Experience Debt: Turning scattered knowledge into strategic action
at UX Brighton 2026
Type
talk
This talk introduces Experience Debt, a practical method for capturing, connecting, and resolving user problems to build a shared memory and reveal hidden patterns across products and business outcomes.
People
Chiara Scarabotti
Methods
Research RepositoryCentralised storage, tagging, and synthesis of research insights
Insight SynthesisTurning raw notes, clips and data into shared findings — affinity mapping, themes, opportunity areas — so research informs decisions rather than sitting unused.
Journey MappingJourney mapping brings research about people’s experiences into a shared visual account of stages, actions, thoughts and feelings. It is useful when a service spans multiple steps, teams, places or touchpoints and you need to see where those parts fail to connect. Collect accounts from several users before mapping. Arrange their experiences over time, identify common stages and highlight problems and dependencies. Work with the team so the map informs decisions. Preserve meaningful differences between journeys rather than forcing every participant into a single path; revise the map as further research changes your understanding.