Building a Journey Management dashboard to drive business impact — with Dan Sullivan

In this “cloaks off” webinar, TheyDo Co-founder and CEO Jochem van der Veer invites Dan Sullivan, Manager of Customer Success and Enablement, to “geek out on the product” with a deep dive into one of the most requested use cases: building a Journey Management dashboard. They also answer a common question: How does TheyDo use its own product?

If you’re looking to take your Journey Management skills to the next level, this is the webinar to watch. Tune in to hear best practices from top companies using TheyDo as Dan builds a sample Journey Management dashboard in real-time — or, if you’re in a hurry, read the recap below.

Creating a Management dashboard and more

Dan shows viewers “how TheyDo uses TheyDo to manage TheyDo, which is very meta.” The goal is to integrate business metrics, qualitative research, and data within journey contexts to help you prioritize effectively—and, even more importantly, to tell a story that will make a positive and measurable difference in your business. Case in point: CHG Healthcare and the Fireside Chat Tale—the first key takeaway from the webinar.

Highlights and key takeaways

CHG Healthcare and the Fireside Chat Tale

Dan shares how Brian Reed, CHG Healthcare’s VP of Experience Design, used the tale of a "fireside chat" to articulate the value of Journey Management internally: “I'm going to tell you a story about the physician's journey, and I'm going to build a fire. We'll sit by the fire, and it'll be really nice,” he recounted. By comparing traditional journey maps to a more engaging storytelling method, Brian demonstrated how Journey Management could better communicate an experience — it’s not just a technical exercise but a powerful tool for storytelling and customer-centric decision-making. 

“To be effective, Journey Management must really be easy to understand. That means having a common language and simplicity so that all audiences can understand it while also giving a high-level overview to showcase the journey,” Dan said, summarizing the power of the fireside chat analogy.

Journey levels explained: How to roll up your data into nested journeys

Dan explained the structure of nested journeys, breaking them down into different levels (L0 to L3). Each level offers more granularity and depth: “What we really believe for Journey Management is that context is really, really important. Numbers alone can't always do this. As you get deeper and more engaged, based on the steps your end users are taking, you have plenty of room to add the depth of your research — that then ties back to the story and your actual impact.“ Picture this as a pyramid of insights, from the big picture to the nitty-gritty details.  

Jochem added, "It's about creating a single framework where all of this ties together."

Tracking journey impact back to business metrics

Dan highlighted how TheyDo’s metric cards integrate with data sources like BigQuery to automatically update and show the impact of solutions on key business metrics at each journey step. Dan emphasizes, “This helps in terms of showcasing: Hey, what are we doing about this? How are we making an impact on the business beyond just providing journey maps?” He explains that TheyDo's approach turns static journey maps into a contextual decision-making engine, enabling businesses to understand and act on what's occurring with end customers and employees.

How TheyDo's journey framework is used as a living Management dashboard

Dan showcased how TheyDo uses its own journey framework as a Management dashboard to drive decision-making and track progress. He noted, "This is our L0 TheyDo journey framework. We review our journeys weekly, updating key KPIs across different areas."

This internal dashboard integrates various journey levels and metrics automatically updated with real-time data and insights. This allows TheyDo to make informed decisions based on the latest information, from C-level and leadership down to each team.

Best practices to implement a Journey Management dashboard

Dan provided practical advice on implementing a Journey Management dashboard, emphasizing the need for a structured framework and the importance of integrating qualitative and quantitative data. He showed how TheyDo uses its own dashboard to manage and optimize journeys. “As you're thinking about structuring your journeys or about how you might want to use them to impact your business metrics, find a way that it works with your organization,” Dan advised.

"Some customers focus heavily on defining their playbook or glossary, outlining what each level means and how they use specific terms within journey management. I recommend this approach, as adding clear definitions around your journey structure is immensely helpful. It's also important to take a step back and consider the overall impact you’re trying to drive," he added.

Get behind the dashboard and drive business impact

The webinar underscored the crucial role of Journey Management in driving business impact. Through practical examples, detailed explanations, and real-time demos, Dan and Jochem provided a comprehensive guide to building a Journey Management dashboard. "The excitement and positive feedback we receive from customers about using Journey Management to transform static artifacts into actionable dashboards have been incredibly rewarding. It's clear that this approach resonates deeply with organizations looking to enhance their customer experience strategies,” Dan enthused. 

Ready to take a deeper dive? Jump to the specific chapters below to hear Dan and Jochem “geek out” on journey frameworks to give you more valuable insights.

00:00 Welcome

02:00 Introducing Dan Sullivan

04:28 Insights from the Success Team setting customers up for success

08:34 Customer story: The tale of the Fireside Chat

12:55 Journey levels explained

19:11 Example of an end-to-end journey: rollup and nested journeys

23:45 Advice on how to present the journey framework and talk about journeys internally

29:30 TheyDo's Management Journey

37:35 Data rollup new feature

38:40 Track the impact on business value

43:58 Bringing together 'What we do' and 'What they do'

49:07 Journey Mining with AI: privacy for enterprises

51:44 Questions around journey ownership

57:08 Wrap up and goodbye