Getting inside the Mind of Santa: Empathy Mapping to define Sales targets
The Empathy Map Canvas is a framework to help you build a persona for your end customer in under 10 minutes and is an easy way to outline who you are selling to.
The Empathy Map Canvas was developed by my former colleague Dave Gray and a link to the empathy map can be found here.
When building your empathy map, you first need to define who you are speaking about. Give them a name. Look at LinkedIn to find a person who is like them, or do some Googling to help you fill out this map.
Let’s imagine that in this scenario: we are going to sell something to Santa Claus — what would his empathy map look like?
As you can see by the image of the empathy map, we have divided Santa’s head into 7 sections.
Section #1: WHO are we empathizing with?
- Who is the person we want to understand? In this case, we are going to map Santa Claus. He is a guy who lives in the North Pole with his wife and team of elves and runs a gift-giving business.
- What is the situation they are in? Santa runs a shipping and logistics business and is about to hit his busiest time of year
- What is their role in the situation? Santa is a co-owner and manager. He has a leadership and operational role in the business.
Between the section on the left (1) is the words Goal: What is OUR GOAL with regards with regards to Santa Claus? Our goal is to sell Santa a better way to serve his customers.
Section #2: What does our audience NEED to DO:
- What do they need to do differently? Santa needs to get his list of children sorted into naughty and nice columns. He also needs to sort the presents, and then deliver them the day of across a wide delivery area.
- What jobs do they want or need to get done? Santa needs to sort children, identify presents, deliver presents, manage his reindeer deliver team, manage his workshop elfs and make sure his partner Mrs. Claus is happy. He also needs to eat cookies.
- What decision do they need to make? Santa and team need to determine who is naughty, who is nice, who gets what present, and who gets coal.
- How will we know they were successful? Santa is successful if he delivers all the presents over Christmas, eats all the cookies and milk left for him, and makes sure all the good boys and girls are happy.
Note: This section is one of the most important sections in this map, because it is within this section that outlines what the tasks are that Santa must DO — these are the activities that he will be evaluated on. These are his Jobs-to-be-done.
Section #3: What they SEE:
- What do they see in the marketplace? Santa observes in his marketplace a lot of competition from channel partners such as Amazon, and Walmart. He notices a changing consumer landscape, with new digital and analog toy categories being developed.
- What do they see in their immediate environment? Santa sees a lot of elfs, working to output physical toys and he sees a growing list of naughty and nice kids.
- What do they see others saying or doing? Santa sees a lot copycats in the marketplace — many others who purport to be Santa
- What are they watching or reading? Santa reads a lot of twitter and Facebook, as well as some old classic newspapers. He is observing all children on a global basis with his network of CCTV/Ring/unmanned drone/satellite content. Santa also is an avid Wired reader.
In section #4 we are asked to imagine What they say?
- What have we heard them say?: Santa has been tweeting a lot about his keto diet, the state of space junk, unrealistic expectations of today’s youth, and the competition offered by Walmart and Amazon this holiday season. We have also heard him urging his workers to work harder and faster, given the number of impending orders.
- What can we imagine them saying? We can imagine Santa getting into some fun banter on social media. We can also imagine him talking about his new diet and resulting weight loss.
In section #5 we are asked to imagine What do they do today?
- Notice that this part of the canvas is at the neck of the person — it represents the connection to the body — and what the person actually does, irrespective and inclusive of their jobs-to-be-done.
- What behavior have we observed?: Santa has been running around a lot in anticipation of the Christmas season. He has been busy trying to improve infrastructure at the North Pole to meet rising demand.
- What can we imagine them doing? We can imagine Santa at CrossFit, meditating — or doing some other sort of health and wellness self care activity.
In section #6 we are asked to imagine What do they hear?
- What do they hear others say? Santa is always listening to what kids are about what they like, and what they want. He is hearing a lot of demands from his workforce, and his business partner Mrs. Claus — he is listening to the weather and making his plans for travel.
- What are they hearing from fiends? Santa is hearing from some of his friends how the holidays are hard and that it is harder to do their jobs
- What are they hearing from colleagues? Santa hears from the elves that they are overworked and stressed with the increasing demands on their time.
- What are they hearing second-hand? Santa is listening to the radio and Spotify (via his podcasts) and learning about new gifting trends, new DTC brands and stories from retailers about their digital transformation efforts.
In section #7 we are asked to look inside the person we are mapping to understand their emotional state and their feelings
- What are their Pains? What are their fears and frustrations and anxieties? Santa’s pains are usually centered around the number of variables that affect all aspects to the delivery and his ability to pull off a successful Christmas Eve. Santa is concerned about top trends for kids toys. He wants to minimize returns, given the costs of reverse-logistics and unhappy children.
- What are their Gains? What are their wants, needs, hopes and dreams? After Santa completes his Christmas deliveries, he will go on a little well-earned tropical vacation. When he returns to the North Pole, he will upgrade his tech stack and operations. Ultimately, Santa wants a turnkey 2020 Christmas season with less stress an so he can focus on his health and enjoy his time with Mrs. Claus and the rest of his team.
Pay special attention to section #2 (jobs-to-be-done) and section #6 (pains and gains) within the canvas because those sections identify the drivers of activity, how we measure success, the context for decision making and the mental mindset of areas of friction and things that considerations that we need to have to try and help solve.
In the case of Santa, his (jobs-to-be-done) Santa needs to get his list sorted (evaluate children) of those naughty and nice, get all the presents sorted (present identification/selection), then deliver (delivery) them the day of across a wide delivery area. This requires reindeer and workshop maintenance and success is defined if all presents are delivered over Christmas, all the cookies and milk are eaten and if all the good boys and girls are happy. These are Santa’s jobs-to-be-done, so if you’re going to sell something to Santa, it must be contextually relevant based on what he needs to get done.
Regarding Santa’s Pains and Gains, Santa’s pains are focused on the planning and execution around Christmas and immediately afterwards. He wants to make sure he successfully produces the event and that he and his team perform at the highest level possible. Santa is a believer in continuous improvement and he hopes to gain some perspective on operational improvement through some upgrades of infrastructure and process. He is also hoping to go on vacation after the Christmas season.
In order for you to sell something to Santa, you should consider framing the story through how your solution helps alleviate Santa’s pain, helps him execute on his jobs-to-be-done and address his gains.
Also pay attention to what Santa is reading (section 3) and hearing (section 6) — Twitter and Facebook are important information sources as are Spotify podcats and public / talk radio. Target your paid, earned and owned efforts accordingly.
And lastly, notice the delta between the job to be done (section 2) and the jobs that they do (section 5). A majority of Santa’s jobs-to-be-done are focused on Christmas delivery and cookie eating, and a lot of time is spent in support of that activity. A renewed focus on wellness activities and holistic approaches are important considerations when framing the benefits of your product or service. Filling out an Empathy Map Canvas should take about 10–15 minutes to create a snapshot of a person. A completed Emapthy Map should provide you with a good-enough holistic view of the person you’re going to speak with. Check out this post from the XPlane Collection for more on the Empathy Map Canvas and complete a canvas at your leisure.
