Fight the “feature-first” mentality with Empathy Maps

Put your team to work with the right mindset, right away.

Changing mindsets is hard

We get used to working in certain ways. We get into grooves and we create shortcuts. Problems arise, however, when the world around us changes and our oh-so-comfortable mindset no longer helps us achieve our outcomes.

To change the way you work, sometimes you have to insert a trigger to drive that change. Ideally, it is something easy to adopt, fun to do, and creates immediate impact.

Empathy can be a wonderful trigger. Empathy Maps can make that trigger real.

Empathy Maps

An Empathy Map is a tool to gain a better understanding of your user and their specific needs. This is important, because when we default to thinking about what we want to create (often in the form of features), we can lose sight of the person we are creating for.

Empathy Maps help address this. They are best created collaboratively, because everyone on your team probably has some understanding of your user. That collaboration helps fill gaps and paints a more complete picture of an individual.

How do I make an Empathy Map?

You can create an Empathy Map at any time, whether in a workshop or in your everyday work. Generally, we create them early on in a project or workshop because they help get everyone on the right track.

Empathy Maps have four dimensions:

• Says (quotes you may have heard)
• Does (common actions they may take)
• Thinks (inner monologues you imagine)
• Feels (emotions—frustration, joy, nerves, etc.)

The 7 steps to creating an Empathy Map

Creating an Empathy Map

Follow these steps when creating a map:

1. Draw a map with the four quadrants: Says, Does, Thinks and Feels.
2. Illustrate (and name) your user in the center of the map.
3. Think about what your user often Says, Does, Thinks and Feels
4. Have each individual contribute at least one idea per quadrant.
5. Cluster similar ideas within each quadrant
6. Discuss as a group your completed artifact. Did any themes emerge?
7. Document key pain points and opportunities in your map.

3 tips for using Empathy Maps

1. Leverage pre-workshop user research as much as possible. Schedule a playback if you can. The closer your team can get to the actual user, the more accurate your map will be.
2. Make sure everyone gets involved. Have a different person playback each quadrant. This gives multiple people the opportunity to speak with the users voice. Reading something aloud tends to make it more real.
3. Summarize the results. When you create your map, themes may emerge, but not all themes are necessarily equal in importance. Revisit the map as you move forward in the work. You may even want to posterize it and socialize it.

An Example: Finding empathy for the agent

One of our early workshops at Genesys was around how we might give Agents (otherwise known as CX Heroes) a summary of a customer and their intent within the first 10 seconds of an interaction. The better Agents can quickly understand customer intent, the better they solve problems and deliver an empathetic, personalized experience.

So off we went, spending two days workshopping, followed by a design sprint. Day one of the workshop was spent empathizing with the user to identify needs and pain points. Day two was spent identifying and prioritizing opportunities to solution. We ended the workshop with an understanding of prioritized needs and a clarified end goal.

The best decision we made in that workshop, was kicking it off with a research playback about the agent and immediately following that up with an Empathy Map exercise.

What we learned about the agent, the activity and our workshop teammates

The Agent Empathy Map

Starting the workshop with an Empathy Map allowed the participants preconceived notions around features to take a back seat. They immediately started speaking to the user’s pain and not the technical capability they were already thinking about delivering.

When we moved to activities that explored the user’s problems more deeply and articulating their needs, the group had no problem speaking with the users voice and mapping their ideas to the needs they identified.

Starting with empathy made all the difference.

Conclusion

Make the space for empathy in your work. Using techniques like Empathy Maps helps you uncover needs, connects you with the people you serve, and empowers you with insights to deliver exceptional experiences.

Special thanks to Winter Calaway, Matthew Cunningham, Chris Neuberger and Matt Eng for their contributions to this article.