In Episode 5, we explore the power of simplification in journey work, not as a reduction, but as a refinement. It’s about distilling your journey to the essential elements that drive action.

Simplifying structure for stakeholder action

Structural complexity remains one of the biggest blockers in journey management. When everything feels equally important, nothing gets prioritized.

Many journey maps are rich in detail and visually impressive. They shine in workshops and presentations, sparking those all-important “aha!” moments. But if they don’t lead to real decisions or change, what’s the point?

Even if you’ve defined your business challenge, grounded your journey in evidence, used AI to surface insights, and refined your draft, your structure still needs to support follow-through.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to structure journeys with purpose, so they:

• Enable fast, confident decision-making

• Focus attention on what matters most

• Align with real workflows 

Part 1: Building your structural foundation

The most effective journeys follow a deceptively simple structure. Start with a minimal foundation and only add complexity when it directly serves stakeholder needs.

Step 1: Start with essential lanes only

Begin with these four lanes, and expand only when needed:

Metrics Lane:
Quantitative data showing current performance and targets

Insights Lane:
Key customer experience findings from your research

Opportunities Lane:
Problem statements derived from insights, reframed as positive opportunities

Solutions Lane:
Specific actions and initiatives addressing opportunities

Why these four? Because they map directly to your workflow needs:

• Data analysts and performance managers gravitate toward metrics

• Researchers and CX teams own insights

• Product and strategy teams focus on opportunities

• Development and implementation teams drive solutions

Each lane has clear ownership and purpose. So, there are no debates about what goes where, or endless categorization discussions that slow progress to a crawl.

Step 2: Design for your stakeholders

When designing your journey structure, think of your internal stakeholders as customers too. Structure should serve the people who act on the journey, not just describe the people in the journey.

Before adding complexity, ask:

• Which stakeholder will own this information?

• What specific action will they take because of it?

• How does this help them do their job better?

If you can’t answer clearly, you probably don’t need that additional complexity. Leave it out.

Step 3: Focus on outcome-relevant phases and steps

Instead of mapping every micro-interaction, focus on meaningful outcomes that require cross-functional support.

For example, in onboarding:

• Week 1: Welcome and orientation

• Week 2: First value delivery

• Week 3: Community connection

• Week 4: Advanced feature introduction

Each phase should be a prompt for action. If needed, you can open a phase into a few concise steps to add context. Even a single step can be more descriptive than the phase name.

For example, a phase called welcome and orientation might include a single step labeled I attend the orientation session. A phase called community connection might have two steps: I attend a community event in person, and I discuss with other members in the community forum.

These steps don’t have to be in strict sequence; they can also run in parallel.

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  Quick test:

Part 2: Advanced applications

Once you’ve built the foundation, these techniques help you manage complexity without losing clarity.

Managing complexity with nested journeys

What about edge cases, branching paths, or granular steps? This is where nested journeys become your most effective tool.

Think of it like maps:

• Strategic level: City overview (major districts, highways)

• Tactical level: Neighborhood maps (details for execution)

Your main journey offers strategic visibility. Nested journeys handle details without cluttering the big picture.

Smart nesting strategy

Start with the journey that addresses your current business challenge. Then expand:

• Need more detail? Nest journeys underneath.

• Need broader context? Create a higher-level lifecycle journey and nest your current journey within it.

In TheyDo, insights, opportunities, and solutions roll up in different ways to help you keep structure lean while still seeing the bigger picture. From AI-powered summaries and automatic experience graphs to progress tracking via nested building blocks, you can explore how each of these works in more detail through the linked guides.

Part 3: Handling common questions

These scenarios come up in every journey management implementation. Here’s how to handle them while keeping your structure simple and actionable.

Scenario 1: As-is versus to-be journeys

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  The question:

Approach 1: Hierarchical separation

Use your high-level journey as an aspirational “to-be” vision—broad enough to stay relevant, specific enough to guide decisions. Nest your current-state “as-is” journeys beneath it.

This approach works especially well for established organizations with ongoing research and live customer data. As-is journeys stay updated in real time, while progress toward the future state is reflected through data roll-up into the high-level view.

Approach 2: Living evolution

Start with an assumption-based “to-be” journey and continuously enrich it with real data as it becomes available. Instead of managing separate views, you evolve a single journey from assumption to reality.

Many organizations combine both approaches, depending on team maturity and the complexity of their operations. 

Scenario 2: Multiple journey paths

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  The question:

The problem with traditional approaches: Capturing every path quickly becomes overwhelming. For example: Customer pays by credit card, invoice, or bank transfer, then receives a confirmation email or SMS, and logs in via desktop or mobile...

The action-biased solution: Focus on high-impact, actionable insights instead:

• Payment method flexibility issues — from customers struggling with limited options

• Missed confirmation notifications — based on feedback around failed communication

Each insight reflects a general area of friction your team can address. You can always drill into the underlying data and quotes later if more detail is needed.

This approach keeps your journey structure clear and actionable—while still offering traceability back to the supporting research when decisions require deeper context.

The signal vs. noise decision framework

At the heart of simplification lies one critical skill: distinguishing signal from noise.

• Signal = Information that directly enables stakeholder action

• Noise = Information that’s interesting but doesn’t prompt action.

The litmus test

For every piece of information you're considering including, ask:

• Which stakeholder needs this to do their job?

• What specific action changes based on this information?

• What happens if we don't include this?

Be ruthlessly honest. That detailed customer sentiment analysis might be fascinating, but if it doesn't change how customer service trains its team or how product prioritizes features, it's noise.

Key takeaways

The most impactful journey maps aren't the most comprehensive; they're the most useful. Here's your action plan:

Foundation first

• Start with essential lanes only: metrics, insights, opportunities, solutions

• Design for stakeholder workflows: Every lane should have clear ownership and purpose

• Focus on outcome-relevant steps: Map meaningful outcomes, not micro-interactions

Advanced techniques

• Use nested journeys strategically. Start where your business challenge is, and expand as needed.

• Handle as-is versus to-be thoughtfully. Choose the approach that fits your organizational context.

• Prioritize actionable insights over detailed stories. Focus on what drives organizational response.

Always remember

You can always add complexity later. You can rarely subtract it once stakeholders are used to it.

What’s next?

Take a hard look at your current journey structures. Ask yourself: are they built for admiration, or action? The answer will determine whether your journey management efforts become transformational tools or expensive wall art.

Further exploration

Watch Episode 5 for a complete walkthrough as Marc and Tingting demonstrate these concepts within actual journey projects.