In this episode, we focus on defining a clear business challenge—the crucial first step in journey management that ensures your CX efforts drive real, measurable outcomes.

In effective customer experience (CX) management, the most impactful starting point isn’t a polished journey map or sophisticated CX program. It’s a clearly defined business challenge.

By grounding your journey management strategy in a well-articulated business challenge, your CX initiatives align directly with meaningful business outcomes. Starting with the problem enables focused efforts, streamlined collaboration, and measurable results.

Why begin with a business challenge?

Starting from a clear business challenge ensures that CX activities directly relate to what matters most for your organization. This approach:

• Drives business outcomes: Connecting CX efforts to tangible goals like customer retention, revenue growth, or cost optimization demonstrates immediate business value.

• Clarifies focus and scope: Explicit challenges prevent teams from getting lost in vague or overly broad improvement initiatives.

• Accelerates alignment: A clear challenge creates urgency and naturally brings teams together around a shared goal.

Crafting a strong business challenge

A well-articulated challenge statement typically includes:

1. A clear "Why?"

   For example: “Why is our customer churn rate increasing?” This invites in-depth exploration using qualitative insights—customer needs, pains, gains, and observed behaviors.

2. Contextual focus

   Specify which journeys or customer segments are affected to ensure precision and relevance.

3. Measurable outcomes

   Use clear, quantifiable performance metrics, like churn, revenue, or operational costs, to track and report progress objectively.

4. Defined timeline

   Set a realistic, ambitious timeframe (e.g., within six months) to maintain momentum and accountability.

5. Action-oriented framing

   Conclude with a prompt like, “…and what are we doing about it?” This naturally leads to identifying actionable opportunities and practical solutions.

Aligning stakeholders and scoping realistically

Clear challenges foster shared understanding and alignment, from senior executives to frontline employees. When everyone sees how their work supports business goals, momentum builds.

Make sure your challenges match your scope and influence. A product team might not own overall churn, but they can drive the adoption of specific features that reduce it. Realistic, well-scoped challenges build credibility, deliver quick wins, and lay the groundwork for broader improvements.

Turning insights into impactful actions

Identifying the challenge is only the beginning. To move from insights to results, take cues from others who’ve done it well.

One telecom company increased marketing spend, expecting more transactions, but saw no change. Only after analyzing qualitative feedback did they realize aggressive sales tactics were damaging trust. That insight led to a strategic pivot aligned with customer needs.

Follow a similar path:

• Explore deeply: Use qualitative and quantitative data to understand root causes.

• Define opportunities clearly: Frame problems as actionable opportunities before jumping into solutions.

• Execute deliberately: Implement strategically, monitor closely, and iterate.

• Communicate impact: Share outcomes often to reinforce your journey management success.

Make every journey count

Start with one business challenge. Clearly articulate the problem you’re trying to solve and how it connects to your organization’s strategic goals. This focused starting point helps you prioritize, align stakeholders, and ensure your journey work delivers real impact.

This guide is part of a growing series of best practices for effective journey management, inspired by The Journey Management Playbook series, featuring Tingting Lin.

Watch Episode 1 of the Journey Management Playbook to learn how starting with the right challenge sets the stage for better decisions and stronger CX outcomes:

Next up: See how combining data within journeys turns static maps into live tools for decision-making, in Episode 2.