Journey Before & After

Purpose

Journey Before & After creates two side-by-side user journey maps: the current state (with all its pain points) and the future state (with the proposed solution in place). By comparing them directly, teams can articulate the specific value their solution delivers, identify which pain points are resolved and which remain, and communicate the vision to stakeholders.

At a glance

• Group size: 4–10
• Duration: 35 minutes
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Facilitation style: Collaborative mapping in two rounds
• Setting: Large wall with space for two parallel journey maps

How to run

1. Map the "Before" journey (12 min): Walk through the current user experience step by step. Capture actions, touchpoints, pain points, and emotional highs/lows.
2. Map the "After" journey (12 min): Below or beside the Before map, walk through the same journey with the proposed solution in place. Show how each step changes.
3. Compare and annotate (6 min): Draw connections between Before and After. Mark: pain points resolved (green), pain points remaining (red), new risks introduced (orange), and moments of delight created (star).
4. Synthesise (5 min): Summarise the net improvement. Is the After journey convincingly better? Where does it fall short?

Materials needed

• Large wall or two flip charts side by side
• Sticky notes in different colours for Before and After
• Markers
• Emotion icons or stickers
• Red, green, and orange dot stickers

Pitfalls & common mistakes

• Over-optimistic "After": Be honest about what the solution does and doesn’t fix.
• Different levels of detail: The Before and After maps should be at the same granularity for fair comparison.
• No emotion layer: Without emotional highs and lows, the maps are process diagrams, not journey maps.
• Forgetting new friction: Solutions often introduce new problems. Map those too.

Inclusion & accessibility

• Use colour-blind-friendly markers and add text labels.
• Read both maps aloud for remote or visually impaired participants.
• Include diverse user perspectives in both journeys.

Variations

• Before / After / Way After: Add a third map showing the experience after the solution has been adopted for months.
• Multi-persona Before & After: Map the journey for two different personas to compare impact.
• Quantified Before & After: Add metrics (time, cost, satisfaction score) to each stage for data-driven comparison.

When NOT to use this

• When there is no "After" concept yet — do ideation first.
• When the current journey has not been researched — the "Before" would be fictional.
• When the solution is so different that the journey structure itself changes (making side-by-side comparison misleading).

Source & further reading

• Stickdorn & Schneider — *This Is Service Design Thinking* (Wiley, 2011)
• Kalbach, Jim — *Mapping Experiences* (O’Reilly, 2016)
• NNGroup — "Customer Journey Mapping" (nngroup.com)