How to manage 100+ journeys effectively? / Florian Vollmer / Episode #168

Service Design Show

Journey Mapping is, without a doubt, one of the most important tools we use. We spend a lot of time and effort to create the most impactful maps we can.

It’s all part of the job:
* Dozens of workshops
* Hours doing user research
* And weeks of sensemaking.

The perfect journey map. Success! But what comes after the map?

Unfortunately, in most cases, it’s used... and then stowed away. The map becomes single-use artifacts, forgotten. Used once, then too difficult to keep updated for when a new design challenge comes along. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

And this brings us to our guest for this week's episode: Florian Vollmer. I dare to say that Florian has cracked the code when it comes to managing journeys on a large scale. How large? His team works with 100+ journey maps and 500+ innovation opportunities globally.

I couldn’t imagine it was possible when I first heard that. But today, Florian not only brings our stowed-away journeys back to life but integrates them with a hundred more. Effectively breaking down silos and fueling collaboration. Avoiding rework and overcoming internal resistance. No easy task. Florian needed to find the connection – something that tech, business, CX, and every other department would embrace.

In this episode, you'll hear how Florian transitioned from journeys as (very useful) single-use artifacts to being the backbone of ongoing CX innovation. We’ll learn about:
- How you can build a repository of journeys even when you don’t get the explicit task to do so.
- What the key criteria are for selecting the right journey management tool?
- And how you need to tweak the service design process when you want to reach 100% journey coverage.

No matter where you are in your service design journey (no pun intended), this conversation has the potential to take it to the next level! I really enjoyed the pragmatism in Florian's stories. Sometimes you need to let go of common practices and just do whatever it takes.

Enjoy the conversation.

- Marc

--- [ 1. GUIDE ] -—

00:00 Welcome to episode 168
03:45 Who is Florian
06:45 Lightning round
09:45 Operating at scale
13:15 What do you manage
14:30 Who is the team
16:00 How did it start
21:00 Finding broader adoption
26:00 Where do you find the time
28:15 What is the brief
31:15 Beyond service designers
34:00 Importance of tools
40:15 Crossing the tipping point
42:45 Simplifying complexity
46:45 Lessons learned
49:00 Taking more time
50:45 Meets sustainability
52:15 Big questions
55:15 Closing thoughts

--- [ 2. LINKS ] ---
* https://www.linkedin.com/in/florianvollmer/
* Thinking in Systems (book) - https://amzn.to/40lcJAB
* DMI article - https://www.dmi.org/page/ADMC2022proceedings (pdf - page 254)

--- [ 3. SELLING SERVICE DESIGN WITH CONFIDENCE ] ---
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