A user flow has a name which describes it’s purpose: the goal your users achieve by completing the steps. Naming your user flows is an important factor and is often missed.
Name your flow after the user’s goal and get bonus points by saying who the user is.
By sticking to one direction and limiting the decision points in your flows you separate it from sprawling sitemaps and free-form clickable prototypes.
Both have their utility, but for conveying distinct behaviours, user flows work best. (So user flows ≠sitemaps or high-res prototypes).
User flows can have multiple paths but only to show different states, not different goals.