Rethinking Recruitment Through Design: Journey Mapping Training at BCG‍

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In June 2024, we conducted an intensive Journey Mapping Training for the employer branding teams at BCG (Boston Consulting Group) in Amsterdam.

The objective was not just to introduce personas and journey maps as design tools. It was to help the team rethink how recruitment experiences are designed, evaluated, and continuously improved — using structured, evidence-based methods.

The focus: turning candidate experience into something measurable, manageable, and strategically aligned.

Training Structure

The training was structured into three interconnected modules:

1. Personas
2. Journey Maps
3. Journey Map Management
   

Each module combined short theory inputs, applied exercises, and reflection sessions — ensuring that concepts were immediately translated into action.

Personas -building what you actually need (not a Poster Persona)

We started with personas — because effective journey work depends on clarity about who you’re designing for.

But instead of defaulting to the usual persona template, we used our Persona Building Blocks Cards to make the exercise goal-driven.

These cards break persona components into clear categories (for example: demographics and identity, background and context, behaviors and lifestyle patterns, goals/needs, frustrations, and personal drivers).

The point is simple: not every persona needs everything.‍

A persona is only useful if it supports the decisions you want to make.

So the team first clarified what they needed the persona for (alignment, prioritization, communication, recruitment improvements), and then selected only the building blocks that were relevant to those goals.

This helped participants avoid two common traps:

• overloading personas with irrelevant details
• or building vague personas that can’t guide real decisions
  

The result: a persona that was practical, usable, and directly connected to the journey mapping work that followed.

Journey Maps -making the experience visible

With personas defined, the team moved to mapping the candidate journey.

Participants mapped:

• Key stages in the recruitment process
• Candidate actions and touchpoints
• Emotional highs and lows
• Pain points and friction
• Internal dependencies and handoffs
  

By visualizing the journey end-to-end, hidden complexity became visible. Assumptions were challenged. Misalignments surfaced.
The journey map shifted conversations from opinion-based debates to evidence-informed discussions.

Journey Map Management: from artifact to operating practice

Most journey mapping initiatives stop once the map is created.

At BCG, we focused on what happens next.

The third module introduced Journey Map Management — the continuous creation, maintenance, and use of journey maps as part of daily work.

The question we explored was simple:

How does this become part of how we operate — not just something we did once?

The Implementation Game Plan

To close the session, the team developed a concrete implementation action plan tailored to their organizational context.

We used a structured framework to assess five elements:

1. Goals

• What are we trying to improve in recruitment?
  
  • Employer brand perception? Candidate satisfaction? Conversion rates? Internal efficiency?
    

Clear goals anchored journey mapping to measurable outcomes.

2. Activities

We mapped the lifecycle of Journey Mapping inside BCG:

• Develop
• Communicate
• Use
• Iterate
  

This clarified that journey work is not static — it’s cyclical.

3. Resources

• Who owns the maps?
• Where do they live?
• What time, data, and tools are required to maintain them?

4. Enablers

• What already supports adoption?
  
  • Leadership alignment? Strong research culture? Cross-functional collaboration?

5. Blockers

• What could slow or prevent implementation?
  
  • Silos? Competing priorities? Governance constraints?
    

By making enablers and blockers explicit, the team was able to design a realistic roadmap — not an idealized one.

Key Outcomes

As a result of the session:

• The team developed clear personas tied to recruitment strategy
• A structured candidate journey map grounded in shared insight
• Stronger alignment across employer branding stakeholders
• A defined implementation plan to embed Journey Mapping into ongoing workflows
  

Most importantly, journey mapping shifted from being a design exercise to becoming a management practice.

The Power of Combining Expertise

The real impact came from combining disciplines.

By integrating service design tools (personas and journey maps) with employer branding and recruitment strategy, BCG’s team gained a clearer view of the candidate experience — and a structured way to improve it.

When cross-functional expertise comes together, recruitment becomes more intentional, more candidate-centric, and more effective.

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