Opportunity maps tell a story of possibility, priority, and value. They provide a platform for exploring the potential for business and design impact. They prioritize what’s essential for both users and the business.

First, Opportunity Mapping clarifies customer needs and pain points. Like Journey Mapping, it proves valuable in bringing visibility to stakeholders of the opportunity space. Opportunity maps also boost user adoption through better decision-making: The more stakeholders understand user priorities, the better they shape relevant solutions.

Next, mapping your opportunities helps raise the inflection point of user desirability. They answer the question: Where can the business gain value alignment with user needs?

Why this matters: Understanding the opportunity space from the perspective of customers is critical to bringing balance to the goals of your business and, more importantly, your customers.

Finally, aligning opportunities with Key Results is critical. Opportunity maps can inform OKR’s (Objectives and Key Results). Likewise, bringing MVPs (Minimum Viable Product) in line with MDPs (Minimum Desirable Product) is advisable for good  Agile UX collaboration. This starts with understanding a holistic cross-channel, touchpoint perspective of your opportunities.

In this way, Opportunity mapping for UX is a valuable design decision-making artifact with tremendous potential to positively influence stakeholders toward acting on evidence-based UX and Service Design.