A customer journey map is worthless until you honestly mark where people drop off

Most journey maps list a tidy sequence of happy steps and quietly skip the friction. But the value lives entirely in the gaps, at the points where intent forms and then dies before the next action.

When you map, flag each stage with:
- what the person is trying to do there;
- what concretely blocks or slows them;
- the smallest fix within reach;
- how many people you lose at that step.

Takeaway: map the leaks, not the ideal path, and your priorities order themselves. A pretty end-to-end diagram with no drop-off points is a story, not a working tool.