Journey
Map

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Mapping the emotional peaks and valleys of au pairs across six countries to find out what was really blocking enrollment.

UX Research Journey Mapping International Markets Q2 2020

Au pairs interviewed

Across 6 international markets

Countries represented

Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Italy, Mexico, South Africa

2021

Recommendation approved

Parent-focused Info Meetings implemented

The Problem

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Cultural Care was optimizing for the au pair. But in markets across Latin America and Europe, someone else was making the decision.

The au pair program connects young adults from around the world with American host families for a year of cultural exchange and childcare. Enrollment depended on getting prospective au pairs through a multi-stage application process spanning awareness, consideration, and commitment. The marketing tech team knew the numbers but not the feelings behind them: where were people dropping off, and why?

The challenge was that behavior data alone couldn't answer that. A drop-off in the consideration stage could mean the program felt too expensive, too scary, too uncertain, or that someone at home said no. Without understanding the emotional landscape, any fix would be a guess.

How might we... Understand the emotional drivers behind au pair enrollment decisions well enough to design touchpoints that actually move people forward?

The Process

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Strategic Framework

I structured the research around three questions: what motivates young adults to join, what are their emotional highs and lows along the way, and where are the opportunities to improve the experience and grow enrollment? I mapped those questions against the marketing funnel stages (Awareness, Consideration, Commitment) so the findings would be immediately actionable for different teams rather than landing as abstract research.

International Interviews

I conducted in-depth interviews with seven au pairs across six countries: Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Italy, Mexico, and South Africa. The international spread was deliberate. A finding that holds across markets carries more strategic weight than one that reflects a single cultural context. For each participant, I created an individual journey map plotting their emotional state at each stage of the application process, from first awareness through commitment.

Pattern Analysis

With seven individual maps completed, I looked for consistent emotional signatures across participants. The highs clustered around discovery, Information Meetings, and positive staff interactions. The lows clustered around initial uncertainty, language worries, and a pattern I hadn't expected to find at all: a sharp emotional dip specifically tied to telling parents about the program. That dip showed up across markets, most strongly in Italy, Mexico, and Colombia. It pointed to something structural, not personal.

Findings

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Parents were the hidden decision-makers

Across all markets, but especially in Italy, Mexico, and Colombia, participants showed a consistent emotional dip when it came time to tell their parents about the program. Cultural Care had been designing exclusively for the au pair. But in practice, parental approval was often the actual gate. No amount of work on the au pair experience could move someone whose parent said no.

Motivations split into two clear types

Some au pairs were strategic: they saw the program as career development, a way to improve English or build credentials toward teaching. Others were escaping a path that didn't fit: the university track felt wrong, and the au pair program offered a legitimate alternative. Both groups enrolled, but they needed different things from the communication and the program framing to feel seen.

Info Meetings were the emotional turning point

The single highest emotional peak across almost every participant's journey map was the Information Meeting. Not the application, not matching with a host family. The meeting where someone answered their questions directly. That pattern validated the existing format and pointed directly at the intervention: a version of that meeting built for parents, who had the same fears and no one specifically addressing them.

"I knew I wanted to do something different than everyone else. I didn't want to go straight to university like all my friends."

Au pair participant, Germany

The Solution

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[ Composite journey map ]

[ Individual map: Vanessa, Colombia ]

[ Emotional peaks/valleys chart ]

A recommendation to build a parent-facing version of the Information Meeting, approved for implementation in late 2021.

The research output was a set of individual journey maps and a composite analysis presented to cross-functional stakeholders. The key recommendation: develop a variation of the Information Meeting specifically designed for parents and family members, addressing their specific concerns about program safety, support systems abroad, communication during the year, and return paths after completion.

This wasn't a product redesign. It was a strategic reframe of who the audience was. The au pair program had a parent problem, not a product problem. The fix wasn't in the application flow. It was in creating a new touchpoint that spoke directly to the people who held the actual approval.

Key insight

The Information Meeting already worked. It was the highest emotional peak in almost every participant journey. The move was to replicate that format for the audience who hadn't been invited to it yet.

Impact

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In-depth interviews

Individual journey maps created for each participant

International markets

Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Italy, Mexico, South Africa

Strategic recommendation

Parent-focused Info Meetings approved for implementation

2021

Approved and implemented

Significant shift in au pair acquisition approach

Learnings

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Emotional data surfaces what behavior data hides

Funnel metrics showed where people dropped off. They couldn't show why, or what it felt like to be in that moment. Tracking emotional state at each stage of the journey revealed a pattern that no clickstream would have caught: the consistent dip when au pairs told their parents. That finding didn't come from analytics. It came from asking people how they felt and taking those answers seriously as data.

The user is not always the decision-maker

Every prior intervention had been designed for the au pair. But in multiple markets, especially where family ties run deep, the au pair wasn't the one deciding alone. Designing for the person who fills out the form while ignoring the person who has to approve it means designing for half the journey. This project taught me to ask early: who else is in the room, even if they never touch the product?

Journey
Map

The Problem

The Process

Strategic Framework

International Interviews

Pattern Analysis

Findings

Parents were the hidden decision-makers

Motivations split into two clear types

Info Meetings were the emotional turning point

The Solution

Impact

Learnings

Emotional data surfaces what behavior data hides

The user is not always the decision-maker

More Work

MBTA

Curology

Cultural Care Au Pair

St. Louis City SC

JourneyMap

The Problem

The Process

Strategic Framework

International Interviews

Pattern Analysis

Findings

Parents were the hidden decision-makers

Motivations split into two clear types

Info Meetings were the emotional turning point

The Solution

Impact

Learnings

Emotional data surfaces what behavior data hides

The user is not always the decision-maker

More Work

MBTA

Curology

Cultural Care Au Pair

St. Louis City SC

Journey
Map