The difference between a journey map and a process map you drew

4 days ago
3 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

Introduction

A business sets out to map the customer journey and produces, almost every time, a description of its own workflow. Enquiry received, passed to estimator, survey booked, quote produced, follow-up scheduled, order processed. It looks like a journey map, it is drawn like one, and it contains no customer at all.

The distinction is not academic. A process map tells you how your work flows and is useful for that. A journey map tells you what the buyer is experiencing and where they are lost, which is a completely different question with completely different answers. Confusing the two is the single most common reason the exercise produces nothing.

1. The difference between a journey map and a process map is whose actions are recorded

The test.

Read each item and ask who did it. If most of them are things your business does, you have drawn a process map regardless of the title on it. This test takes two minutes and resolves the question definitively.

2. A journey map contains what the buyer is trying to do

The defining row.

Their objective at each stage. A process map has no equivalent, because a workflow has steps rather than intentions. This row is also the one most frequently missing from attempted journey maps.

3. A journey map includes what happens without you

The scope difference.

Comparison, discussion with a partner, an internal approval, a period of doing nothing. These are central to the journey and absent from any process. They are also where most of the deciding happens.

4. A process map ends where your work ends

The boundary difference.

Journeys start before the buyer knew you existed and continue after delivery. Process maps start at the enquiry and end at the invoice, which omits both the most competitive and most valuable parts. Extending the boundary is frequently the single biggest improvement to an existing map.

5. They measure different things

The metric difference.

Process maps measure your throughput and cost. Journey maps measure conversion, elapsed time and where buyers are lost. Both are worth having and neither substitutes for the other. Mixing the metrics produces a report nobody can act on.

6. Internal handovers belong on the process map

The item that migrates.

Passing an enquiry from reception to the estimator is a step for you. What the buyer feels is having to explain themselves twice, which is what belongs on the journey map.

7. Draw both, separately

The practical resolution.

Two documents, each doing its job. The process map improves efficiency; the journey map improves conversion. Combining them produces something that does neither well.

8. Check the journey map for the word "we"

The quick diagnostic.

Every "we" is a candidate for the process map. A journey map should read almost entirely in terms of what the customer does and needs.

9. Use the journey map to decide what to fix

The purpose.

Where the process map identifies waste, the journey map identifies loss. In a business that is not short of work, the second is usually the more valuable document.

Be careful about discarding the process map. Discovering that you drew the wrong document does not make it worthless — it is genuinely useful for delivery, capacity and cost, and it should be kept rather than rewritten.

Conclusion

Check whose actions are on the page, because most journey maps are process maps.

Include what the buyer is trying to achieve at each stage, cover the parts of the journey that happen entirely without you, extend the map before first contact and beyond delivery, expect the two documents to measure different things, keep internal handovers on the process map while recording what the buyer feels on the journey map, draw both separately, scan for the word "we" as a quick diagnostic, and use the journey map to decide what to fix.