How Empathy can change your business
Empathy Map: how to use it, our experience
The Empathy map we want to talk about in this article, is a very useful tool to start sketching profile of your Customer Segments. It has developed by Xplane: a visual thinking company. In a few words this instrument helps you to understand customer’s characteristics and goes beyond his environment, behaviour, concerns and aspirations. The consequence is that you’ll design a better Value Proposition and more appropiate Customer Relationships. It’s very simple to use it, in fact Alexander Osterwalder and Ives Pigneur, authors of “Business Model Generation” call it also the “really simple customer profiler”. Anyway, the best way to aproach Empathy Map, is start from his centre: what’s Empathy? Do you know the difference between Empathy and Simpathy? What are the empathy consequences on your social relations and works? Check this Brené Brown masterpiece:
The Empathy Map
This is the general scheme of the Empathy Map.
- You can draw it directly on paper, but the ideal use is the Design Thinking approach: a big board, some post-it, colors and one, two people who can brainstorming with you.
Visual thinking gets people out of their chairs, focused on common goals, and moving toward action. — Xplane.com
- You can download your map (only free business tools) frome the Event Model Generation web site: Free Empathy Map PDF.
- You can build your map on-line: for example, you can use the Empathy Map by Google, using your Google Account. Negative aspect: you can share and print, but not download on your pc.
How to use it
- Brainstorm about your possible customer segments; it has to be lean, so you can ask to one, or two friends, or someone you know can understand your problem;
- Select three candidates and choose one of them, to start experimenting;
- Start giving this customer a name and describe some of his demographic characteristics;
- Now its time to use all the Empaty you can. Fill the diagram answering some question. Every single question helps you to fill a part of the Empathy map.
- What does he see? On the right of the Empathy map: what is there around your customer? Who are his friends? What possibilities does he meet everyday in the market?
- What does he hear? On the left part of the Map. Imagine your customer’s friends, partner, boss, coworkers and social media he uses: what do they say? What does of theese influencers impact on his mindset?
- What does he really think and feel? Top of the map: is the brain part. Imagine what your customer really think. What are his emotions and worries? Try to describe his dreams, what he thinks, but don’t tell.
- What does he say and do? Bottom of the head: what do you think is it attitude in public? What does he say and what he really feel? Imagine what your customer segment does.
- What does is the customer pain? In this part put his most frustrations, his major obstacles, what he wants or needs, what are his fears.
- What does the customer gain? Here you have to put: what your customer really wants, what he really needs, how he measures success, what can be the strategies he can apply to reach his goals.
An example
Imagine the case we share in How to interwiew you potential customer.
Fresh customized bento box, for busy women with a family. You can focus on this segment and start to empathize with it.
Conclusion
Empathy map gives you qualitative elements, that quantitative analysis doesn’t give you at first impact. They’re both necessary, because with qualitative data you can catch differences and discordances between your customer’s behaviour and what he says. This helps you to smooth data you can take with an interview as kindness, courtesy, enthusiasm.
So, the advertise is: use your instruments as a system. Interview, Empathy Map, Insights, Key Metrics. You’re target is the truth.
