When designing for emerging technology—especially in zero-to-one products— journey mapping shifts from being a tool for identifying existing pain points to a method for hypothesis building and exploration.

For a lot of what we're working on there are no established workflows, no well-worn paths, and, often, no users who can articulate what they need. That’s because when you’re designing something entirely new—say, an AI-de[ployment tool—you’re creating a future users can’t yet imagine.

My team and i call this, designing for the unknown, and it demands a different mindset and approach, especially to journey mapping.

If you’ve ever tried to ask potential users about a future technology—“How would you use an AI agent to do X?”—you'll likely hear a response that fits their limited mental model. That’s because customer research falls short when the problem space is unfamiliar or the solutions are hard to imagine. In emerging tech, journey mapping becomes a way to explore and test hypotheses about what users might need, how they might interact with your product, and where value can emerge.

When the future is undefined, journey mapping becomes a way to collaboratively imagine possibilities and validate assumptions.

Why All Journey Mapping Isn't The Same

In established products, user journey maps highlight existing workflows and pain points—things users already do. But in emerging technology, there are few, if any, existing workflows. Users don’t know what’s possible. They can’t point to a process because it doesn’t yet exist.

The risk here is building a product based on assumptions that feel “obvious” but don’t actually align with real user behavior. I wrote about this in Designing for the Unknown: Why Customer Research Falls Short in Emerging Technology, asking customers to describe a future they can’t yet imagine almost always leads to unhelpful or misleading insights.

So the goal of journey mapping in these cases is not to document current tasks but to imagine, test, and validate the workflows and interactions of the future.

A Framework for Hypothesis-Driven Journey Mapping

1. Always Understand The Problem Space

In zero-to-one products, everything starts with the problem. You might not know the exact workflows, but you can define the user’s underlying goals, frustrations, and constraints.

What problem are we trying to solve?
Who experiences this problem? (Early hypotheses about your user personas.)
Why hasn’t it been solved yet?

Example: If you’re designing an AI-powered network triage tool, the problem might be that network teams struggle to predict and mitigate system issues before they happen.

Tip: Frame problems as opportunities. Instead of asking users what they want, ask what’s hard, what’s broken, and what an ideal outcome might look like.

2. Create Hypothetical User Journeys

Here’s where you shift from documenting existing behavior to designing future workflows. Start by brainstorming hypothetical scenarios:

What tasks would users try to accomplish with your product?
What new workflows might emerge if the technology solved their problems?
What moments could make or break the user’s success?

At this stage, your journeys are educated guesses—working hypotheses that you’ll test later.

Example Hypothesis: For an AI-powered tool, “Users will trust the system to autonomously surface problems and recommend solutions without requiring manual data analysis.”

3. Test Hypotheses with Prototypes

Lay out the hypothesis in stages of the journey, imagining how users might interact with your product. We build low-fidelity prototypes at this point that simulate the workflows we've imagined:

Now go see how your audience responds to your hypothesis

Can users understand the journey?
Do they trust the interactions? (Especially critical for AI-based systems.)
Are there steps that feel unnecessary or confusing?

And instead of asking users “What do you need?” focus on observing their reactions to the prototype. Watch for hesitation, confusion, or unexpected workarounds.

Example: In an AI diagnostics tool, do users trust the system’s suggestions, or do they hunt around looking for a way to double-check its conclusions?

4. Iterate and Refine

Emerging tech is inherently ambiguous. Your first hypothesis won’t be perfect, it may even suck and that’s fine. Use insights from testing to refine your journeys:

What assumptions were wrong?
What steps need to be reimagined?
Where did users experience friction or lack trust?

Over time, your hypothetical journeys will evolve into validated workflows that deliver real value.

Journey Map to Explore and Just Go For It

When building products in emerging technology, user journey mapping is less about documenting the present and more about imagining the future. It’s a tool for exploration, hypothesis building, and iteration—a way to align teams and test ideas before you invest in building complex systems.

Users can’t always articulate what they need in a future they can’t yet envision. Your job as a designer is to surface possibilities, create tangible prototypes, and guide users toward discovering what’s valuable—together.