Why So Many SaaS Startups Are Embracing Technical Customer Journey Mapping

While we hesitate to call it a trend... 👀 one thing our team at Axiss IO has been genuinely hyped to see in 2025 is a rise in Customer Journey Mapping—CJMing, if you will 😏.

More fast growing start ups are leaning into mapping their customer journey before they start to scale. In fact, over 71% of companies now use journey mapping to inform strategic decisions (Adobe for Business). When you hear the results – 90% of companies that use CJMs report increased customer retention, fewer customer complaints, and higher NPS – it makes clear that journey mapping is way more than a trend (Up, Inc.). It’s a practice at the core of the most successful revenue engines.

We’ve noticed a real uptick in CJM-focused client engagements this year. Here’s what we're seeing in our own CJM projects as the steps that most reliably spark insights and alignment:

1. Talk to everybody: We interview stakeholders across all GTM functions—and then dig even deeper: your newbie BDRs, veteran AEs, marketing ops, and CS leaders each provide unique insight. That diversity helps reveal disconnection you might miss otherwise.

2. Audit your systems: Before we map, we audit. A CJM is only as strong as the data and systems behind it. We dive into your CRM, tools, and data sources looking for tech and redundancies, missing integrations, and flows in need of optimization. 

3. Map visually – with a tool like Miro: Collaboration platforms like Miro, Flowmapp and FigJam by Figma let your teams see the map, comment and co-create in real-time. Using Miro we’ve been able to transparently collaborate with clients to achieve the maps they really want and deserve. For more specific guidance, templates, and multi-layered maps more specific Customer Journey Management tools like UXPressia and JourneyTrack are appearing in the market. (User Interviews)

4. Get executive and contributor buy-in—early: When the map is ready we do an in-depth review with key stakeholders and executives to ensure alignment. If we gathered enough perspective and dove deep into their processes, none of the insights from our findings should really be a surprise. At this point the goal is consensus on a path forward and ensuring the buy-in and support necessary to make changes happen. 

Honorable mention: When the interviews and audits are over, and the map is done, we schedule quarterly check-ins (for general maintenance) and a one-year check-in to review the map top-to-bottom. This iteration is how we ensure proactive enablement of revenue growth for our CJM clients. 

Organizations that want to achieve (or maintain) fast growth can't afford fumbled handoffs, messy data, or misalignment between Sales and Success. A technical customer journey map surfaces procedural gaps and bottlenecks that hurt their execution, then combines deep procedural knowledge with technical understanding to super charge revenue growth. That’s way more than a trend. This practice done right produces a clear roadmap to how your team can execute smoother and smarter, growing your operations—and the revenue that comes with it.

TL;DR 

• Talk to diverse GTM contributors – not just function heads. Everyone from SDRs to execs can provide valuable insight to the inner workings of GTM motion. 

• Audit your systems and data first – Ensure you’re starting from the best position with clean, informative data. Ensure you have somewhere to go by taking into account every system you have at your disposal.

• Put it on the board – Choose a collaborative tool that fits your workflow to super charge team collaboration and help ensure transparency along the way.

• Get buy-in early – A map’s no good if you don’t “get up and go”. Regroup with key stakeholders and executives to confirm the path forward and ensure everyone’s along for the ride.

• Iteration is key – Continue to update regularly so you never outgrow your revenue engine. The timing can depend on your org. 

When was the last time your team did a little CJMing?

Ready to go deeper?

• View the infographic here (PDF)

• Or schedule a discovery call to explore how a technical customer journey map can sharpen your RevOps strategy.