Multi-Persona Journey Map
A multi-persona journey map — stages across the top, an experience curve per persona, feeling and thinking beneath — where the curves have to separate, or the second persona is decoration. Six fields.
We made two examples: adopting a pattern library, and for Harbour Row joining a boatyard. In one, the junior peaks where the designer bottoms out; in the other, the first-time owner peaks on the work night that turns the retired shipwright into unpaid staff. Both pairs swap back by the last stage: the same process, felt in opposite directions.
The personas' curves separate and cross. Here the junior's rises to a peak at the stage where the designer's drops, and they cross back at the end. The quotes you supply sit on the turning points. Give a different feeling and thinking pair for each stage; one general pair will simply repeat under every stage. If the curves stay parallel and never touch, the second persona adds nothing, so make their experiences more opposed in the fields.
Generated for this library
Input
Project ADOPTING A PATTERN LIBRARY - why do some teams
reach for it on day one and others never?
Stages hears about it · looks properly · tries it ·
decides · lives with it · tells others
Personas a founder in a hurry · a designer with their own
system · a junior copying whatever they find
Divergence at 'tries it' the junior peaks and the designer
drops - one finally has something safe to copy,
the other finds it contradicts what they maintain
Quotes three, one per persona
Layers feeling and thinking, per stage
Returned 1 map · 16:9 · white, three persona colours
axis six numbered stages across the top, two activity
boxes under each
legend three personas at the left, each a colour, a name
and two lines of description
curves three smooth lines, crossing twice - at 'tries it'
the junior rises through the designer's fall
quotes set small on the peaks and troughs, thin leaders
layers feeling and thinking strips beneath, by stage
note one line at the foot: the curves are qualitativeYou fill in 6 fields — the braced lines at the top. Everything below them is fixed.
- 1The project, and the research question
- 2The six stages, each with two activities
- 3The personas
- 4Where the curves diverge, and why
- 5The quotes, by stage
- 6Feeling and thinking, one pair per stage
Multi-Persona Journey Map
What this makes
A multi-persona journey map — stages across the top, an experience curve per persona, feeling and thinking beneath — where the curves have to separate, or the second persona is decoration. Six fields.
The whole template, in one piece. The steps below are the entire workflow.
How to use it
- Copy the whole template with the button above.
- Replace the six FIELDS lines. Write the fourth one first — name the stage where your personas part company and say why. Everything else is scaffolding around that.
- Paste it into any image-capable agent or model, in one message. One run returns the map.
- Check the curves before shipping: trace them left to right. If they never cross and never separate, you have drawn one curve in three colours.
What you swap
- The project, and the research question
- ADOPTING A PATTERN LIBRARY — why do some teams reach for it on day one and others never?
- The six stages, each with two activities
- hears about it (sees a link, skims it) · looks properly (opens a page, copies one thing) · tries it (pastes it in, fights it) · decides (keeps it, forks it) · lives with it (updates, hits a gap) · tells others (teaches it, complains)
- The personas
- a founder in a hurry, ships tonight · a designer with their own system, ten years of habits · a junior copying whatever they find, wants to not look lost
- Where the curves diverge, and why
- at 'tries it' the junior peaks and the designer drops — the junior finally has something safe to copy, the designer finds it contradicts a system they already maintain
- The quotes, by stage
- "I just need the one that works." · "This fights everything I already built." · "I didn't know there was a right way."
- Feeling and thinking, one pair per stage
- 1 hurried / is this faster than writing it? · 2 curious / who else uses this? · 3 relieved / can I just paste this? · 4 wary / will I have to undo it? · 5 stuck / why is there no page for mine? · 6 proprietary / this is how we do it now
Before it runs
- Personas who genuinely differ. If two of yours would feel the same at every stage, they are one persona and the map should carry one curve.
- A moment you can point at where they part company. That moment is the finding — without it the map is a decorated timeline.
- Quotes you actually heard, or none. This artefact reads as fieldwork, and invented quotes in it are invented research.
When to reach for it
When different people meet the same process and do not experience it the same way: onboarding, a service, a purchase, a membership. Templates in this style draw two or three lovely curves that rise and fall together, which is one curve drawn three times.
What changes
- One research-grade map: a stage axis with activity boxes, a persona legend, coloured experience curves, quotes on the peaks and troughs, and feeling and thinking layers below.
- Curves required to cross or separate at named stages, since that divergence is the only reason to draw more than one.
- The divergence explained rather than implied, so a reader learns why one persona struggles where another sails through.
- Quotes taken from the fields, because invented user quotes in a research artefact are invented findings.
- A stated note that the curves are qualitative, so nobody reads them as measurement.
Pairs with
- Concentric Capability ModelA concentric capability model — one subject, three rings, four sectors — where depth means prerequisite rather than decoration. Six fields.
- Converging Causes DiagramA convergence diagram — several causes funnelling into one hub and out to its effects — governed by the rule that keeps such a diagram true rather than merely tidy. Six fields.
- Exploded Axonometric DiagramAn exploded axonometric that pulls one site apart into stacked transparent layers — kept on white and kept analytical, because the temptation is to render it dramatic and lose the drawing. Six fields.