Product Overview

This note is specifically focused on customer experience (CX) mapping for work in digital product management. In digital, there’s a major focus on the idea of "product-market fit" (p-m fit). The basic idea is that when you have this fit, you’re ready for profitable scaling—and the reverse is also true. That said, even in digital where the fixed-cost economics can make such growth wildly profitable, scaling p-m fit for durable, profitable customer relationships is ongoing. This is true of flashy, household-name consumer products, and it’s also true of enterprise software, where the relationship between buyer and user is more diffuse. As a product manager (PdM), you won’t be able to market effectively to every segment; you’ll have to choose. You won’t be able to add every feature that sounds promising; you’ll have to choose. Worse still, you’ll be wrong a lot of the time. The good news is that as a PdM, your job isn’t to be right all the time; your job is to minimize waste. CX mapping is a way to establish a consistent, testable perspective of what success means. That way, if a lead channel or a segment or a feature underperforms, everyone knows why and (with a deft touch) is still energized to move to the next thing. That's the "why" of CX mapping, and this note will teach you all about the "how."