Creating a journey-enabled operating model

Episode 8 of the Michael Martino Show podcast, hosted by Michael, titled "Creating a journey-enabled operating model" was published on January 31, 2026 and runs 7 minutes.

January 31, 2026 ·7m · Michael Martino Show

Summary

Most government operating models are built around: programs policies channels functional silos.  Government is organized by what it does and  not by what the customer experiences. As a result, the customer journey is fragmented.  A citizen starts a service in one channel, gets handed off to another team, repeats their story, hits a policy boundary, and eventually gives up—or escalates.  No one owns that journey end to end.  Everyone owns a piece of the process.   No one owns the experience.  A journey-enabled operating model flips that logic.  Instead of asking, “How do we optimize our functions?”   It asks, “How do we design the organization around the journeys that matter most?”  What does journey enabled mean? A journey-enabled operating model does three critical things, it: treats customer journeys as managed assets, not artifacts embeds journey accountability into governance and decision-making aligns teams, funding, metrics, and technology around outcomes—not outputs.  This is not about replacing functional structures. It’s about overlaying a journey lens on top of them. Think of journeys as the connective tissue across policy, operations, technology, and service delivery.   Assign journey ownership Here’s where most organizations hesitate.  A journey-enabled operating model requires explicit journey ownership.  Not symbolic ownership. Not advisory ownership. Real accountability. A Journey owner is responsible for: end-to-end experience performance identifying friction and failure points prioritizing improvements across silos advocating for the customer in governance forums.  They do not replace operational leaders, instead, they act as horizontal leaders—cutting across vertical structures.  In mature models, journey owners have: decision rights dedicated capacity a formal role in investment and prioritization.  Without this, journeys revert to PowerPoint slides that collect digital dust.  Build journey-aligned teams A journey-enabled organization does not rely solely on centralized CX teams.  Instead, it creates journey-aligned, cross-functional squads—either permanent or federated—bringing together: operations policy technology data and analytics design and research.  These teams work on continuous improvement, not one-off projects.  They are measured on outcomes like: time to resolution first-contact completion effort reduction trust and confidence.  This is where the operating model shifts from episodic change to ongoing journey management.  Embed journeys into governance This is the hardest—and most important—part.  A journey-enabled operating model changes how decisions get made.  Journeys must be embedded into: portfolio planning investment governance performance reviews executive reporting.  Instead of asking, “Which project should we fund?” Leaders should be asking, “Which journey outcome are we improving?”  Instead of channel-based KPIs, organizations track: journey health drop-off points rework and escalation cross-channel failure demand.  This makes the customer visible in rooms where the customer has historically been absent.  Enable with data and technology Journeys cannot be managed without insight.  A journey-enabled operating model relies on: integrated data across channels journey analytics and flow analysis voice-of-customer and operational signals case and workflow visibility.  This is not about perfect data. It’s about directionally accurate insight that allows teams to see, where: customers get stuck effort spikes policies create friction  Technology becomes an enabler of learning—not just automation.  What does this look like? In organizations that do this well, you see real shifts: fewer handoffs faster service recovery reduced repeat contacts better alignment between policy intent and lived experience.  

Episode Description