The Dark Knight and User Journeys

In The Dark Knight, the Joker slowly pokes at Harvey Dent, forcing him to make decision after decision, ultimately revealing his true nature. This is key for a good antagonist in any film. They’re a difficult force for the protagonist to overcome. I believe there is a parallel to the protagonist and antagonist relationship in a film to customer journeys with products and processes. Customers deal with an antagonizing force they must overcome, and they seek products or services to remedy the issue.

Recently I began deep diving into screenplays, and one of the interesting tips I learned is how true character nature reveals itself through decision making. Does a character fight or run? Does a character cry or internalize? Does a character empathize or stonewall? Similar to customer journeys, customers are making decisions throughout a product or service tree. In the context of a broken laptop, do customers fix it on their own or call for help? Do they pay top dollar for the fix or cheaply patch it up? Do they delay a fix or get it done immediately? It’s these type of decisions that help define what a customer is enduring, and allows for product teams to empathize with their users.

Conclusion Ultimately, as an audience, we want to see the protagonist grow, change, and succeed by overcoming the antagonist. Similarly, product teams want their customers to overcome their antagonists so they can complete their job to be done.