Want a Thriving Brand? Focus On Empathy Mapping
This Articles Learning Goals:
💡Discover (Theory & Framework)
Learn the Empathy Mapping framework and how businesses use it to drive results.
🧭 Prepare (Plan & Produce)
Plan an Empathy Mapping workshop.
🔬 Try (Template & Instructions)
Step-by-step instructions to try out Empathy Mapping with your team.
Get closer to your customers with Empathy Mapping.
Create a shared understanding of user needs by discussing what you know to be true about your user experience.
Envisioning user perspectives and behaviours in an empathy map allows your team to align on an in-depth understanding of end users and make informed decisions about how to enhance their experience with your brand. This interactive, collaborative group activity will help reveal gaps in your knowledge and align on how to find the answers before moving to solution design.
““We all carry our experiences, understanding, and expertise with us. Your assumptions may be misconceptions and stereotypes and can restrict the amount of real empathy you can build.””
💡 Discover Empathy Mapping
Practical Benefits of Empathy
Empathy is the first stage and most important step in the Design Thinking framework.
Establishing empathy with users is the design thinking framework's first and arguably most crucial stage. An Empathy Map is the perfect place to start, especially if you are new to the design world. An empathy map is a visual tool that helps teams identify and reflect on a user's behaviours and attitudes.
By thinking about your users as real people with goals, needs, and desires, you can:
Identify improvement opportunities for your product or service.
Access user experience enhancements.
Create new features to meet user needs.
The Risk of Skipping Empathy: A Personal Design Story
When I worked at one of the leading telecommunications providers in Canada - we were redesigning the “renew your phone contract” experience. We assumed the most important part of the journey was when a customer got their renewal offer - a heavily discounted flashy new phone (in exchange for signing up for another two years).
We poured our time, money, resources, etc., into designing a cutting-edge recommendation engine (using predictive analytics when it was still a newer concept) and a beautifully updated version of the email they would receive with the offer.
After spending time with our customers, we soon realized the offer letter was not the “magic moment”; getting their new phone in their hand was the most satisfying part of the journey – and unfortunately, we overlooked the part of the process. This insight allowed us to pivot quickly, but an empathy map and some team alignment would have helped us move faster and likely get it right the first time.
Leverage Empathy Mapping to Design Better Solutions.
Since a designer and end-user have different perspectives, it is hard to answer such pressing questions as:
What is missing from a product or service experience?
How do you feel about our offerings compared to the competition?
Where are their pain points throughout their journey?
These questions do not have quick answers - a project team alone should not assume the responses. Furthermore, without an empathy map, you risk bias. However, by challenging our biases & assumptions, we discover solutions that are not initially obvious.
Empathy Framework
Strengthen your communication skills to unlock the power of empathy.
Innovation is all about solving problems for people – understanding their needs and designing something that makes it easy for them to accomplish their goals.
When we can experience users struggles firsthand, feel their frustration, and hear their words, we can't help but empathize. When we empathize, we can better envision the future, strengthen user interactions, and prioritize the right features to support the vision.
The Empathy Mapping framework is simple and easy to facilitate. It focuses on 4 key quadrants that help design teams and stakeholders walk a mile in their shoes.
You can use an Empathy map to share what you know as a team, or you can use it while conducting user interviews. Using it with your team as an alignment tool or with users to document your research observations, an Empathy Map helps capture important insight about users’ experiences.
Follow us on Instagram for simple tips on applying empathy to improve your teams, products, and services. Every day we share workshop ideas, practitioner tips, and design inspiration.
🧭 Prepare an Empathy Mapping Workshop
Step-by-Step Workshop Preparation
Step #1. Define the User
Empathy maps can capture a particular user or reflect an aggregation of multiple users. If you have established user types or cohorts, you can build a map for each one. If you haven’t split your users into segments, you can use the same empathy map to collect general feedback from all types of users. You can find patterns and themes that might help you look at your user base in new ways. We will post another blog soon on how to start profiling your users into what we refer to as “user personas” or “behavioural archetypes.”
Step #2. Define Objectives
Who will be at the center of your map? Who are you empathizing with (all users or one user type)
Define your primary purpose for empathy mapping. For example,
“Our stakeholders don’t understand the user experience well.” You must align your team and build empathy if this is the case. You can present an already completed map or complete the Empathy Map as a team to share perspectives live.
“We have data and insight on the user experience we need to share.” In this case, book a session to map out what you know using the Empathy Tool and allow everyone to add their input to the map. Remember to separate fact from hypothesis - an excellent way to do this is to use a different colour marker to note assumptions and make a note to validate the assumption when you connect with users.
Step #3. Set an Agenda
A well-thought-out agenda allows you to plan your speaking notes and ensure that one subject does not monopolize your entire workshop.
An agenda articulates to attendees that you will run an orderly workshop and that productivity is the objective. An agenda in your invitation allows the participants to prepare. The more prepared participants feel, the more likely they will engage during the workshop. Planning a workshop without an agenda is a recipe for confusion, distraction, and, worse, a long story about Sandra's cat's latest alignment.
Step #4. Collect Research
Assemble the research to fuel your empathy map. Empathy mapping is a qualitative method that requires qualitative inputs like field studies, user interviews, or qualitative surveys.
Pro Tip: If you haven’t had a chance to connect with users, a great starting point is to look at qualitative survey responses or within your network for like-minded people to your subject (user).
Step #5. Set the Context
Constructing a user story is an excellent way to prepare for an empathy map. Moreover, you level the playing field to create a shared understanding to inform your participants of why you are completing an Empathy Map.
Setting the context is essential if you want everyone to travel with the same story. Create a scenario with a fictitious user to help guide thinking around a typical challenge.
Scenario Example: A new mother has struggled to keep up with her friends and family since the baby came. She misses having adult conversations and feels left out in her social circle, as none of her friends have had children yet. She is looking for a way to connect with adults.
By illustrating users’ challenges in a storytelling format, the participants will start to envision the user as a person.
A story is a jumping-off point to building user empathy by painting a picture of the everyday experience.
You ask participants to feel it vs. coming up with ideas on how to help.
This shared understanding builds a deeper connection between your participants and the user.
Remember, empathy mapping is about empathizing, not solutions, so direct the team to stick with the current state experience to understand what is causing the user to say, think, act, and feel the way they do.
Step #6. Produce the Empathy Map
If you are running this session online, we recommend using Canava’s free whiteboard tool to run your empathy mapping workshop.
4X4 Quadrants Explained
The Empathy Map Template is a tool you can use to uncover user needs and understand what motivates people to act or behave a certain way. First, get familiar with each of the quadrants. Below are explanations of questions you can use to prompt workshop participants.
What does the user hear or say? For example:
The customer sees the products advertised in stores.
The user told their friend the product was too expensive.
What does the user think? For example:
The user is excited about the new feature.
The customer is worried about how long the wait time is.
What are they doing? For example:
The user looks online to compare prices.
The user stopped using the product because it was too difficult to use.
How does the user feel during the experience? For example:
They feel anxious about all the choices.
The user is proud of their purchase.
Follow us on Instagram for simple tips on applying empathy to improve your teams, products, and services. Every day we share workshop ideas, practitioner tips, and design inspiration.
🔬 Try an Empathy Mapping Workshop & Template
This simple exercise is easy to facilitate and a great way to engage stakeholders and build empathy.
Workshop Run-though
Step #1. Level Set
When you start facilitating a workshop, one of the first things you should do is develop a set of ground rules or guidelines so that everyone is on the same page about your expectations for the group. Ground rules help level the playing field and make sure everyone contributes.
Then, it is time to share your user story.
Step #2. Warm-up
You also want to set the tone and create a safe space where people will feel comfortable sharing their ideas.
Step #3. Mapping
Set a timer and go through each quadrant individually. Use the time to note the primary traits of the user in space in the middle of the grid.
Share the user story “I am X trying to do X”
Users say…
Users think…
Users act…
Users feel…
Have a "parking lot" set to the side and stick observations that don't fit into one of the quadrants here to keep the workshop pace.
Step #4. Improve the User Story
As you take turns adding notes to the quadrants, consider what new information you uncover and how it helps evolve your user story to a higher standard.
Step #5. Review and Reflect
Talk through the map, section by section and ask the participants to discuss what jumps out. Consider:
What new insights do we have about the user?
What does this user want or need the most?
Have we noticed any patterns or themes?
Practice Empathy
Envisioning user perspectives and behaviours in an empathy map allows your team to align on an in-depth understanding of end users and make informed decisions about how to enhance their experience with your brand.
