How to get a Journey to learners — manually for one-off cohorts, or automatically through an Automation for ongoing programs.
Journeys are assignment-only. They don't appear on the Explore page, so a learner who isn't explicitly assigned a Journey has no way to find or start it. Pick the wrong assignment path and the program either consumes admin time it shouldn't (manual assigning what should be automated) or fires off-cadence (automating what needed a curated cohort).
One more thing to know up front: Journeys don't show up on a user's assignment report. Track progress through the dedicated Journey reports instead — see Tracking Journeys For Admins and Tracking Journeys For Managers.
For the strategic frame on Journeys overall, see Journeys In Continu.
The Two Assignment Paths
1. Direct Assignments. One Journey assigned to a defined audience at a specific moment. Best for one-off cohorts, pilots, and any situation where you want explicit control over who's in and who's out.
2. Automations. The Journey is assigned automatically when a trigger fires — new hire start date, role change, certification expiry, completion of a prior program. Best for any Journey that should run on a schedule or in response to a system event. Set the automation once; assignments happen on their own.
If you find yourself manually assigning the same Journey to similar audiences repeatedly, that's an automation's job. Convert it.
Assigning via the Assignments Page
1. Open the Assignments page. From the left-hand navigation, click Share > Assignments.
2. Click Create Assignment at the top right of the page.
3. Select the Journey. Search for the Journey name and check the box on the left. Click Next.
4. Choose the audience. Search for the users, groups, or Smart Segments you want to assign the Journey to. Check the boxes on the left. Click Next.
5. Configure assignment settings and notifications. Set the due date, notification cadence, and any other assignment-level rules. See Creating An Assignment for the full breakdown of these settings.
6. Preview and confirm. Review the assignment summary, then click Confirm Assignment. Learners are notified per their notification preferences, and the Journey appears on their Continu home.
Assigning via Automations
For Journeys that should run on a trigger rather than a manual push, use an automation. The automations watch for the event you specify (new hire, role change, date-based recurrence, prior-program completion) and assign the Journey automatically when the trigger fires.
See Creating an Automation for the full setup. The strategic gain: any Journey assigned through an automation scales without admin touch as people join, leave, or change roles.
Choosing the Right Audience
Individuals. Specific named users. Best for one-off assignments and exceptions. Doesn't scale.
Groups. Manually curated lists. Best for stable cohorts that change rarely — leadership team, partner managers. Someone has to maintain group membership.
Smart Segments. Dynamic audiences defined by user attributes. Membership updates automatically as attributes change. Best for any ongoing program where you want the assignment to follow the role, not the person.
For Journeys that run more than once, Smart Segments are the right default. Reserve Individuals and Groups for cases where dynamic targeting would actively cause problems.
Configuration Pitfalls
Forgetting Journeys Aren't on Explore. If a learner asks where to find a Journey, the answer is "I'll assign it to you" — not "browse to it." Journeys are assignment-only by design. Plan for this when communicating the program.
No Due Date. Open-ended Journey assignments drift to the bottom of every learner's to-do list. Set a due date even if the deadline is generous — the deadline itself creates urgency.
Manual Assigning What Should Be an Automation. If the audience for this Journey is "every new hire" or "every employee with X attribute," direct assignment is the wrong tool. An automation handles new entrants automatically; direct assignment doesn't.
Smart Segment Membership Changes Mid-Journey. A manual assign to a Smart Segment captures membership at that moment. Someone who joins the segment afterward doesn't automatically get the existing assignment unless an automation re-evaluates. Plan for this when the audience is fluid.
Not Checking the Journey Report. Because Journeys don't appear on the standard user assignment report, an admin who only checks that report will think no progress is being tracked. Use the Journey-specific tracking views instead.
Where This Fits
You're here because a Journey is built and ready for learners. The strategic decisions — what content sits in the Journey, the time delays between items, the survey at the end — should already be set in Creating Journeys. Assignment is the last step before the program is live; tracking comes next.
See Also
- Journeys In Continu — the strategic anchor.
- Creating Journeys — building the Journey before you assign it.
- Tracking Journeys For Admins — visibility into learner progress once assigned.
- Tracking Journeys For Managers — the manager view of Journey progress.
- Creating An Assignment — the broader assignment settings reference.
- Creating an Automation — automating Journey assignment with triggers.
Assignments page for the cohort. Automation for the cadence. Smart Segmentation when the audience is dynamic.