Journey Map: Basics

■ Significance & features

By doing group work along this guide, you can create a journey map for any challenge. It is a tool developed for training and narrowed to the minimum necessary elements, but by practicing it you can not only acquire the perspective of design thinking but also apply it to a real challenge and carry through the discovery, systematization, and identification of challenges from a user-centered viewpoint. It has the versatility to apply to any challenge, and you can create a journey map not only from the viewpoint of residents as users but also from the viewpoint of the provider side as users.

By using this tool, you can expect the following effects.

• For challenges in actual work and services, you can explore, systematize, and identify the challenges based on the journey-map framework

• Through actually working hands-on, you can feel the “shift of perspective” to user-centeredness that is the key point of design thinking

■ How to use

It is intended for use when a team or stakeholders who share a common recognition of the challenge gather to set the challenge and orient its solution. It can be done alone, but gathering several members (about 3–6 people) yields greater insight. It is preferable for someone with experience in hands-on design-thinking training or with facilitation experience to lead, but no specialist skills are required.

Note that this practice guide assumes group work using worksheets on a computer, but it is also common to hold the workshop by creasing kraft paper and sticking on sticky notes.

The concrete flow of use is as follows.

(Flow of the work)

1. First, share the purpose of the session and, if needed, do an icebreaker among participants. At this point, also make clear who plays the facilitator role.

2. Based on the facilitator “Guidance,” explain the overall flow. Since the aim is to have participants grasp the big picture of the work, a detailed explanation is not necessary.

3. With everyone contributing opinions, set up the journey map using “Sheet A.” When the sheet is filled in, it is complete. Note that the important persona is not necessarily just one. For example, if there are two personas that must be considered in improving a service, create two personas and two journey maps respectively. For instance, for an elderly person who is not good with smartphones and a young person who knows little about government, both the journey map and the challenges derived from it will be entirely different.

4. Once the journey map is set up, each person downloads “Sheet B” and fills in their assigned portion.

5. Once you have put out a full round of ideas, consolidate them into a shared “Sheet B.”

6. Overviewing “Sheet B” together, everyone checks for any overlooked “emotions” and fills them in.

7. Identify the pain points the project should address (= the “pain” worth the government taking measures on), and, based on those pain points, organize the challenges to work on. The pain points to identify are not necessarily just one, but you do not need to make every “pain” a pain point. Prioritization becomes important.

(Reference time allocation)

1. Introduction (5 min)

2. Explaining the guidance (15 min)

3. Setting up the journey map (30 min)

4. Creating your assigned portion of the journey map (15 min)

5. Consolidating the journey map (5 min)

6. Reviewing and refining the journey map together (15 min)

7. Identifying pain points and challenges (20 min)

■ Track record & usefulness

It has been carried out dozens of times in training on the themes of DX and design thinking.

Below are some of the evaluations from the “Design Thinking and DX” training at the College of Local Autonomy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (2024).

• On design-thinking theory, the idea of starting from the other party’s pain was very instructive. Organizing the negative elements of the administrative procedures I had summarized as a flow around the axis of the other party’s pain, I had the impression that, unexpectedly, I could organize my thinking.

• I had not previously held the viewpoint of focusing on the user’s “pain,” so this lecture was a great learning experience.

• Through creating journey maps in group work and so on, I was able to learn the basics of design thinking.

• Through group work, I was able to experience concrete methods for advancing design thinking using journey maps and personas. I felt I would definitely like to use them in my future work.

• I was able to experience the process by which challenges become clear as you imagine pain and develop it.

• It was my first time doing group work that finds challenges using journey maps and persona-setting, but I could feel it to be very useful in generating ideas.

■ Next steps

(Advanced training & practice)

As subsequent steps, for example, the training the author is involved in offers courses such as the following.

1. Training that masters a full problem-solving process while also using journey maps (about one day)

2. Hands-on, accompanying support that uses journey maps within actual problem-solving

These are held at DX- and design-thinking-related training sessions organized by bodies such as the College of Local Autonomy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, J-LIS, and wide-area local-government staff training organizations.

(References and their overview)

• Digital Transformation of Tax Administration (Kohei Miwa, Chief of the DX Strategy Unit, Digitalization and Business Reform Office, Minister’s Secretariat, National Tax Agency, 2024)<https://www.iais.or.jp/ais_online/online-articles/20240201/202402_01/>

  • Introduces a case in which the National Tax Agency actually digitalized administration while using journey maps.

• Standard Guidelines for Promoting Digital Government: Practical Guidebook🔗 (Digital Agency)

  • Explains the national system-development process in detail. Part 3, Chapter 4, “Service and Business Planning,” p.14 contains an explanation of “Reference: Journey Map.”

• Use of Service Design in Government Agencies and Good Practices 🔗 (Government CIO Advisors et al. Discussion Paper, 2021)

  • Introduces basic knowledge of service design (service development using design thinking) and cases in government. Specifically, it gives detailed explanations of the renewal of the e-Gov system, the planning of one-stop services, and the renewal of the Ministry of Justice website, and also introduces several cases from local governments and abroad.

• e-Gov Renewal Based on Service Design (Taku Endo, Chief of the Integrated Counter Application Unit, Information System Management Office, Administrative Information Systems Planning Division, Administrative Management Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, 2021)

• Practicing User-Centered Service Reform in Government—Renewing e-Gov Through Service Design (Mizuki Sakakibara, Administrative Information Systems Planning Division, Administrative Management Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, 2019)

  • Both of the above two cases introduce the journey map as one of the service-design methods used in the effort to renew the e-Gov system.

• Research Study on Human-Resource Development for Promoting Design Thinking in Government (Institute of Administrative Information Systems, 2019)<https://www.iais.or.jp/reports/labreport/20190331/designthinking2018/>

  • For overseas cases of design thinking, it explains in detail how journey maps are practiced within training.

• Service Design Practical Guidebook 🔗 (Cabinet Secretariat, IT Strategy Office, 2018)

  • Explains in detail the theory of service design, the main methods (KA method, persona analysis, journey map, storyboard), and how to practice them through workshops.

■ Glossary

• Journey map：　A journey map is a method that likens a user’s series of service experiences to a “journey” and, based on the emotions the user experiences at each scene, visualizes the respective challenges. It is one of the most widely used frameworks among design-thinking methods and is often used in government as well.

• Persona：　A tool that, by clarifying the fictional character who becomes the protagonist of the “journey” in a journey map, aims to dig deeper into challenges and smooth communication among stakeholders. It is rarely used as a standalone training and is used as a set with other frameworks such as the journey map.

• User research：　　The process of clarifying the user behaviors and emotions that serve as input for creating a journey map. Besides “behavioral observation” to discover at which scenes of using administrative services the user stumbles, and “participant observation” in which you actually try out administrative procedures to simulate the experience, it also includes questionnaire surveys, focus-group interviews, and the like.