Free tool

A user journey map template with a working emotion curve.

Editable stages, six standard rows, and a visible emotional curve that automatically flags the lowest point as the moment to fix first. Pre-filled with a worked example so you can see it working before you touch anything. No signup to use it.

Edit the example ↓How to run a mapping session

What this is

One artefact, read left to right.

A journey map fixes a single person and a single goal, then tracks what they do, where it happens, what they are thinking, how they feel, where it goes wrong, and what could fix it -- stage by stage, from first contact to ongoing support. It is deliberately not a flowchart of your system; it is a record of someone else's experience of it, which is usually less tidy and more useful.

The builder

Edit the example, or clear it and start your own.

This is a worked example for an insurance broker portal renewal, close to the kind of process our own in-house clients ask about. Every field is editable: rename or reorder stages, add or remove them, and set the emotion for each stage from the scale provided. The grid scrolls sideways on narrow screens so nothing else on the page has to.

Map titlePersona / userTheir goal

PRIORITY MOMENT TO FIX — Support (Very negative)

Stage	Stage 1 name	Stage 2 name	Stage 3 name	Stage 4 name	Stage 5 name
Emotion	Emotion at Awareness Very negativeNegativeNeutralPositiveVery positive	Emotion at Consideration Very negativeNegativeNeutralPositiveVery positive	Emotion at Onboarding Very negativeNegativeNeutralPositiveVery positive	Emotion at First use Very negativeNegativeNeutralPositiveVery positive	Emotion at Support Very negativeNegativeNeutralPositiveVery positive
ActionsWhat the person actually does at this stage	Actions at AwarenessReceives a renewal notice email 30 days before expiry	Actions at ConsiderationLogs into the broker portal to compare last year's cover against this year's quote	Actions at OnboardingConfirms cover, updates one outdated business detail, pays by card	Actions at First useDownloads the new policy schedule to file for the firm's records	Actions at SupportCalls the broker six months later after a minor incident, to ask if it is covered
TouchpointsWhere/how it happens -- channel, page, person, document	Touchpoints at AwarenessAutomated email from the broker portal	Touchpoints at ConsiderationBroker portal, PDF policy schedule, a phone call to the broker	Touchpoints at OnboardingBroker portal checkout	Touchpoints at First usePortal document library, email confirmation	Touchpoints at SupportPhone line, hold music, eventually a human
ThoughtsWhat they are thinking, in their own words if you can	Thoughts at Awareness"I need to deal with this before it lapses, but not today."	Thoughts at Consideration"Why has the premium gone up 18% when nothing about the business changed?"	Thoughts at Onboarding"That was quicker than I expected."	Thoughts at First use"I hope I never actually need to claim on this."	Thoughts at Support"I have been on hold for 22 minutes and I still don't know if I'm covered."
Pain pointsWhat is confusing, slow, or frustrating	Pain points at AwarenessThe email buries the renewal date in the third paragraph	Pain points at ConsiderationNo explanation for the price change is shown anywhere -- has to call and wait on hold	Pain points at OnboardingBusiness details form re-asks for information already on file from last year	Pain points at First useCannot tell from the schedule alone what is and is not covered	Pain points at SupportNo way to check coverage for a specific situation without calling and waiting
OpportunitiesWhat could be changed to fix or improve this	Opportunities at AwarenessPut the date and the deadline in the subject line	Opportunities at ConsiderationShow a one-line reason for any premium change next to the number, before she has to ask	Opportunities at OnboardingPre-fill last year's details and only ask what has changed	Opportunities at First useA plain-English summary page above the legal schedule, not instead of it	Opportunities at SupportA "would this be covered" self-check tool in the portal, with an escalation path to a human if it can't answer

Export your map

Running the session

How to run the session that produces one.

Pick one persona and one goal. A map that tries to cover every user type at once collapses into generic mush -- do a separate map per persona if you need more than one.
Gather what real evidence exists first: support tickets, call transcripts, analytics drop-off, past user interviews. A map with zero evidence behind it is a guess wearing a template.
Bring the people who touch each stage -- support, sales, onboarding, whoever runs the process -- not just the design team. They will correct assumptions the room would otherwise never notice.
Fill Actions and Touchpoints first. These are the rows people actually know the answer to, and they keep the Thoughts and Emotion rows honest rather than invented.
Score Emotion last, one stage at a time, and let the curve show you where things are worst before you start debating fixes.
Treat the lowest point the tool highlights as the first thing to validate with real users -- not the first thing to build a fix for.

Be honest about this

A map from a room is a hypothesis, not research.

If this map came out of a workshop rather than real user data, it tells you what your team believes is true about the experience -- which is genuinely useful, because it turns vague worry into specific, checkable claims. It does not tell you what is actually happening. Before spending real budget against a pain point on this map, go and check it: watch a session, read the support tickets, run a handful of interviews. The map is the question, not the answer.

Questions

FAQ

What is a user journey map?

A user journey map lays out what a specific person does, thinks, and feels as they move through stages of doing something with your product or service -- from first hearing about it through to using it and getting support. It is read left to right, stage by stage, and its job is to show where the experience breaks down, not just what happens.

How do I run a session that produces one?

Start from real evidence if you have it: support tickets, call transcripts, analytics drop-off points, or a handful of user interviews. Bring the people who actually touch each stage -- support, sales, product -- into the room, agree the stages first, then fill Actions and Touchpoints before Thoughts and Emotion, because the factual rows keep the emotional ones honest. Expect 60-90 minutes for a first pass.

Is a journey map built in a workshop reliable on its own?

No. A map built from a team's assumptions in a room is a hypothesis about the experience, not a measurement of it. It is a genuinely useful hypothesis -- it tells you what to go and check -- but treat every pain point on it as something to validate with real users, support data, or session recordings before you commit budget to fixing it.

What does the emotion curve actually show?

Each stage gets a score from very negative to very positive. Plotted across the stages, the shape of that line is the fastest way to see where an experience currently feels worst -- the tool marks that low point automatically as the priority moment to fix, because that is usually where the biggest single improvement is available.

Take it further

Want your map emailed to you as a PDF?

Leave your details and we'll send a formatted copy of a journey map, plus a short worksheet for running the session with your own team.

Part of a set

Fix who this journey belongs to first with the User Persona Builder, or sort raw research into what they say, think and feel with the Empathy Map Builder.

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