Insights that move thinking.

Signal vs noise: what actually belongs on a journey map

You have seen the map. Somewhere around step four sits a number in a coloured box telling you that 34% of customers reported frustration there, and it makes the artefact feel like it was built on evidence rather than workshop opinion. Then you open the same map a month later and the figure has not moved a decimal place. The temptation is to call it stale, but is it really? In this article we will work through what separates a genuine signal from ordinary variation, which signals earn a place on the map, how to present them so they stay useful, and why even a good signal quietly stops being one.