Customer Journey Map for Students | Entrepreneurship Activity

Customer Journey Map - Entrepreneurship Example

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Lesson Plan Overview

Template and Class Instructions

Lesson Plan Overview

A product is more than the thing you sell. It is every step a customer goes through: noticing the problem, hearing about you, buying, using, and telling a friend (or not). A customer journey map tells that story one step at a time, which makes it a natural fit for a storyboard. Students follow their persona through the journey and mark how the customer feels at each step. The low points show where the business can lose a customer; the high points are what the pitch should brag about.

This activity adapts the method in our Customer Journey Mapping article, which businesses use to find problems in their own customer experience.

Before You Begin

Prerequisite: the persona from Customer Persona. The journey belongs to that persona, not to "a customer."
Time needed: 45–60 minutes.
Feelings: ask students to add a face, a thought bubble, or a 1–5 rating to each cell so the ups and downs are visible at a glance.
Assessment: students identify the lowest point in the journey and propose one specific change to fix it.

The Six Steps

STEP	WHAT STUDENTS SHOW	EXAMPLE: TAGBACK
1. Trigger	The moment the customer feels the problem.	Maya gets a text: Jordan lost another hoodie. Feeling: 1 of 5.
2. Discover	How they first hear about the product.	A TagBack flyer in the parent newsletter: "Never buy the same hoodie twice."
3. Decide and Buy	What convinces them, and how they pay.	She reads that no phone number is shown and orders a $10 family pack online.
4. First Use	Setting it up. Is it easy or annoying?	Maya and Jordan put tags on six items, but the instructions are confusing and one goes on crooked. Feeling: 2 of 5. (The low point.)
5. The Magic Moment	When the product delivers on its promise.	A classmate scans the tag on the bus; Maya gets a message and the hoodie is home that night. Feeling: 5 of 5.
6. After	Do they buy again or tell someone?	Maya posts in the class group chat; three parents order.

Discussion

Ask: which step would you fix first, and how? (TagBack's answer: a 20-second video on the package showing how to put on the label.) Compare journeys across teams; most students are surprised how many customers they could lose before the magic moment ever happens.

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Template and Class Instructions

(These instructions are completely customizable. After clicking "Copy Activity", update the instructions on the Edit Tab of the assignment.)

Student Instructions

Create a storyboard that maps your persona's journey with your product, from the problem to telling a friend.

Click "Use This Template" from the assignment.
Use your persona as the main character in every cell.
Show the six steps: trigger, discover, decide and buy, first use, the magic moment, and after.
In each cell, show how the customer feels with a face, a thought bubble, or a rating from 1 to 5.
Under the lowest-rated cell, write one change your business will make to improve that step.
Save and submit your storyboard.

Customer Journey Map - Entrepreneurship Template

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Lesson Plan Reference

Grade Level 9-12

Difficulty Level 3 (Developing to Mastery)

Type of Assignment Individual, Partner, or Group

Type of Activity: Diagram a Process

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Lesson Plan Overview

This activity adapts the method in our Customer Journey Mapping article, which businesses use to find problems in their own customer experience.

Before You Begin

Prerequisite: the persona from Customer Persona. The journey belongs to that persona, not to "a customer."
Time needed: 45–60 minutes.
Feelings: ask students to add a face, a thought bubble, or a 1–5 rating to each cell so the ups and downs are visible at a glance.
Assessment: students identify the lowest point in the journey and propose one specific change to fix it.

The Six Steps

STEP	WHAT STUDENTS SHOW	EXAMPLE: TAGBACK
1. Trigger	The moment the customer feels the problem.	Maya gets a text: Jordan lost another hoodie. Feeling: 1 of 5.
2. Discover	How they first hear about the product.	A TagBack flyer in the parent newsletter: "Never buy the same hoodie twice."
3. Decide and Buy	What convinces them, and how they pay.	She reads that no phone number is shown and orders a $10 family pack online.
4. First Use	Setting it up. Is it easy or annoying?	Maya and Jordan put tags on six items, but the instructions are confusing and one goes on crooked. Feeling: 2 of 5. (The low point.)
5. The Magic Moment	When the product delivers on its promise.	A classmate scans the tag on the bus; Maya gets a message and the hoodie is home that night. Feeling: 5 of 5.
6. After	Do they buy again or tell someone?	Maya posts in the class group chat; three parents order.

Discussion

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Template and Class Instructions

(These instructions are completely customizable. After clicking "Copy Activity", update the instructions on the Edit Tab of the assignment.)

Student Instructions

Create a storyboard that maps your persona's journey with your product, from the problem to telling a friend.

Click "Use This Template" from the assignment.
Use your persona as the main character in every cell.
Show the six steps: trigger, discover, decide and buy, first use, the magic moment, and after.
In each cell, show how the customer feels with a face, a thought bubble, or a rating from 1 to 5.
Under the lowest-rated cell, write one change your business will make to improve that step.
Save and submit your storyboard.

More options

Copy This Storyboard

Lesson Plan Reference

Grade Level 9-12

Difficulty Level 3 (Developing to Mastery)

Type of Assignment Individual, Partner, or Group

Type of Activity: Diagram a Process

Copy Activity

How to Run the Customer Journey Map Activity in Storyboard That

Check that personas are finished

Each student or team needs a completed Customer Persona, because that persona is the main character in every cell of the journey.

Assign the journey map template

Assign the six-step template from your Teacher Dashboard. Remind students to add a face, thought bubble, or 1–5 rating to each cell.

Have students map the six steps

Students show trigger, discover, decide and buy, first use, the magic moment, and after, then write one fix under the lowest-rated cell.

Review the low points

Open each submission and check that the fix matches the lowest cell. Comment if every rating is high, since real journeys have a weak step.

Compare journeys as a class

Show storyboards in presentation mode, line up each team's ratings, and discuss where customers are most likely to give up.

Frequently Asked Questions about the Customer Journey Map Activity

How do I grade a customer journey map storyboard?

Give each of the six steps 0–2 points: 1 for showing the step, 2 for also showing the persona's feeling with a face, thought bubble, or 1–5 rating. Add up to 3 points for the fix written under the lowest cell. TagBack's crooked label at first use, fixed with a 20-second video, is a full-credit model.

How long does the Customer Journey Map activity take?

Plan 45–60 minutes. Most students finish trigger, discover, and buy quickly, then slow down at first use and the magic moment, because they have to imagine the product working. Save ten minutes at the end for teams to compare their lowest-rated cells and explain their proposed fix to another group.

Can middle school students make a customer journey map?

The activity is written for grades 9–12, but grades 7–8 can manage a four-cell version: trigger, buy, first use, and the magic moment. Keep the 1–5 feeling rating, since spotting the low point is the main skill. High school students should keep all six steps and support each rating with evidence from their persona interviews.

How do I help English learners describe the customer's feelings?

Give students a feelings scale with faces and words such as frustrated, unsure, relieved, and proud, matched to ratings 1 through 5. Thought bubbles can be short phrases. Walk through Maya's journey aloud, pointing at her face in each cell, before students write. Partners can rehearse the fix sentence together before adding it to the storyboard.

What discussion questions work with a customer journey map?

Ask which step would lose the most customers, and why. Compare journeys across teams: how many possible customers drop out before the magic moment? Then ask what the After step needs for Maya to tell other parents in the group chat. As an extension, have teams redraw their lowest cell with the fix in place.