Journey Management Maturity Index

Organizations are increasingly looking to embed Journey Management as a core capability. But when embarking on this journey, a few key questions will inevitably pop up. For example; How mature are we now, what is our goal, and how do we get there? To help answer these questions, we have developed the Journey Management Maturity Index.

6 Maturity Dimensions

To begin, let’s review what we mean by Journey Management Maturity. After working with countless customers, we’ve identified six key dimensions that each play a vital role in scaling up Journey Management across an organization. Together they can be used as a measuring stick to indicate how deeply Journey Management has been embedded in an organization.

The six dimensions include:

• Governance: How effectively the organization manages, coordinates, and supports the various teams, processes, and technologies related to Journey Management.

• Process: How deeply Journey Management and the triple diamond (or a variation thereof) are integrated and accepted as a way of working in the organization.

• Culture: How well the journey-centric mindset and related skills are embedded in the culture and workforce of the organization.

• Organization: How effectively the organizational structure, teams and roles are organized around the ownership and responsibilities related to journey management. 

• Measurement: How effectively the organization determines, measures and tracks key performance indicators related to customer journeys, and how it uses that data to drive goals and improvements.

• Tools: The level of completeness, adoption, and integration of the technology, systems, and toolkits used to support a journey-centric way of working.

Note that ‘tools’ is only one of the six dimensions. Let’s take TheyDo as an example; It is an unmissable piece in the puzzle towards scaling up Journey Management, by enabling you to centralize, standardize, and align on improvements across journeys. However, it cannot substitute for having skilled people, a well-thought-out organizational structure, or a systematic approach to capturing customer insights. Therefore when the goal is to integrate Journey Management across an organization, it’s recommendable to create a strategy that addresses all of these dimensions. Miss one, and it might become a bottleneck to scale up further.

Maturity levels

To pinpoint how far you are on the path to embedding Journey Management in your organization, we’ve defined 5 levels of Journey Management maturity. These are:

• Intuition: The majority acts on inside-out initiatives and ideas

• Fragmented: Fragmented efforts to react on customer feedback

• Coordinated: Teams coordinate collaboration around customer feedback

• Scalable: Company-wide strategy, efforts, and tooling, how to act on customer feedback 

• Excellence: The company is ahead of the customer by having everyone proactively act on what the customer needs.

Note that the maturity level might be very different for different parts of the organization. It can happen that Journey Management is much more integrated within certain teams, domains, products, or countries, than in others. For these situations, it can be helpful to create separate maturity assessments for each of these different parts of the organization. 

1. Intuition

At this stage, there is no guidance or structure in place for journey management, and it is not a focus of the organization. Journeys are only used occasionally within individual projects and not as a holistic approach. There is a general lack of knowledge and understanding around journey management and customer-centricity. There is no defined ownership or roles for managing journeys, and there is no measuring or tracking in place to assess the effectiveness of journeys. Additionally, there are no tools or systems in place to support journey management, and journeys may only occasionally appear in presentations. Overall, this level indicates that journey management is not a priority for the organization and it is not being actively managed or measured. As a result, work to improve the customer experience is often done based on assumptions and ‘intuition’ about what customers want. 

2. Fragmented

At this stage, journey management is starting to be recognized as important within a specific part of the organization, often within the design team. It is however only starting out in individual ‘pockets’. One or several ambassadors within different teams or domains have taken on the responsibility of managing journeys, but they may not have a lot of support or resources to do so effectively. Within these teams some journeys are starting to be documented, but they are often still found on whiteboards or PDFs and not widely accessible, so most people within the organization may not be aware of them. Journeys are used by customer-centric specialists within teams, but it is not yet a cross-functional or company-wide effort. Some teams may ‘own’ journeys as part of their work, but there is no clear overall ownership or roles defined for journey management. Some journeys are being measured, but it is not consistent or standardized across the organization. Insights and data from journeys may be available but not centralized and often scattered around the organization. Overall, this level indicates that journey management is starting to be recognized and implemented within specific teams, but it is still in an early and inconsistent stage.

3. Coordinated

At this stage, journey management has become a more formalized and coordinated effort within the organization. A governance team is set up to coordinate journey management efforts and provide guidance and support. Journey management is being used within specific teams, and journey management playbooks are being created to provide a consistent approach. There are in-house training programs available to educate employees on journey management principles and best practices. Journey managers are assigned specific journeys to manage and have clear roles and responsibilities. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are starting to be linked to journeys to measure the effectiveness of journey management efforts. Journeys are managed in one centralized location, but most teams still have other tools they use to manage their work. Overall, this level indicates that journey management is becoming a more established and structured practice within the organization, but it is still not fully integrated into the company’s overall operations. 

4. Scalable

This level of journey-centric maturity can be described as the “Integrated” level. At this stage, journey management has become a fully integrated and supported practice within the organization, starting at the executive level. There is an approved operating model in place where decision-making revolves around journeys, and it is not limited to the design organization, but extended to other teams across the organization. Journey management is well-understood by employees, and ‘business folks’ are well-versed in journeys. There is a clear hierarchy in journey-centric roles, such as Director, Manager, and Specialist, and everyone understands the importance of journey management in their respective roles. The journey framework is linked to the organization’s overall KPI framework, and there is a standardized journey management solution that has been rolled out to all teams. Overall, this level indicates that journey management is a fully integrated and supported practice within the organization, and it is a key component of the company’s operations and decision-making.

5. Excellence

This level of journey-centric maturity can be described as the “Optimized” level. At this stage, the company has become renowned for its journey-centric practice and is considered a leader in the industry. Journey management is used across the whole organization, by a wide range of different roles, and it is not limited to a specific department or team. Journey-centric working is embedded in the daily rituals and practices of the organization, for example, it is a requirement that “No Epic (project) can be initiated without a link to a journey”. There is an appointed Chief Journey Officer in the executive leadership team, who is responsible for overseeing and driving the journey-centric strategy of the organization. All key performance indicators (KPIs) are integrated into customer journeys, and reporting is journey-based, ensuring that journey management flows through all levels of the organization. Overall, this level indicates that journey management has become a fully optimized and embedded practice within the organization, it is a key driver of the company’s success and a key differentiator in the industry.