Mentoring AI in Research - Part 1b: From Personas to Journey Maps

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Nov 6
3 min read

Updated: Nov 12

Cover slide titled “Mentoring AI in Research Part 1B: From Personas to Journey Maps.” Background shows colorful sticky notes symbolizing UX synthesis.

Part of the “Mentoring AI in Research” series - guiding AI like a junior teammate across the UX process.

💡 Missed the first part? Read Part 1a - From Interviews to Insights to learn how to guide AI through transcripts and clustering before diving into personas and journey mapping.

TLDR

Now that AI has clustered insights from your research, the next step is helping it connect the dots. In this post, you’ll learn how to mentor AI through persona creation, user-flow simulation, and journey-map building. With the right prompts, AI stops guessing and starts thinking like a UX partner while you stay the design lead providing empathy and context.

Step 3: Synthesizing Personas

After clustering pain points, it’s time to ask AI to visualize who those insights represent. AI can summarize data patterns, but without clear boundaries it tends to fill in blanks with assumptions.

To guide AI:

Reference only real quotes and themes from transcripts.
Emphasize motivations and frustrations over demographics.
Keep personas broad enough to represent clusters but specific enough to inspire empathy.

Slide titled “Step 3: Synthesizing Personas.” Text reads “Guide AI to draft realistic personas grounded in real user data... not stereotypes or assumptions.

Mentoring Moment 3

Keep AI grounded in what’s real... not what sounds persona-like.

Prompt example:

You are a UX strategist who is an expert in creating user personas grounded in real data. Using the key themes, quotes, and pain points we synthesized, create two personas that represent our users. Focus on motivations, behaviors, and frustrations drawn from the data. Do not invent demographics unless supported by evidence.

Why it matters: AI can mirror your structure but not your intuition. It’s your role to rein in assumptions and bias and ground every output in truth.

Step 4: Drafting a User Flow

Once personas are defined, you can coach AI to simulate how each one would navigate a task. Give AI a realistic scenario, context, and screenshots (or interface descriptions) so its response reflects true user behavior.

Slide titled “Step 4: Drafting a User Journey Flow.” Text explains that simulating behavior with personas and screenshots helps surface friction points.

Copy-and-Paste Prompt: RTCFF for AI-Generated User Flows:

Check for areas within the prompt to insert your specific information.


Role: You are an expert UX researcher and interaction designer. You specialize in mapping step-by-step desktop user flows based on real interview feedback and observed behavior.

Task:
Create a detailed user-flow walkthrough for [insert product or feature name] that shows each step a user takes to complete [insert user goal]. 

For every step, include:
User action (what they do or click)
System response (what happens next)
User thought or expectation
Friction or confusion encountered
Whether the step feels clear, neutral, or confusing

Context:
The flow represents real user behavior based on qualitative research data (interview transcripts, observed actions, and clustered pain points).

Constraints:
Limit to about 10–12 steps.
Focus on the desktop experience.
Keep all examples grounded in realistic user behavior.
Label each step clearly (Step 1, Step 2, etc.).
Format:
Step 1: [Brief description]  
• Action:  
• System Response:  
• Thought:  
• Friction:  
• Clarity:

Mentoring Moment 4

AI simulates behavior but it never replaces real users. Use its findings to shape better questions for future testing, not as validation.

Slide reads “AI simulates behavior but never replaces real users. Use its findings to guide deeper questions.”

Leadership lesson: Treat AI’s flow as a draft, not a decision. It should spark debate, not close it.

Step 5: Building the Journey Map

With personas and flows established, you can mentor AI to assemble everything into a journey map. Ask for a structured layout that shows:

Phases of the experience
User actions and thoughts
Emotions and pain points
Opportunities for improvement

Slide titled “Step 5: Building the Journey Map.” Text explains mentoring AI to organize flows and personas into a map covering actions, emotions, and pain points.

What the Journey Map Should Capture

AI should map each phase, user action, emotion, and pain point and highlight related opportunities for improvement. This helps you see not just what users do, but how they feel throughout the journey.

Slide lists journey-map elements—phases, actions, emotions, pain points, and opportunities—for AI to structure.

Mentoring Moment 5

Refine the journey map by highlighting emotional load and linking opportunities back to your research goal. A map is only as valuable as the empathy and action it inspires.

Slide reads “Refine the map by highlighting emotional load and linking opportunities back to your research goal.”

The Leadership Lesson

AI can assemble structure quickly but only you can interpret its meaning. It’s design leadership that transforms AI’s organized data into empathy-driven strategy.

Your role isn’t to out-automate AI... it’s to mentor it into something useful for humans.

Conclusion: Raising the Bar on AI-Assisted Research

By coaching AI through personas, flows, and journey maps, you’re not outsourcing insight... you’re amplifying it. AI helps you see patterns faster and with your leadership… it gives those patterns meaning.

A slide that describes what the next part in the series will cover. part 2: insight Translation: Turning Clusters in Design Opportunities

👉 Up next: Part 2 - Insight Translation: Turning Clusters into Design Opportunities