Question

You have been asked to develop a new line of organic skincare products. Spend time with three people determining what needs they may have in this area. Create an empathy map that summarizes your findings. What is the value of empathy in the design thinking process (e.g., what can you learn)?

Answer 1

First let's try to understand what an empathy map is:

Empathy Map is a great way of understanding the user requirements for a particular product. It is usually conducted during the research phase of the product life cycle and helps the user team to decide the features of the product or make informed decisions to meet the customer requirements. The value of empathy map in the design thinking process is that it helps the user experience team to identify, completely list down and prioritize the user needs for a product.

An empathy map consists of 4 quadrants: Says, Thinks, Does and Feel. These are explained below:

Now, the answer to the question above varies from person to person, how you conduct the survey, which people do you select to conduct this survey and in which environment do you conduct this survey. I am citing here typical examples of such a survey with three different categories of people.

Person 1: A customer with high net promoter score
Person 2: A person with low net promoter score
Person 3: A neutral customer

Following is the sample empathy map of Person 1:

Following is the sample empathy map of Person 2:

Following is the sample empathy map of Person 3:

Some of the key finding from these sample empathy maps for different users can be as follows:

1. We need to create more awareness about the uses of organic skin care products.
2. The users prefer to buy products referred by someone.
3. The product must be carefully priced.
4. The customers must feel that they are value for money. So, we must highlight more values for these products.
5. We must focus on creating a brand.

From the above examples we can see how the empathy map can help a product development team to identify the user needs and can be helpful in meeting the user requirements.

Thank you for raising the question and I hope the question was answered to your satisfaction. Keep learning and enjoy learning. Have a great day ahead !

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