Author: z617322

Empathy Map

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT TOOLKIT

Purpose
An empathy map is a simple visual tool that captures knowledge about the behaviours and attitudes of a type of user. It’s a useful tool that helps teams better understand their users needs and desires, and therefore supports teams to design and deliver services in a way which best suits their users. This tool is best completed collaboratively, and are most useful at the beginning of a process of designing a service, although they can also provide valuable insights into how services can be changed or adapted to best suit users’ needs.

How to use the tool
Collaboration: For best results, an empathy map should be completed by a whole team, to allow everyone to contribute their thoughts and ideas, and to ensure that the insights different colleagues will have received when engaging with a certain type of service user in the past can all be taken into account.
Additional insights: Whilst a lot of the information inputted into the empathy map will be based on colleagues’ insights from engaging with a certain type of service users in the past, additional evidence and insights should be used where this is available. This can include qualitative research data that’s been conducted previously such as case studies. You should also consider what additional information could be collected to inform the completion of the empathy map, such as engagement with service users through interviews, focus groups etc. Lastly, where a service user may have complex needs, consider whether you may require external support to complete an empathy map and gain a deeper understanding of that users’ needs, for example from advocacy groups or specialists.
Establish a Goal: Before logging insights into the map, you should define what the scope and aim of the exercise is. This includes clarifying the specific type of user you’re trying to empathise with, and defining what the primary goal of completing this exercise is (for example, to be able to better support a certain type of user into training or employment). During the exercise, you should only explore users’ perceptions and behaviours relating to this goal, so for the example above, considering what a user’s network of friends and family is saying about training or employment could be very insightful, whereas considering what they are saying about TV or sports is irrelevant.
Log insights: Once you’ve established the goal, fill in the empathy map by answering some of the example questions included within the template, and by inserting any other information you feel is relevant. After completing the map, you will have captured a wealth of insights into how a particular type of user behaves and feels, which you can then use to design or deliver a service in a way which best suits that user’s needs.

1-2. Define the scope and aim of the exercise. This includes clarifying the specific type of user you’re trying to empathise with, and defining what the desired outcome of the exercise is. During the exercise, you should only explore users’ perceptions and behaviours relating to this goal.

3-6. Fill in the empathy map by answering some of the example questions included within the template, and by inserting any other information you feel is relevant. As well as using insights from colleagues who have engaged with this type of user in the past, it’s really valuable to engage with users through focus groups or interviews, using this qualitative research data to inform this exercise.

7-8. Use the insights logged through stages 3-6 to ‘get inside the user’s head’ and empathise with how they may be feeling when engaging with your services. This will allow you to gain a deeper understanding of their ‘pains’ (what they may be concerned about when engaging with you), and their ‘gains’ (what they’re hoping to achieve when engaging with you). This will allow you to design and deliver your services in a way which alleviates their concerns as much as possible, as well as maximising the likelihood of them achieving their goals as a result of engaging with your service.

Blank Template
On the next page there is a blank template which you can use to create an empathy map. Feel free to input information directly into this template, however for best practice, it’s advised that this is printed out on A3 paper and completed using post it notes as a team.

1. Who are we empathising with?
Who is the person we want to understand? What is the situation they’re in? What is their role within the situation?

2. What is the desired outcome?
What do they need to do? What decision(s) do they need to make? How will we know they were successful?

3. What do they SEE?
What do they see others saying and doing? What do they see in their immediate environment? What are they watching/reading?

4. What do they SAY?
What have we heard them say to us? What can we imagine them saying? What are they saying to others?

What do they do today? What behaviour have we observed? What can we imagine them doing? What motivates their behaviour?
5. What do they DO?

What are they hearing others say? What are they hearing from friends/family? What are they hearing second hand?
6. What do they HEAR?

7. How do they feel - PAINS
What are their fears, frustrations and anxieties? What obstacles do they need to overcome? What are they worried about?

8. How do they feel—GAINS
What are their wants, needs, hopes and dreams? What do they gain from interacting with us? How can we address their pain points?