The Customer Journey diagram is a new new diagram type in Elements that helps teams understand and improve customer experiences. It maps out the steps, interactions, and touchpoints a customer goes through when engaging with your business, from initial awareness through to post-purchase support.
What is a Customer Journey?
A Customer Journey diagram illustrates how customers interact with your business across different stages and channels. It’s ideal for:
Understanding customer experiences from the customer’s perspective
Identifying friction points and opportunities for improvement
Aligning business operations with customer expectations
Supporting customer-centric strategy and service design
Each journey stage can include attributes, notes, and supporting data to provide context and clarity.
Who is this feature for?
This diagram type is especially useful for:
CX and Service Designers: To improve customer experience across touchpoints
Marketing Teams: To align messaging with customer expectations
Product Managers: To identify gaps in the product experience
Business Analysts: To analyze customer behaviors and needs
Prerequisites
A free Elements workspace
Permission to create and edit diagrams in your workspace
How to Create a Customer Journey
To create a Customer Journey:
Click the "New" button in the diagrams menu, then "Create blank diagram", and select "Customer Journey" from the list of diagram types. Then click Next.
Give your diagram a name and description to capture the intended scope.
Supported Card Types
The canvas includes only one default shape:
Customer step : Captures specific customer interaction. The resource, by default, is "Customer".
💡 Tip: Specify in detail what happens and what is the experienced outcome for the customer.
Drill Down to Detailed Diagrams
Each stage or touchpoint card can link to a child diagram with more detail. Supported drill-down types include:
Another Customer Journey (for sub-journeys)
Business Process (if you want to capture how the business supports this experience)
Interaction Flow (if you want to capture how the systems automate the experience)
Agent Instruction (if you want to capture how an AI Agent supports the experience)
📘 Example: A “Purchase” stage might drill into a checkout process or payment system workflow.
Best Practices for Building Customer Journeys
To get the most out of your diagrams:
Use consistent stage naming conventions for clarity.
Keep the number of stages manageable to avoid overwhelming complexity.
Document customer emotions and expectations at each stage.
Use drill-downs for detailed pathways instead of crowding the main journey.
Validate the journey with real customer insights whenever possible.
📘 You can read more about best practices in this solution guide