Personas in Journey Mapping
Persona profiles may look similar to the marketing personas or audience segmentations your Marketing team creates. The difference is that, in Journey Mapping, Personas go beyond demographics and buying behavior. They carry a story.
💡 A Persona in Journey Mapping represents a set of shared characteristics, needs, frustrations, and expectations of real customers—or the customers you want to reach.
Why Personas matter in Journey Mapping
Personas are the foundation for creating precise and relatable Customer Journeys. Without them, journeys risk being abstract, generic and disconnected from reality.
By working with Personas, you can:
Bring customer centricity to life – Personas act as a reminder that you are mapping for real people, not abstract data points
Build empathy – They capture what customers care about, what frustrates them and what motivates their decisions
Segment with purpose – Instead of broad categories, Personas allow you to focus on meaningful differences in goals, behaviors and pain points.
The role of Personas for storytelling
The story is what makes a Persona in Journey Mapping different. It’s not just about “who they are,” but also:
What they are trying to achieve
Where they face obstacles
How they feel along the way
This narrative layer makes the Persona relatable, human and actionable. It gives context that helps teams empathize and design better experiences.
A step toward empathy and customer-centricity
Creating Personas is one of the most critical steps in any Customer Experience initiative. By deeply understanding their needs, pains and frustrations, you uncover what truly matters to your customers and users.
And that’s the essence of being customer-centric, to build journeys and solutions with empathy at the core.