Journey Design Services
Drive retention & build an engaging customer journey
OUR PROMISE
We help you nail retention
Have you ever spent months building a working version of your product – only to find out that that customers WEREN’T sticking around?
We’ve learned this painful (& expensive) lesson ourselves — multiple times. And we decided to do something about it.
We’ve helped create high-retention hits like The Sims, Netflix, Tetris, Bejeweled, Rock Band, Replika and Ebay. Every one of these hits is built around a journey — a journey that engages the customer leveling up over time.
That experience led us to develop Journey Design — a system to help you design and validate a high-retention 30-day customer journey for your product.
And now we can help you to build a high-retention product in only 10 weeks, and keep customers coming back. Here’s how we do it.
Working with Amy Jo is like having a world-class product designer in your pocket
Eugenia Kuyda
CEO, Replika.ai
Amy Jo has a refined, effective process for bringing new ideas to life
Blair Ethington
VP @ eBay
Amy Jo’s program & insights gave me practical, tangible design skills.
Gina Bianchini
CEO, Mighty Networks
SUCCESS STORIES
Trusted by startups, studios & leading brands
Journey Design uses techniques from the games industry, where the pace of innovation is relentless, and creating a great user experience is everything.
And guess what? The same methods that make games engaging can make your product irresistible & tip the scales towards success.
Teams at Disney, Netflix, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, NYTimes & dozens of startups use Journey Design to boost retention & validate early-stage ideas faster.
Want details? Check out our Journey Design success stories.
You’ve got to find your own window of opportunity. Game Thinking is your instruction manual.
Garry Tan
CEO, Y Combinator
PRODUCTS
Shiseido
We helped Shiseido fix retention, refine customer targeting & boost online sales for a new product
GAMES
Covet Fashion
We helped Crowdstar (now part of EA) design a hit mobile game that’s still going strong after 10+ years.
APPS
Replika
We helped AI chatbot Replika find their core audience, and boost long-term retention.
Want to help your team validate ideas faster & get product breakthroughs?
This program had invaluable impact on my product thinking – AND my product
Chris Swain
Professor @ USC Iovine and Young Academy
Want to use Jobs-To-Be-Done to build the right product? You’re in good hands with Amy Jo
Bob Moesta
Founder, ReWired Group
Game Thinking is WAY better than gamification. The more I learned, the more in love I fell with it
Jared Spool
Founder, Makers of Awesomeness
THE PROCESS
How we deliver results
After working with dozens of startups, we’ve learned that fastest way to boost retention is to design a 30-day customer journey based on real customer needs, then validate your end-to-end Journey with lo-fi storyboards. To do this, you need to:
- identify & recruit your ideal high-need customers
- design a compelling customer journey & habit loop
- prototype your ideas with no-code end-to-end Storyboards
- test your ideas with ideal customers using those storyboards
But let’s face it — most founders don’t have the research, design & testing resources needed to do this. That’s why we created the Journey Design Sprint — we design a 30-day customer journey for you in 10 weeks. Here’s how we do it.
1. DISCOVERY
Who are my ideal customers & what do they need?
The first step is to find out whether there’s a real market for your product idea, and which customer needs or pain points you should address.
We’ll help you find high-need customers & understand what they need.
2. DESIGN
How will my product fit my customer’s life?
The next step is to design a highly engaging 30-day user experience, built on existing habits, that helps customers make consistent progress toward their goals.
We’ll help you design a compelling habit loop & customer journey.
3. STORYBOARDING
How can I prototype my ideas without building?
To quickly prototype & tune retention, draw a concept storyboard prototype of your 30-day customer journey. It’s faster and more effective than building a working prototype.
We’ll help you prototype & visualize your 30-day customer experience
Proprietary GEN-AI PLATFORM does the heavy lifting for you
When you’re building a new product, speed counts.
That’s why we developed the JourneyMaker, our AI-powered platform that automates many of the most difficult and time-consuming steps in early product research and development. JourneyMaker helps you:
- Write targeted customer surveys
- Extract behavior patterns (Jobs) from customer interview transcripts
- Generate customer journey storyboards with GenAI
4. VALIDATION
How do I test my ideas with a Journey Prototype?
Once you’ve prototyped your ideas, you can run concept tests with ideal customers & find out whether you’re on the right path.
We’ll help you set up and run insightful tests with the right people.
WORK WITH US
Which level of service is right for you?
If you want us to design a high-retention journey for your product, enroll in our Journey Design Sprint.
We help you boost retention by researching, designing, prototyping & testing your customer journey in just 10 weeks.
What you get
- Private Kickoff meeting
- Team meetings as needed
- We identify your ICP, design a high-retention journey, & validate that design with Concept Testing.
- We deliver a Product Brief with your updated Journey Design & customer insights
If you want ongoing product design support at an affordable price, sign up for our Coaching program.
Get the advice, feedback, and coaching you need to get to product-market fit quickly, and build a high-retention product
What you get
- Coaching meetings 1-2 times/month
- 40 short videos + 50-page workbook
- Access to JourneyMaker
(AI-powered design tool) - Private Team KIckoff session
- Peer Group of product leaders for extra support
If you want to level up your team with cutting-edge design techniques, take our Workshops.
We offer public and private workshops. Amy Jo Kim has given inspiring presentations at TED, gaming & product conferences.
Workshop topics include:
- Journey Design — the secret to long-term retention
- Concept Storyboards — prototype your journey fast
- Habit Design — turn using your product into a habit
- Smart Gamification — beyond points and badges
This program changed how we design; it delivers powerful insights fast
Kacie Hsu
Research Director @ EA
Finally, I have a method to track innovation projects & help my team build hits
George Ogbonnaya
VP @ First City Monument Bank
I was amazed at how quickly we found our ideal target customers. This stuff works.
Robin Allenson
CEO & Founder, Similar.ai
Let’s explore how we can help you succeed.
Book your Discovery Call here ➜
Enquire about our Product Breakthrough Services
Who we are
Pleased to meet you 👋🏽
Amy Jo Kim
Game designer & startup coach
I’ve helped hundreds of product leaders bring ideas to life – co-designed Rock Band, The Sims, eBay, Covet Fashion, & Happify – run & sold a venture-funded startup.
Now I help innovative teams & leaders find product/market fit faster & delight customers with high-retention products & games.
Scott Kim
Educational game designer
I’m a game designer specializing in puzzles & education games. I created the puzzle modes on Tetris & Bejeweled as well as helped to create adaptive math game Mastering Math for education giant ABCmouse.com.
I’d love to help you build more entertaining & effective product & games.