I’ve recently been doing quite a bit of work (and hypothesizing) on journey mapping for customers of telco services. I had been conceptualising the journeys starting from channels such as a retail outlet (eg O2A – order to activate), from an online store (eg U2C – usage to cash), from an IVR (eg T2R – trouble to resolve), etc. From there, they typically bounce around between various channels depending on user behaviours and solution designs.
However, a slightly new perspective has just dawned on me today, despite speaking about the complexity funnel for years. If I’m trying to identify hot-spots where we can improve efficiencies, visualising journeys through the various customer channels is going to be worthwhile, but it’s missing the real starting point – as starting point further upstream that is probably going to have an even greater impact on efficiency. The real starting point is the constructs that the services are built upon.
The product offer / contract / SLA, the product features, the network topologies, the system integrations, the marketing process, etc are all laid out before the first service ever comes online. C2M (Concept to Market) is a journey in its own right.
From now on, my journey maps will start with the constructs that the services are built upon (and constrained by) so that they visualise the upstream complexity entering the journey.