What is empathy?

Empathy is the ability to see the world from another’s point of view, through listening, understanding, and demonstrating genuine care for the other person. 

In business, empathy helps you connect with your ideal customers and understand their aspirations and goals. Building empathy with your customer guides you to provide a better user experience.

What is empathy mapping?

Empathy mapping is a collaborative tool that allows you to visualize what you know about your ideal customer. By creating a visual reference for your customer’s fears, desires, and aspirations, empathy mapping helps you make more informed decisions for your business and product, increasing your chances for success 

Where can I download an empathy map? 

#Ladyboss behind MindflowerStudio, Abby Wilkymacky, created an empathy mapping tool that we encourage you to download and fill out for you business. 

I have my empathy map. How can I leverage it to improve my business?

1. At the very least, fill it out, trying to think like your customer. Depending on your knowledge of your ideal customer, you may already know a good deal about how they think and feel. So go ahead and fill it out, but don’t assume you know everything.

    

2. Reach out to your customers and ask to have a conversation. Speaking directly to your customers allows you to take the guesswork out of the equation, pointing you in the right direction while saving time and resources.

    

3. Have three goals for the conversation. When you determine these goals, craft two to four intentional, open-ended (not yes or no) questions to accomplish each goal. For example, if your goal is to understand what improvements you can make on your product, you might ask what frustrations they have while using your product. You might ask about your product, their day to day experience using it, or their needs in filling the gap your product might fill.

    

4. If you’re hosting a focus group, provide individual work time, before hosting a group conversation. This allows individuals to address their personal opinions and experiences with your product without being influenced by other users. In the end, collect the individual work as additional artifacts so that you can review what was said and draw additional conclusions

    

5.  Talk to your stakeholders, as well. It never hurts to invite the people who are backing you into the conversation. Often, stakeholders bring a unique perspective on the impact of a new decision or current practice.