merchant-journey

Merchant Journey Map — Salla Platform

You are mapping a Salla merchant's journey through a specific experience. Journey maps here are not abstract — they reflect real Salla merchants navigating real platform flows, with mobile-first context, Arabic UX, and Saudi e-commerce realities built in.

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Initialization

1. Read knowledge/pm-context.md for pillar context and segment focus.
2. Read knowledge/platform-pillars.md for the pillar's known pain points and touchpoints.
3. Read knowledge/personas/ for relevant merchant personas.
4. Read knowledge/research/ for any existing research to ground the journey in.
5. Read knowledge/feedback/ for merchant feedback related to this journey.

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Step 1: Define the Journey Scope

Ask:

1. "Which merchant journey do you want to map?" Examples:

   • "Merchant's first week on Salla (onboarding to first sale)"
   • "Checkout setup and configuration"
   • "Processing a return and refund"
   • "Launching a Ramadan promotion"
   • "Setting up Salla Shipping for the first time"
   • "Publishing and promoting a new product"
   • "Or describe your own: [custom flow]"

2. "Which merchant persona or segment?" (Nano / SMB / Mid-Market / or reference a specific persona from knowledge/personas/)

3. "What's the research question this journey map should answer?" (e.g., "Where do merchants drop off in checkout setup?" or "What's causing low loyalty program activation?")

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Step 2: Research Context

If knowledge/research/ contains relevant research, use it to populate the emotional states and pain points.

If Slack MCP is available, search for CS tickets or merchant feedback related to this flow.

If no data is available, use knowledge/platform-pillars.md pain points and ask the PM:

• "What do you know about this journey from merchant conversations or CS data?"

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Step 3: Generate the Journey Map

# Merchant Journey Map: [Journey Title]

**Merchant persona:** [Persona name / Segment]
**Journey scope:** [Start point → End point]
**Research question:** [What this map answers]
**Data sources:** [Research used to build this map]
**Created:** [Date]

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## Journey Overview

> [One paragraph summary of this journey — what the merchant is trying to do, how it currently feels, and what Salla's biggest opportunity is]

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## Journey Stages

[Adapt stage names to the specific journey. Example for onboarding: Discover → Sign Up → Configure → Launch → First Sale]

### Stage 1: [Stage Name]

**What the merchant is doing:**
[Concrete actions the merchant takes in this stage]

**Touchpoints with Salla:**
[Which Salla screens, emails, notifications, or CS contacts happen here]

**Device context:**
[Mobile app / Desktop / Both — note expected device split]

**Emotional state:**
[How the merchant feels: excited / confused / frustrated / confident]
Scale: 😊 Positive | 😐 Neutral | 😟 Frustrated | 😤 Blocked

**What's working well:**
- [Positive experience element]
- [Positive experience element]

**Pain points:**
- [Pain point] — *Severity:* [High/Med/Low] — *Evidence:* [Source]
- [Pain point] — *Severity:* [High/Med/Low] — *Evidence:* [Source]

**Arabic/Mobile considerations:**
[Any specific RTL, Arabic language, or mobile UX issues in this stage]

**Quote from merchant:**
> "[Representative quote — in Arabic if authentic, with translation. e.g., 'الصفحة ما تحمل عندي على الجوال' — 'The page doesn't load on my phone'"]"

**Opportunity:**
[Specific product opportunity emerging from this stage's pain points]

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### Stage 2: [Stage Name]

[Repeat structure]

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### Stage 3: [Stage Name]

[Repeat structure]

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[Continue for all stages]

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## Emotion Curve

[Represent the merchant's emotional journey across stages using text visualization]

Stage: | [Stage 1] | [Stage 2] | [Stage 3] | [Stage 4] | [Stage 5] Emotion: | 😊 | 😐 | 😟 | 😤 | 😊 Level: | +3 | +1 | -1 | -3 | +2

**Lowest point:** [Stage with worst experience and why]
**Highest point:** [Stage with best experience and why]
**Critical drop:** [Any stage where experience drops sharply — these are the most urgent opportunities]

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## Key Findings

### Biggest Pain Point
**[Pain]** — [Why this is the #1 issue in this journey. Evidence. Which merchants are most affected.]

### Moment of Delight (if any)
**[What works well]** — [Why this creates a positive experience. What can be learned from it.]

### Biggest Drop-Off Risk
**[Stage / step where merchants are most likely to abandon]** — [Evidence, hypothesis for cause]

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## Salla Platform Gaps Identified

| Gap | Stage | Affected Segment | Severity | Which Pillar Owns It |
|-----|-------|-----------------|----------|---------------------|
| [Specific missing feature or broken flow] | [Stage] | [Segment] | [High/Med/Low] | [Pillar] |
| | | | | |

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## Arabic/Mobile-Specific Findings

[Issues unique to the Arabic or mobile experience in this journey:]

- **[Issue]:** [Description, where in the journey, impact, fix direction]
- **[Issue]:** [Description]

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## Opportunities (Ranked by Impact)

| # | Opportunity | Stage | Effort | OKR Alignment | Recommendation |
|---|------------|-------|--------|--------------|---------------|
| 1 | [Specific opportunity in product terms] | [Stage] | [High/Med/Low] | [KR it supports] | Prioritize |
| 2 | | | | | Explore |
| 3 | | | | | Future |

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## Competitor Reference

[How do Zid, Shopify, or other competitors handle the most painful stage of this journey? What can Salla learn or differentiate from?]

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## Recommended Next Steps

1. [Most immediate action — e.g., "Run `/write-prd` for Opportunity 1"]
2. [Research needed — e.g., "Conduct 5 merchant interviews to validate the Stage 3 pain point hypothesis"]
3. [Cross-team coordination — e.g., "Share Stage 2 findings with the [other pillar] team"]

Write to: knowledge/research/journey-[journey-slug].md

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Behavior Notes

• Mobile-first lens. More than 70% of Salla merchants manage their stores on mobile. Every stage must consider the mobile experience.
• Arabic-first lens. Arabic is the primary language. Text direction, font rendering, and culturally appropriate tone matter in every touchpoint.
• Use real quotes. Arabic-language quotes from merchant research are more powerful than paraphrases.
• Name the pillar that owns each gap. Journey maps that don't assign ownership become shelfware.
• Seasonality awareness. Note if this journey is materially different during Ramadan, Eid, or White Friday — merchants behave differently under peak conditions.