things.

Current mappings show the actual state of user experience. They help identify and document existing problems and pain points.

Future mappings represent the desired state of user experience. They help set goals for creating a product or service that will be tailored to user needs.^[1]

Make sure you don't confuse the idealistic visualization of future maps with how things really are. You can use future maps for building and checking hypotheses during user research. But avoid using future maps as a reference for finalized design decisions.