User Personas and Journey Mapping with Miro Course

Lesson 1 • Research Methods Overview

Surveys qualitative and quantitative research methods relevant to persona and journey work. Connects method selection to research goals and available resources.

Lesson 2 • Core Principles of UX Thinking

Introduces empathy, iteration, and user advocacy as UX pillars. Establishes the mindset required before any research or mapping activity begins.

Lesson 3 • Stakeholder Alignment and Project Scoping

Covers how to define research scope and align stakeholders before fieldwork. Prevents misaligned deliverables by establishing shared goals early.

Lesson 1 • Organising a Miro Workspace

Teaches project and board organisation strategies for professional UX deliverables. Establishes naming conventions and folder structures used throughout the course.

Lesson 2 • Miro Interface and Navigation

Orients students to the Miro canvas, toolbar, and panel layout. Builds the spatial awareness needed to work efficiently in subsequent exercises.

Lesson 3 • Core Miro Tools for UX Work

Introduces sticky notes, shapes, connectors, text, and images as primary UX artefacts. Demonstrates how each tool maps to persona and journey map components.

Lesson 4 • Real-Time Collaboration Features

Covers multiplayer editing, comments, voting, and permission settings. Prepares students to facilitate remote workshops using Miro.

Lesson 1 • Conducting Interviews and Surveys

Provides facilitation techniques for interviews and best practices for survey deployment. Covers note-taking, recording consent, and managing session logistics.

Lesson 2 • Capturing Data in Miro

Demonstrates how to transfer raw notes, quotes, and observations onto a Miro board during or after sessions. Prepares data for affinity mapping and synthesis.

Lesson 3 • Designing Interview Guides

Teaches how to write open-ended, unbiased interview questions organised by topic. A well-structured guide yields richer, more consistent data across sessions.

Lesson 4 • Recruiting and Screening Participants

Covers screener design, recruitment channels, and sample size decisions. Ensures participants represent the target user population accurately.

Lesson 1 • Extracting User Needs and Pain Points

Teaches how to reframe observations as user needs and pain points using structured formats. Outputs feed directly into persona goals and frustration fields.

Lesson 2 • Affinity Mapping Fundamentals

Introduces affinity mapping as a collaborative sense-making method. Students group sticky notes by theme to surface patterns across multiple participants.

Lesson 3 • Identifying Themes and Patterns

Moves beyond clustering to articulate higher-order themes and behavioural patterns. Themes become the evidence base for persona attributes.

Lesson 1 • Segmenting Users into Persona Groups

Teaches behavioural and attitudinal segmentation to define distinct persona types. Ensures each persona represents a meaningfully different user segment.

Lesson 2 • Validating and Iterating Personas

Covers peer review, stakeholder critique, and lightweight validation techniques. Iteration cycles ensure personas remain accurate as new data emerges.

Lesson 3 • Anatomy of an Effective Persona

Breaks down the essential components of a persona: demographics, goals, pain points, behaviours, and motivations. Distinguishes research-based personas from fictional archetypes.

Lesson 4 • Populating Personas with Research Data

Demonstrates how to translate synthesised insights into each persona field accurately. Covers quoting participants, citing evidence, and avoiding fabrication.

Lesson 1 • Anatomy of a Journey Map

Identifies the standard lanes: stages, actions, thoughts, emotions, pain points, and opportunities. Each lane's role in telling a coherent user story is explained.

Lesson 2 • What Journey Maps Are and Why They Matter

Defines journey maps and contrasts them with related artefacts like service blueprints. Frames journey mapping as a strategic alignment tool, not just a visualisation.

Lesson 3 • Types of Journey Maps

Surveys current-state, future-state, day-in-the-life, and experience maps. Students match map type to project goal and research availability.

Lesson 1 • Mapping Emotions and Pain Points

Teaches how to plot emotional curves and annotate pain points with evidence. The emotion lane transforms a static map into a compelling narrative.

Lesson 2 • Collaborative Journey Mapping Workshops

Covers how to run a live journey mapping session with stakeholders in Miro. Includes facilitation scripts, timing guides, and conflict resolution strategies.

Lesson 3 • Adding Opportunities and Insights

Shows how to translate pain points and emotional lows into actionable opportunity statements. Opportunities make the map a strategic planning tool.

Lesson 4 • Setting Up the Journey Map Canvas

Guides students through configuring a Miro frame with the correct lane structure and stage columns. A well-structured canvas prevents rework during population.

Lesson 1 • Presenting Personas to Stakeholders

Covers storytelling techniques and presentation structures for persona readouts. Tailors messaging to executive, product, and engineering audiences.

Lesson 2 • Embedding Deliverables in Team Workflows

Shows how to integrate personas and journey maps into product planning, sprint ceremonies, and design reviews. Deliverables become living references, not one-time outputs.

Lesson 3 • Maintaining and Updating Deliverables

Establishes processes for keeping personas and journey maps current as products and users evolve. Prevents deliverables from becoming outdated and ignored.

Lesson 4 • Presenting Journey Maps Effectively

Teaches how to walk stakeholders through a journey map to generate alignment and action. Covers Miro's presentation mode and export options.