Blog · 7 October 2025
Name the Stages Before You Draw the Screens
Why journey maps fail when stages are invented after the wireframes are already locked.
Teams often sketch screens first and retrofit a journey story later. That reverse order hides the moments that never get a screen—support replies, payment waits, notification delays—yet decide whether someone returns.
Start by naming stages from observed events and qualitative notes. Only then decide which stages deserve UI attention. Maps built this way survive redesigns because they describe behavior, not layouts.
If a stage cannot be observed in your analytics within a clear time window, treat it as a hypothesis until instrumentation catches up.