See the world through someone else's eyes.
A handy prompt to help you imagine yourself in others’ shoes and view at things from their perspective. What is your subject thinking? What are they seeing? What kinds of things are they saying to the people they care about?
People are complex. Understanding their motivations, behaviours, opinions and actions can be tricky sometimes.
A crucial part of design thinking, empathy is the ability to see the world from another’s perspective, to step into their shoes. This can be used for many outcomes – wherever it is useful to understand people more deeply.
This can be highly effective in innovation, in that empathy helps you understand the motivations and desires of your customers. And it’s also useful in leadership and communication, in understanding how you come across to others and how you’re perceived by others.
One of the most effective approaches to quickly gain a better understanding of colleagues, stakeholders, customers – or whoever you’re working with or for – is empathy mapping. It’s as simple as imagining yourself in their shoes and looking at things from their perspective.
Draw a simple Empathy Mapping template as above.
Write a name or draw a picture in the middle of the map of the person you would like to analyse. Then, work your way around the map, filling in the segments.
Use the Empathy Map to help you ask questions like:
We'd encourage you to use it often - for colleagues, bosses, customers - anyone you're working with or communicating with on a regular basis. The short time spent using the tool is well worth it in terms of the returns you'll receive as a result.
Timing note: this runs as a focused 30-minute exercise in the Feedback workshop. Allow up to an hour when you use it as a standalone tool, so people can map more than one person and discuss what they find.
One of the most effective approaches to quickly gain a better understanding of colleagues, stakeholders, customers – or whoever you’re working with or for – is empathy mapping. It’s as simple as imagining yourself in their shoes and looking at things from their perspective.
Introduce the empathy map, then let people work through it individually or in small groups, each choosing one real person to focus on.
Choose a colleague, stakeholder or customer and work around the empathy map: what they are thinking, seeing, saying, doing, feeling and hearing. The short time spent pays off in a much deeper understanding of the person.
Use Empathy Mapping when you want to understand a customer, colleague or stakeholder more deeply. A simple prompt to imagine what someone thinks, sees, says and feels helps a team step into their shoes and design around real needs.
Using this tool with a skilled facilitator means that discussions are focused, time is used efficiently, and the group moves toward consensus, making the session productive and impactful.
