Build your first journey

Overview

This guide walks you through creating a journey from scratch in TheyDo. By the end, you'll have a journey with phases, steps, lanes, and linked building blocks — the foundation of any journey map.

Use this guide when you're starting a new journey and want to build it manually, without using AI generation.

Before you start

  • You need the Structure permission in your workspace role to add phases, steps, and lanes.
  • You need the Governance permission to create a new journey.
  • If you're not sure what permissions you have, check with your workspace admin.

Steps

1. Create a new journey

  1. Go to Journeys in the left navigation.
  2. Select + New journey.
  3. Choose how you want to start:
    • From a template — starts you with a pre-built set of phases, steps, and lanes. Good if your workspace has a standard journey format.
    • From scratch — opens a blank canvas for you to build freely.
  4. Give your journey a name and select Create.

Your journey opens on the canvas, ready to edit.

2. Add phases

Phases represent the major stages of the customer experience — for example, Awareness, Consideration, Purchase, and Post-purchase.

  1. On the journey canvas, hover between columns to reveal the + button.
  2. Select + Add phase to insert a new phase.
  3. Click the phase title to rename it.

You can reorder phases by dragging them left or right. A journey can have up to 50 phases.

3. Add steps

Steps are the individual touchpoints or moments that happen within each phase.

  1. Hover inside a phase to reveal the + button.
  2. Select + Add step to add a step to that phase.
  3. Click the step title to rename it.

Each phase needs at least one step. If a step is deleted and a phase would be left empty, TheyDo creates a default step automatically.

To mark a step as especially significant, you can flag it as a moment of truth from the step's action menu.

4. Add lanes

Lanes are horizontal rows that span the full journey. They're where you add data, insights, and other content against each step.

There are two types of lanes:

  • Building block lanes — hold cards linked to workspace entities like insights, opportunities, solutions, metrics, and nested journeys.
  • Inline lanes — hold content that lives inside the journey itself, like experience ratings, text notes, channels, and attachments.

To add a lane:

  1. Scroll to the bottom of the journey canvas and select + Add lane.
  2. Choose the lane type you want from the menu.
  3. The lane appears below existing lanes. Drag it to reorder if needed.

You can rename a lane by clicking its header. To remove a lane, open the lane's action menu and select Delete.

5. Add content to lanes

Once you have lanes in place, you can start adding content step by step.

In building block lanes (insights, opportunities, solutions, metrics):

  1. Click the cell in the lane at the step you want to add content to.
  2. Select + Create new to create a new building block, or Link existing to connect one that already exists in your workspace.
  3. Fill in the details in the panel that opens.

In inline lanes (text, experience, attachments):

  1. Click the cell in the lane at the relevant step.
  2. Add your content directly — text, a rating, an image, or a file.

6. Set journey details

Before sharing your journey, add the key metadata that helps your team understand and find it.

  1. Select Details in the top right of the journey header. This opens a side panel.
  2. Fill in the following:
    • Description — a short summary of what this journey covers
    • Status — such as Draft, In review, or Published
    • Owner — the person responsible for this journey
    • Type — the kind of journey, like Current state or Future state
    • Groups and tags — for filtering and organizing journeys in the library
    • Personas — link the personas this journey is relevant to

You can also open the details view as a center modal or full page by right-clicking the Details button — useful if you want more editing space.

Tips

  • Start simple. A few phases and steps are enough to get going. You can always add more lanes and content over time.
  • Use a template. If your workspace has pre-approved journey templates, starting from one ensures your structure matches your team's standards.
  • Mark moments of truth. Use the moment of truth flag on steps that represent high-impact touchpoints — it helps teams prioritize where to focus.
  • Lock lanes you don't want changed. If a lane's content is finalized, you can lock it from the lane's action menu to prevent accidental edits.
  • A journey can have up to 50 phases. A warning appears at 30 phases suggesting you consider using nested journeys instead.