The Journey Simulation feature is designed to let a marketer test different simulated consumers to verify that they progress through the journey as intended.
If the journey contains a Decision step, you can determine whether a consumer belongs to its corresponding Segment, then watch an animation that depicts the steps through which that consumer would move.
For example, the Winback journey uses a Decision step to split consumers based on whether or not they have installed your app on their mobile device. Using the Journey Simulation, you can see how consumers move through the journey based on whether they go down the "yes" or the "no" path following this Decision step.
In addition, Journey Simulation allows you to interact with different Activity steps, allowing you to trigger ad-hoc consumer actions (such as a purchase or an opt-in) that may impact the route the consumer takes.
To run a simulated journey:
If necessary, click Save to save any unsaved changes.
In the Tool Bar, click the Journey Simulation icon. A slide-out panel is displayed, showing the consumer configuration options available for this journey. Please note that some standard journeys don't have any Decision steps, so they won't have any configuration options displayed.
If this journey has a Decision step, optionally check the Segment to which you want the simulated consumer to belong.
At the bottom of the Journey Designer workspace, click Play. The platform begins an animation that highlights in sequence each step this consumer would move through.
If the journey contains Activity steps, those steps are highlighted during the animation. At any point, you can click an Activity step to simulate the consumer performing that action. The simulation continues, reflecting that the Activity has occurred.
For example, the standard Abandoned Cart journey includes a "Purchase" Activity. If you want to simulate what happens if a consumer makes a purchase after receiving the "Offer Email," you would wait for the animation to reach the "Offer Email" step, then click the "Purchase" Activity step. The journey continues from the "Purchase" step onward.
At any point during the animation, you can click Pause to pause the animation. Click Play again to resume. You can also manually step through the animation by clicking Step.
At any point during the animation, click Reset to start over from the beginning. Or click Finish to jump to the end.