ITIL 4 DSV cheat sheet

Customer journey = the end-to-end series of touchpoints and interactions a customer experiences with a service provider over time, from initial awareness through to exit or renewal.

Journey mapping records stages, customer actions, touchpoints, channels, emotions, and pain points; it is a diagnostic tool, not a process model.

A touchpoint is any point of interaction between the customer and the service provider; a channel is the medium through which that interaction occurs.

Moments of truth are touchpoints where customer perception of value is decided; pain points are touchpoints producing negative emotional response or friction.

Journey stages are defined from the customer's perspective, not the provider's internal process steps; a stage boundary is crossed when the customer's goal changes.

Customer journey is one of the four dimensions of the ITIL 4 DSV model alongside demand, offering, and experience; experience is the perceived outcome across the journey.

Journey improvement decisions use the same value-stream logic: identify the constraint or friction, then change the value stream that produces it.

A journey map is validated with real customer data (feedback, analytics, interviews); maps built only from internal assumptions are hypotheses, not evidence.

Demand = the need or desire for products and services from customers and other stakeholders; it is the input that justifies supply.

Demand is characterized by volume, pattern (seasonal, cyclical, random), and type (e.g., new, repeat, urgent); each drives different capacity responses.

The demand and supply model: understand demand, then decide whether to satisfy it with existing capacity, defer it, or influence/reduce it.

Demand management activities include forecasting, shaping (influencing customer behavior via pricing, incentives, or service design), and managing unfulfilled demand.

Supply is the capacity and resources available to meet demand; the goal is balance, not maximum supply or maximum demand suppression.

Excess demand relative to supply creates queues and service degradation; excess supply creates waste and cost - both are imbalances to be managed.

Demand can be shifted in time (scheduling, appointments), in place (channel or location), or in nature (self-service, automation of a request type).

Service consumption is the customer's use of a service; demand is the precursor to consumption and is captured at the point of request or forecast.

A service offering is a formal description of one or more services designed to address the needs of a target consumer group; it may include goods, access to resources, and service actions.

A product is a configuration of an organization's resources designed to offer value to a customer; a service offering is the customer-facing packaging of that value.

A service relationship includes service provision (provider side) and service consumption (consumer side); the offering defines what is provided.

Service offerings should be described in customer terms (outcomes, utility, warranty), not internal technical terms.

Utility = the functionality offered (what the service does, fitness for purpose); warranty = assurance of performance (fitness for use: availability, capacity, security, continuity).

A service offering is not the same as a service level agreement; the SLA is a documented agreement about the offering's warranty terms.

Service catalogue entries describe available offerings and their dependencies; a service portfolio includes offerings in all states (planned, live, retired).

The offering must align to the demand it addresses; a mismatch between offering design and demand pattern is a source of dissatisfaction.

Customer experience = the sum of functional and emotional interactions a customer has with an organization's services across the journey.

Experience is subjective and perceived; it cannot be fully controlled by the provider, only influenced through touchpoints and outcomes.

Functional elements (reliability, speed, ease) and emotional elements (trust, confidence, frustration) both contribute to perceived experience.

Experience measurement uses direct feedback (surveys, interviews, sentiment), indirect indicators (complaints, repeat contact, churn), and operational data (response times).

Customer satisfaction, customer effort, and net promoter style measures capture different aspects; no single metric fully represents experience.

Experience is an outcome of the service value chain; poor experience signals a failure in value streams, not necessarily in a single process.

Experience must be evaluated per journey stage and touchpoint, since aggregate scores hide localized pain points.

Experience is linked to the other three DSV dimensions: unmet demand and misaligned offerings degrade experience, and journey friction is where experience is lost.