User Research CJM To-Be Traced to As-Is

Customer Journey: To-Be

Emma's ideal path to the same job, inside Tendd. Each step traces to a concrete As-Is barrier and is reconciled with the already-locked structure. Target emotions are projected design goals, not measured.

Emma, 29 · The Anxious Non-Looker

Primary persona × J-MAIN · bank path

When I suspect I am paying for things I forgot about or never use, I want to see all my recurring charges clearly in one calm view, so that I feel in control of my money without needing to become a finance person. personas.md Persona 1; jtbd.md Part 1

The key result of this map: every To-Be step is covered by the already-locked structure (flows.md Flow A, the wireframes, D1 to D5); none contradicts it. The CJM validates that the built structure already covers Emma's As-Is pains, rather than surfacing a gap.

The ideal path

To-Be journey

The same trigger still brings Emma here; the difference starts at arrival. Where As-Is met her with a bank wall and lost her, To-Be shows value first, then inverts the friction pit into a gradual, paired-with-action reveal.

Step 1

Arrive without a bank demand

Cautious curiosity

Closes: the bank wall (zone 1) and the calm gap (zone 3).

Needs: a calm sample-list preview plus a plain-language trust statement.

welcome.html · Flow A

Step 2

Choose a path, equal footing

In control

Closes: the forced bank demand (P3).

Needs: dual paths, equal weight, none preselected.

path-choice.html · D2

Step 3

Connect with a read-only promise

Reassured

Closes: fear of what apps access (P3, O16/O17).

Needs: plain-language data explanation and the read-only trust line.

connect-bank.html · voice.md

Step 4 · H0 crux

The Guided Reveal

Relief + agency ? H0

Closes: cryptic (zone 2), overwhelm (zone 3), all-or-nothing shock (zone 4).

Needs: enrichment, gradual count to categories to total, total paired with an action.

guided-reveal.html · D1

Step 5

Land on the calm list

Calm control

Closes: cryptic on the card (P2), overwhelm (P4), the incompletion.

Needs: calm list plus total; Detail with a plain-language "what is this charge".

home.html · subscription-detail.html

Step 6

A gentle return hook

Sustained calm

Closes: no return hook (zone 5).

Needs: basic price-change and payment-failure alerts, free, active voice.

alerts.html · Flow D · D3

Contrast

Projected curve

The To-Be curve is the projected inversion of the As-Is pit: it rises from cautious curiosity to relief and sustained calm. It is a designed target, not a measurement, so it is drawn dashed. The reveal peak is gated by the riskiest assumption H0.

To-Be, projected target As-Is, for contrast reveal peak is gated by H0 (untested with avoiders)

The one thing not confirmed. Step 4's target emotion (relief and agency) is the projected payoff that the riskiest assumption H0 gates. It is designed to D1 but not validated with actual avoiders. The clickable-prototype test with 5 to 8 screened avoiders is the close (strategy.md section 5).

The working list

Backlog and MVP

This refines the existing MVP core (strategy.md D3, jtbd.md Part 5, CLAUDE.md), not a second parallel list. Priority is relative to this path: MVP means the reveal path breaks without it; LATER means the path works without it.

#	Feature	Priority	Parent (barrier / job)	Success (AARRR)	Covered by
B1	Value-before-bank onboarding (calm preview + trust statement)	MVP	zone 1, zone 3 / J1	Activation	welcome, path-choice
B2	Dual activation paths, equal weight	MVP	P3 / J1, J5	Activation (path split)	path-choice; D2
B3	Plain-language data explanation + read-only line	MVP	P3, O16/O17 / J1, E3	Activation	connect-bank; voice.md
B4	Transaction enrichment (real names, logos, categories)	MVP	zone 2 / J3	Activation (the aha)	display covered; pipeline is new
B5	Guided Reveal: gradual, total paired with an action	MVP	zone 4, zone 3 / J-MAIN	Activation 35-40%; H0 here	guided-reveal; D1
B6	Calm list + monthly total; Detail "what is this charge"	MVP	P2, P4 / J-MAIN, J3	Activation + Retention	home, subscription-detail
B7	Basic alerts (price change, payment failed), free	MVP	zone 5 / J4	Retention 30/60%	alerts; Flow D; D3
L1	Weekly email digest and home-screen widget	LATER	J4 / retention	Retention	retention layer
L2	Full cancel guides + direct links (Pro)	LATER	J2 (Claudia)	Revenue	cancel-guide; D3
L3	History and trends; advanced alerts (Pro)	LATER	J4 depth	Revenue 6-10%	history-trends, upgrade; D3
L4	Privacy-safe share snapshot	LATER	S1 ?	Referral 15-20%	share-snapshot
L5	Household / shared view	LATER	JH1 ?	-	deferred (Segment C)
L6	Full privacy build: manual + 400+ presets	Ravi	J5 (Ravi)	Activation (privacy)	add-subscription; Flow B; D2

Confirmed by the To-Be map: jtbd MVP Core Jobs 1 to 3 (reveal + trust, real names, privacy path), strategy.md D3 free scope, and aarrr.md "Activation is everything" (B5 carries the primary activation metric).

Refined: value-before-bank preview made an explicit MVP item (B1); enrichment split into the covered display versus the new backend pipeline (B4); the reveal pinned to gradual plus paired-action (B5, per D1).

Stale in the old core - now aligned: CLAUDE.md free tier used to list "up to 10 tracked subscriptions" and "connect up to 2 bank accounts", which contradicted locked D3 (free = full, uncapped visibility) and broke Emma's reveal directly: a cap truncates the list, so she cannot see all her charges and cannot feel relief. Resolved in Step 11 (commit 0dac829): the caps were removed from CLAUDE.md and the free tier aligned to D3. Not a new decision, an alignment to an already-locked one.

Audit

Risks and reconciliation

Reconciliation (the load-bearing result): every To-Be step is covered by the locked structure (Flow A, the wireframes, D1 to D5), and no step contradicts it. The CJM is the emotional cross-check that confirms the built IA and wireframes already cover Emma's As-Is pains.

Three most dangerous questions

1 H0, not closeable by desk research. The whole MVP core (the B4 + B5 + B6 reveal) delivers a moment whose emotional payoff is unproven with actual avoiders. The clickable-prototype test with 5 to 8 screened avoiders is the gate (strategy.md section 5). The single most consequential open item.

2 Enrichment feasibility (B4). The reveal's quality depends on the enrichment pipeline covering the user's real charges with recognizable names and logos. If coverage is thin, the reveal shows cryptic codes anyway and B5 fails. Partly checkable (Rocket Money uses Plaid enrichment), partly a build-time risk.

3 B7 scoping. Whether the return hook is MVP or LATER for the J-MAIN focus is a scoping call; it is a retention bet beyond H0, and the retention hypotheses it rests on are ? in aarrr.md. Kept MVP for now, flagged for revisit.

Boundary note

The To-Be starts at "Arrive". What brings an avoider to Welcome is the same surprise-charge trigger from As-Is, which the product cannot create; it can only be ready when it happens. How an avoider is acquired is an AARRR Acquisition question outside the in-product journey.