EMPATHIZE
Uncover What Truly Matters
To create something meaningful, you first need to understand who you’re designing for. The deeper you look through their eyes, the clearer the reality of their needs becomes.
Where to Start?
Great ideas don’t start with assumptions, they start with understanding.
The Empathize step is where you dig deep, explore, and uncover what truly matters beyond assumptions and obvious observations. This isn’t just about gathering data; it’s about immersing yourself in real experiences, listening to voices that often go unheard, and discovering the patterns and emotions that shape behavior.
What do you already know? What’s missing? What perspectives need to be explored further?
Why This Step Matters?
See Beyond Assumptions – Instead of designing based on guesswork, you’ll work with real experiences and behaviors, ensuring your work is grounded in reality.
Uncover Hidden Needs – People often struggle to articulate what they truly need. By immersing yourself in their world, you’ll recognize gaps and opportunities that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Gain a Deeper Understanding– The more you explore people’s experiences, frustrations, and behaviors, the better you’ll understand the real problem, not just its symptoms.
The Challenge of This Step
This step requires patience and an open mind. Research can be time-consuming, and sometimes the findings are messy or contradictory. It’s not about having all the answers now, it’s about gathering the right pieces to build something truly valuable later.
So, are you ready to uncover what really matters? Let’s dive in.
Key activities for Understanding People and Context
Understanding starts with action. Explore these activities to connect with users, uncover relevant findings, and build a solid foundation for the next steps.
Frame what you need to learn
Clarify what you need to learn about the users, their context and the challenge.
Review what you already know
Assess available data, research and insights that might already exist within the organization.
Select the right methods and tools
Select research methods that best fit the challenge.
Plan and Manage Resources
Balance available resources with the depth of understanding required.
Research, Immerse and engage
Conduct research through trend analysis, user interviews, contextual inquiries, shadowing and firsthand experiences.
Document and reflect on findings
Synthesize and organize initial findings.
Tools & Methods
Empathy comes from exploration, and the right tools make all the difference. Choose the tools & methods that best fit your challenge and start discovering what truly matters.
ResEARCH AND DISCOVERY CARD
Plan your learning before you start.
Trends matrix
Spot patterns shaping the future.
CONTEXT CANVAS
Place your company or product at the center and look outward.
PORTER´S FIVE FORCES
Understand the competitive landscape around your project.
OWN EXPERIENCE
Step into someone else’s shoes, literally.
Observation
Step back, watch, and take it all in.
interview
Get answers straight from the source.
context inquiry
Go where the action happens.
Participation method
Let people speak in their own way.
Formats to Start
Empathy comes from exploration, and the right tools make all the difference. Choose the tools & methods that best fit your challenge and start discovering what truly matters.
Format for Empathy
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Full format for all steps
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