What is a digital psychology journey?

In a previous blog we have introduced the concept of a Finate State Machine (FSM) and why it is important for software development. In this blog we will expand the concept to digital journeys and explore the value of applying FSMs to the psychology journey-domain.

What is a digital jourey?

Let us build up our understanding of a digital journey through working through a series of properties of a digital journey. A digital journey:

• Has a finate number of states of which some are desirable and some are not
• Is a collection of characteristics that are constant at a moment in time
• Is always in one and only one state at a moment in time
• Is a set of rules (transition functions) that determines how journeys change from state to state
• Is a path through these states (i.e. a tool to get from A to Z)
• Is the most effective path through these states
• Is the most efficient path through these states

If we put it all together, we can define a digital journey as: 

"A labelled state transitioning system aimed at reaching a desirable outcome in the most efficient and effective way with progress metrics as the journey progress"

In psychology (and many other branches of applying the scientific method), we are working as evidence-based practicioners. We rely on theory, or science to inform our practice. We are asking for proof or evidence for our claims. What does the theory say? Are my practices informed by science? What are my claims and which outcomes can I predict based on evidence?

Naturally, we are trained to use models or theories to inform our practice or vice versa, create models or theories from our observations in practice. 

If we use the methodology of FSMs, we are able to make statements, or apply logic to a system, whether the system is an individual, a team, an organisation or even a community. If we then apply the 'logic' of the theory or particular model (using FSMs) to the system in question, we reap the benefits, inherent in FSMs. 

These benefits are explained as follows:

Benefit 1: We can model the outcomes of the system

Practically, journeys estimate the outcomes of actions in a system. All the digital psychological journeys aims to deliver a sustainable business outcome.

Benefit 2: Journeys stay the same, given the same inputs

Practically, we can standardise the quality of the experience at all levels of the organisation and in time. For all clients that are in a particular state, their experience, and or learning will be exactly the same. If they are transitioning from one state to the other, the outcomes will also be similar. 

Benefit 3: We can define failure states (undesirable states) and determine paths that lead to them.

Clients will be able to navigate to desireable outcomes based on the journey advice.

Benefit 4: We can determine the efficiency and efficacy of the solution

A journey allows us not only to find the shortest (i.e. efficient) path to reach the desirable state, but also enable us to reach the intended outcomes (it has efficacy). 

Benefit 5: We choose applicable models to solve real world problems

How do we know models are 'good' or 'correct'? Most of the time, we trust the stories and theory of experts when they build these models. In our case, when journeys comply with certain requirements (e.g. Markovian properties), we can actually model their behaviour using symbolic model checkers (and other tools) and provide statistical proof that these journeys are 'correct'. This laborious functionality is reserved for only the hardest of problems (think nuclear, space and oil exploration industry).

Benefit 6: We can talk about the solution, as we can visually present it

As the journey can now be drawn (i.e. each labelled state and their associated intervention path), we can pro-actively engage with the client on the various intervention strategies.

We see the above mentioned benefits in applying a more rigorous approach such as a FSM to modelling journeys.