The empathy map: see one person clearly before you look for ideas
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Teams usually know a lot about their product and surprisingly little about the person who is supposed to use it. Ideas then solve the problems the team imagines, not the ones the customer has. An empathy map is a quick way to change that. It puts one person in the middle of a page and collects what they say, think, do and feel, and then their pains and gains. Dave Gray developed it at XPLANE, and it spread through the book Gamestorming (2010). In 2017 he published an updated Empathy Map Canvas that starts with the person's goal and adds what they see and hear.
What goes where
| Block | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Says | Quotes, in their own words, from interviews or support calls |
| Thinks | What occupies them that they might not say out loud |
| Does | What they were seen doing: behaviour, workarounds, habits |
| Feels | Worries, frustrations, what they look forward to |
| Pains | Fears, obstacles and risks that stand in their way |
| Gains | What they want to achieve and how they measure success |
An empathy map in 45 minutes
- Pick one person. One segment, ideally one real person you have talked to. "Store managers who order for two stores" works; "our customers" does not.
- Bring the material. Interview notes, observations, support tickets, sales calls. An empathy map filled from imagination only shows what the team already believed.
- Start with says and does. These are the observable blocks. Write quotes word for word, and behaviour as it was seen.
- Then thinks and feels. These are interpretations. Base each note on something in says or does, and mark notes that are guesses.
- Look for the gaps. Where do says and does disagree? "I always check the order twice" next to "orders at 11 pm on Sunday" is where the interesting problems hide.
- Fill in pains and gains. What stands in the way, and what success would look like for this person.
- Turn the strongest pain into a question. Write it as a how might we question: "How might we catch ordering mistakes before the delivery?" That is the brief for the next ideation round.
Mark every note that is a guess. The guesses are not wrong to have, but they are your next interview questions. An empathy map with no guesses was either built on very good research or not looked at critically.
Empathy map or persona?
A persona describes a typical customer: name, age, job, goals, usually as a fixed reference document. An empathy map is a working tool for one moment: what is going on for this person right now, in this situation. Use the empathy map before an ideation session, and keep it next to the ideas. If the team keeps building similar maps for the same segment, that is the moment to write a persona.
Where empathy maps go wrong
- Filled from the meeting room. Without interviews or observation, the map shows the team's assumptions in the customer's voice. Talk to at least three people first.
- Several people on one map. A manager and a cashier have different pains. One map per person or segment.
- Says without does. People describe what they intend. Behaviour shows what they actually do. You need both to see the gap.
- No next step. A map that does not lead to a question or a test is decoration. End with the pain you will work on.
The empathy map was created by Dave Gray (XPLANE, xplane.com) and is licensed under CC BY 3.0. IdeaHone's empathy map tool shows this credit on the canvas and in every export.
Run the workshop. IdeaHone keeps the record.
While you facilitate, IdeaHone turns what is said into ideas, questions and decisions on a shared board, with who said it. Nobody writes the minutes afterwards.
What is an empathy map?
A one-page tool to describe one person or customer segment: what they say, think, do and feel, plus their pains and gains. It helps a team understand who they are designing for before they generate ideas. It was developed by Dave Gray at XPLANE.
What are the four quadrants of an empathy map?
Says, thinks, does and feels. Many versions add pains and gains below them. The updated Empathy Map Canvas from 2017 also asks for the person's goal and what they see and hear.
What is the difference between an empathy map and a persona?
A persona is a fixed description of a typical customer. An empathy map captures what is going on for one person in a specific situation and is used as a working tool, for example right before an ideation session.
How many people should I interview before making an empathy map?
At least three from the same segment. Fewer, and the map shows one person's quirks; more is better if their answers still differ a lot.
