Customer Journey Benchmarking

Compare designs to show improvement and build trust. Design is about understanding and managing change for users and stakeholders. If you change something too much, it might overwhelm users or lead to negative feedback. If you only slightly change an underperforming screen or page, the improvement might not generate the lift stakeholders seek. In the past, understanding a stakeholder’s needs was often enough to add value to design. But now, with established design patterns and increased specialization, designers need to answer a more specific question: How much did this design improve? Lately, I’ve been posting a lot about measuring design. Measuring design helps build trust and transparency in the process, but it’s only helpful if you have something to compare your design. Here are 11 ways to compare your work, also known as UX benchmarking. We use Helio to test. 1. Competitors See how your metrics compare to similar features in competing products. This will show you where you’re strong and where you can improve. 2. Iterations Track metrics across design versions to see if changes make the user experience better or worse. 3. Timeline Look at metrics over time to find patterns, like seasonal changes or long-term trends. 4. Segments Break down metrics by user groups (like age or location) to understand different experiences and make targeted improvements. 5. Journeys Check metrics at each user journey stage to see where users get the most value or run into issues. 6. Platforms/Devices Compare across devices (like mobile vs. desktop) to spot and fix issues specific to each platform. 7. User Goals/Tasks Focus on specific tasks (like completing a task vs. exploring) to see if the product supports what users want to do. 8. Feature Usage Review metrics for individual features to prioritize improvements for high-value or underperforming areas. 9. Geographies Compare by region to see if user experience differs in various parts of the world. 10. User Lifecycle Look at new vs. experienced users to understand adoption patterns and loyalty. 11. Behavioral Triggers Examine how specific actions (like seeing a tutorial) affect user satisfaction and behavior. If these ideas excite you, DM me–we’re focused on finalizing Glare, our open UX metrics framework, for its public 1.0 release (https://glare.helio.app/). We've been refining the ways to benchmark UX design work to support individual product designers and teams. #productdesign #productdiscovery #userresearch #uxresearch

Your customer journey map is missing the 8 touchpoints that matter most. You've optimised your ads, polished your landing pages, and A/B tested your emails to death. But whilst you've been obsessing over the obvious touchpoints, your customers have been forming opinions about your brand in places you've completely overlooked. These hidden moments of truth determine whether customers stick around or silently disappear. The good news? Your competitors are probably ignoring them too. 1. Pre-awareness Influences • What it is: Social conversations & word-of-mouth before formal brand discovery • Why it's missed: Difficult to track & attribute • Optimisation tip: Create shareable content specifically designed for peer-to-peer sharing • Impact potential: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 2. Post-Purchase Onboarding • What it is: The critical first 24-48 hours after purchase when buyers seek validation • Why it's missed: Teams focus on acquisition, not retention • Optimisation tip: Create "success accelerator" emails with usage instructions • Impact potential: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 3. Product Documentation • What it is: Help guides, FAQs, & support materials • Why it's missed: Often delegated to technical teams without marketing input • Optimisation tip: Inject brand personality into help documentation • Impact potential: ⭐⭐⭐ 4. Customer Support Interactions • What it is: The conversations with service teams that shape perception • Why it's missed: Viewed as cost center, not marketing opportunity • Optimisation tip: Create scripts that highlight complementary products/features • Impact potential: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5. Digital "Dead Ends" • What it is: 404 pages, out-of-stock notifications, & other negative pathways • Why it's missed: Seen as technical errors, not opportunities • Optimisation tip: Transform dead ends into discovery points with recommendations • Impact potential: ⭐⭐⭐ 6. Transaction Confirmations • What it is: Receipts, shipping notifications, & order confirmations • Why it's missed: Treated as operational communications only • Optimisation tip: Include personalised next-best action recommendations • Impact potential: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 7. Post-Usage Check-ins • What it is: The period after customer has used your product for intended purpose • Why it's missed: Customer journey maps often end at purchase or initial use • Optimisation tip: Create timely follow-ups based on typical usage patterns • Impact potential: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 8. Community Participation • What it is: Customer-to-customer interactions in forums & social spaces • Why it's missed: Difficult to scale & often understaffed • Optimisation tip: Identify & empower customer advocates within communities • Impact potential: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Your marketing doesn't end where your analytics dashboard stops tracking. The brands that will win tomorrow are already investing in these invisible touchpoints today. Which one will you optimise first? ♻️ Found this helpful? Repost to share with your network.  ⚡ Want more content like this? Hit follow Maya Moufarek.

🗺️ AirBnB Customer Journey Blueprint, a wonderful practical example of how to visualize the entire customer experience for 2 personas, across 8 touch points, with user policies, UI screens and all interactions with the customer service — all on one single page. Discovered via Peter Yang. AirBnB Customer Journey (Google Drive): https://lnkd.in/eaAhwaRw Spotify Customer Journey (High-resolution): https://lnkd.in/eX3NBWbJ Now, unlike AirBnB, your product might not need a mapping against user policies. However, it might need other lanes that would be more relevant for your team. E.g. include relevant findings and recommendations from UX research. List key actions needed for next stage. Add relevant UX metrics and unsuccessful touchpoints. That last bit is often missing. Yet customer journeys are often non-linear, with unpredictable entry points, and integrations way beyond the final stage of a customer journey map. It’s in those moments when things leave a perfect path that a product’s UX is actually stress tested. So consider mapping unsuccessful touchpoints as well — failures, error messages, conflicts, incompatibilities, warnings, connectivity issues, eventual lock-outs and frequent log-outs, authentication issues, outages and urgent support inquiries. Even further than that: each team could be able to zoom into specific touch points and attach links to quotes, photos, videos, prototypes, design system docs and Figma files. Perhaps even highlight the desired future state. Technical challenges and pain points. Those unsuccessful states. Now, that would be a remarkable reference to use in the beginning of every design sprint. Such mappings are often overlooked, but they can be very impactful. Not only is it a very tangible way to visualize UX, but it’s also easy to understand, remember and relate to daily — potentially for all teams in the entire organization. And that's something only few artefacts can do. Useful resources: Free Template: Customer Journey Mapping, by Taras Bakusevych https://lnkd.in/e-emkh5A Free Template: End-To-End User Experience Map (Figma), by Justin Tan https://lnkd.in/eir9jg7J Customer Journey Map Template (Figma), by Ed Biden https://lnkd.in/enkBCkJj Free Figma/Miro User Journey Maps Templates https://lnkd.in/etSB7VqB User Journey Maps vs. Service Blueprints (+ Templates) https://lnkd.in/e-JSYtwW UX Mapping Methods (+ Miro/Figma Templates) https://lnkd.in/en3Vje4t #ux #design