Empathy Mapping

Empathy mapping is a quick technique for a team to understand and empathise with customers or users of a service or product and try to understand the perceived impacts. It is usually done in a facilitated group to gain as many perspectives as possible to fill in and complete an empathy map diagram with post-it notes or similar.

The quadrants range from:

• What would a user or customer think and feel whilst using the product or service?
• What would a user or customer be likely to say and do whilst using the product or service?
• What would a user or customer likely see whilst using the product or service?
• What would a user or customer hear whilst using the product or service?
• What are the fears or pain points a user or customer may have when using the product or service?
• What are some of the potential gains that a user or customer may have when using the product or service?

Finish up the session with a brief discussion about what the team have learned about their customer segment and any deeper insights that they have gained by doing the exercise.

See Also

• Customer Research
• How Might We... Note Taking
• Lightening Talks
• Personas
• User Interviews
• User Journey Mapping
• Empathy Exercises & Scenarios
• Success Metrics

References

1. Design Sprint Kit, accessed December 2018