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Merge pull request #1808 from segmentio/journeyslogic
DOC-298: Understanding Journeys Logic
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‎src/_data/sidenav/main.yml

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title: Journeys Best Practices and FAQ
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- path: /personas/journeys/use-cases
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title: Example Journeys Use Cases
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- path: /personas/journeys/journeys-logic
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title: Understanding Journeys Logic
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- path: /personas/journeys/key-terms
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title: Journeys Glossary
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- path: /personas/using-personas-data

‎src/personas/journeys/journeys-logic.md

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---
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title: Understanding Journeys Logic
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---
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{% include content/plan-grid.md name="journeys" %}
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Journeys are powered by a series of Audiences and Computed Traits. This guide defines the logic used to create sequential campaigns.
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By the end of this guide, you'll understand how and why users progress through your Journey. You'll also gain familiarity with the following key Journeys concepts:
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- Journey entry conditions and step behavior
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- How Segment evaluates Journeys step membership
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- How real-time step membership works
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## Entry Conditions and Step Behavior
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Journeys begin with an entry condition that computes like standard [Personas Audiences](/docs/personas/audiences/). This entry condition queries your customer data in Segment to find users who meet your specified criteria.
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After users meet the Journey's entry condition, their progress through the Journey depends on satisfying the criteria of subsequent Journey steps.
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Journey steps operate based on the following behaviors:
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- Only the entry condition can backfill event data from before Journey publication.
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- The entry condition requires no previous step membership.
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- Post-entry condition step membership relies on users at some point entering the preceding step.
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- When a user first joins a step, Segment adds a `step_joined_time` trait to their profile.
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- Membership is calculated using Segment's [Real-Time Compute System](/docs/personas/audiences/#real-time-compute-vs-batch).
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- Segment doesn't calculate Waits and Splits in real-time.
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The combination of these traits, audiences, and business rules allows you to create an enforced funnel with the following implications:
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- Users enter the Journey when they fulfill the entry conditions.
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- Users can't re-enter the same Journey at an earlier step.
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- Users can only move forward through a Journey.
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- Users remain in a step indefinitely until they fulfill the next step’s criteria.
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## Step Membership
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To enter a Journey, users must satisfy the entry conditions.
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To enter each subsequent step, three conditions must be true:
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1. The user previously joined the parent step.
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2. The user meets the next step's conditions.
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3. The users satisfies wait conditions.
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### Evaluating Prior Step Membership
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To evaluate whether a user has ever joined the previous step, Journeys appends the `preceding_step_joined_time` trait to the user’s profile. This trait notes when the user initially joined each step. To enter a step, users must satisfy both the `preceding_step_audience_member = True` condition and the step's defined conditions.
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### Condition Steps
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“Add a condition” steps operate like [Personas Audiences](/docs/personas/audiences/). The defined conditions provide criteria for each step’s membership.
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### Wait Times
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When you add a “Wait” step to a Journey, Segment automatically includes wait times in the membership criteria of the next condition step. Journeys represents wait times in relation to the `preceding_step_joined_time trait`, which must be at least N time ago.
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The following table summarizes the three step membership conditions and their equivalents in written logic:
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| Semantic Logic | Written Logic Condition |
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|----------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------|
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| Has the user ever joined the previous step? | Does `preceding_step_audience_member` trait exist? |
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| Does the user meet the specified step conditions? | Defined conditions in "Add a condition" step |
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| Has the user met preceding N wait time conditions? | Trait `preceding_step_joined_time` at least N time ago |
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## Real-Time Step Membership
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For every step after the entry step, Journeys leverages [the Personas real-time compute system](https://segment.com/docs/personas/audiences/#real-time-compute-vs-batch).
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When a user's traits change or they exceed time-based conditions (for example, "within 7 days"), they may no longer fulfill the conditions of a previously joined step. If a user joins a step but no longer meets its conditions, Journeys removes them from that step’s preview and analytics. The user does, however, continue to progress through the Journey.
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Consider the following example of Journey conditions for a cart abandonment campaign:
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1. Entry Condition: User has clicked `add to cart` and `purchases = 0` within the last 7 days.
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2. Wait Time Condition: 5 days.
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3. Step Condition: User is member of `Example Audience A`
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4. Send to Destination
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If a user makes a purchase during the wait time of 5 days, the system would automatically update membership to `false` for the audience created from the entry condition, Step 1. However, the user could still satisfy Step Condition 3 based on the three step membership conditions:
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| Semantic Logic | Written Logic Condition |
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|----------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------|
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| Has the user ever joined the previous step? | True; `preceding_step_audience_member` remains true. |
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| Does the user meet the specified step conditions? | True; assuming user is member of `Example Audience A`. |
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| Has the user met preceding N wait time conditions? | True; once 5 days has passed from initial entry. |
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To maintain best practices and enforce your funnel, re-check or modify audience conditions that follow wait steps. For example, adding a `purchases = 0` condition to Step 3 results in Segment not advancing users who made a purchase during the wait time:
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1. Entry Condition: User has clicked `add to cart` and `purchases = 0` in the last 7 days
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2. Wait Time Condition: 5 days
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3. Step Condition: User is member of `Example Audience A` and `purchases = 0` in the last 7 days.
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4. Send to Destination
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### Send to Destination steps
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Because Journey members permanently remain in Destination sync stpes, Segment neither sends `Audience Exit` events to Destinations nor removes users from Destinations lists. As a result, users cannot re-enter or loop within Journeys.
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## FAQs
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### What happens when a user reaches a single or Multi-Split Condition step and the conditions evaluates to `false`?
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Each step’s membership conditions evaluate in real time, which means that users remain in a step until the immediate next step’s conditions becomes true.
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### Can users exit and re-enter a Journey?
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No. Users move down the Journey’s branches in sequential order and can't re-enter. Journeys appends a profile trait for each step a user enters. Because the system neither assigns `Audience Exit` events nor removes traits from profiles, users who meet the Journey's entry criteria stay in the Journey permanently.
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### What happens to traits and audiences when I delete a Journey?
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Deleting a Journey removes its underlying audiences from profile views in Personas Explorer. However, the Journey’s True/False traits remain in the user’s last recorded state.
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> info "Note"
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> Cloning a Journey generates new, unique traits and sync keys. Deleting the original Journey won’t impact any cloned Journeys.
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### Are splits mutually exclusive?
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True/false splits enforce mutual exclusivity by ensuring that once users enter either side of a split, they can't enter the other.
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Multi-branch splits don't enforce mutual exclusivity. Users can enter multiple branches of a split if they satisfy the split conditions.
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### How does “Use Historical Data” backfill work?
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Use Historical Data backfills the entry condition to “prime” the Journey. Future events and existing trait memberships trigger all Journey conditions, except for entry. As a result, event-based conditions only evaluate events that occurred after you published the Journey.
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If you want to check for events that occurred before you published your Journey, base your conditions on computed traits instead.
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For example, to evaluate if a user already in a Journey has ever used a discount code, create a Computed Trait for `discount_used`, and set it to `true` or `false`.
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### How do time windows within step conditions work?
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With time windows within step conditions, you can designate a timeframe for Segment to evaluate whether or not a user has met the condition. Segment calculates the time window from the current point in time, not relative to any other steps in your Journey.

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