Unleash Better Insights with StoryMaps
Client: Health EXP
Sector: Health research / workplace wellness
Methods: Participatory journey map workshop, live illustration, proto-persona facilitation
Deliverable: Visual journey map, social media and video assets
The Brief
Health EXP, a think tank focused on menopause in the workplace, needed to conduct generative research on a topic that is both deeply personal and historically under-researched. The challenge wasn't just methodological — it was relational. Getting women to speak candidly about perimenopause in a professional context required a setting that felt safe, collaborative, and worth their time.
Our Approach
We used a participatory journey map workshop — a format we call a Storymap — bringing together experts and professional women going through perimenopause to co-create a shared picture of that experience.
Rather than asking participants to describe their own experience directly, we gave the conversation a focal point: Maya, a proto-persona going through perimenopause in the workplace. As participants imagined her life — her challenges, her decisions, her daily reality — we drew what emerged on a shared screen they could all see and respond to.
The persona created just enough distance. Talking about Maya was easier than talking about themselves — and that ease produced more honesty, more detail, and more nuance than a direct interview might have.
The Process
Step 1 — Pre-session preparation Participants received reading on basic facts about menopause before the workshop. This created a shared baseline, leveled the conversation between experts and non-experts, and signaled that the session would take the topic seriously.
Step 2 — Live Storymap workshop Working from Maya's proto-persona, participants contributed details about her experience as we drew in real time. Each image on the screen invited more — participants built on each other's ideas, added layers, and corrected the picture as it took shape. Experts and lived-experience participants enriched each other's perspectives.
Step 3 — Visual synthesis The resulting journey map was a layered, resonant portrait of the perimenopause transition in the workplace — validated by experts, recognized by the women who had lived it.
Why It Worked
Sensitive research topics require methods that match their complexity. A survey or a standard interview puts the burden of articulation entirely on the participant — they have to find the words, in real time, for experiences that are often hard to name.
The Storymap format distributes that burden. The image does some of the work. Participants react, correct, and add — rather than having to construct a narrative from scratch. The result is richer data, a more engaged group, and a tangible artifact that keeps generating value long after the session ends.
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The Output
A visual journey map that served multiple purposes for Health EXP:
A rich, validated portrait of the perimenopause experience to anchor further research
A recruitment and interview guide, with the journey map used to identify the right participants and questions for the next phase of the study
Visual assets adapted for social media and video content to raise awareness about menopause in the workplace