A successful product requires a thorough understanding of the customer. In this instance, the target audience's general features are insufficient; sociodemographic indicators and cold, hard data won't provide a whole picture of the individual. It is far more crucial to comprehend his concerns and desires, goals, and the scenarios influencing his decision-making. Adding social media marketing analytics can also significantly improve this comprehension.
Empathy is the mechanism by which this knowledge may be gained; it is referred to as such in psychology and design. Empathizing with someone you know and who has experienced things similar to yours is an easy task. What if, however, it's a stranger? The right response is to use specialized strategies to assist you in improving this expertise. The empathy map is one of them.
What is an empathy map?
Dave Gray, who founded XPLANE and wrote books on creative development and the Gamestorming idea creation approach, is credited with the concept and development of the Empathy Map many years ago. This tool is part of the Stanford School of Design's toolkit and is actively utilized in today's agile method and design thinking.
Each of the seven themed elements that make up the card design focuses on a different facet of the customer's personality. Completing these facilitates a deeper understanding of the client's surroundings, demeanor, issues, aspirations, and concerns. Because of their efforts, marketers and creators can produce projects with high-quality and profitable business models.
How to get ready?
Creating an empathy map is a brainstorming tool. Consequently, it's critical to abide by the following group work guidelines to collaborate with it effectively:
- Inform in advance
A few days before the conference, if a client brief is distributed, the team will have time to prepare for work, engage in the area, and gather insights.
-Explain the project's goal in detail
In this manner, you may ensure everyone is in the same working phase and comprehends the project's goal.
-Make a note of the assault.
Keeping a close eye on the ideas being discussed will ensure that no valuable team concepts are overlooked.
Deciding on the source of any customer data is equally crucial. Some might be acquired directly from the attackers - the organization's professionals dealing with this customer. Furthermore, a team with a more diversified membership is preferable as the marketer is more knowledgeable about some subjects than the creative director, and the sales manager understands things that the marketing does not.
Other resources for customer data are frequently used:
- Social network profiles;
- conversations on forums and theme websites;
- credible specialist media
- remarks made beneath reviews and publications.
How to fill?
Thematic blocks must be completed in the numerical sequence to create a map. Use a flipchart or whiteboard for big project teams, or print the template on paper for small workgroups. Organizing ideas on colored stickers will be convenient if you follow this style because they are simple to remove and relocate.
Set a goal
Establishing a goal — the person we wish to develop empathy for — is the first step in any mapping process. This is accomplished by drawing a circle or customer profile in the sheet's middle. You may name him, and you can make all the major personality adjustments. David Gray suggests providing as much information as possible about the target, such as personality features, feelings, and common speech patterns. This facilitates and expedites the process of internalizing the character's experiences.
Outer Blocks
Once the objective has been established, we begin filling in the details; they depict our consumer's surroundings and their effects on him. Four groups comprise them:
- "What he observes." Characterizes the target's surroundings: his communication routes, primary information sources, public figures, and social networks. Consider whose opinion he is particularly willing to hear and whom he may easily dismiss. What movies, books, or online communities shape his opinion of the product?
- "What he says". We examine what we heard him say in his own words about a matter that interests us. What does he or would he say concerning our offering? What terms does he most frequently utilize, and how does he articulate his viewpoint? How successfully we have used forums and remarks as information sources plays a major part in this block.
- "What does". At this point, we address the customer's actions: what he did previously, what he does currently, and most likely, what he will do going forward. For instance, when marketing a new pet food, it's critical to comprehend how the target consumer typically purchases this product—online or offline, weekly or monthly, in large or small amounts. Does he utilize promo coupons to make purchases from the mailing list, by the way?
- "What he hears". We decide what information the customer gets from others on a topic that interests them. What does he hear about it from friends, family, and coworkers? What are the social media, radio, and television discussions concerning it? What are they saying about him? What will he probably listen to more?
Internal blocks
We now need to examine the ideas and emotions that shape customer behavior. The empathy map shows two underlying blocks: "pains" and "benefits."
- "Pain": The word "pain" characterizes the target's surroundings: his communication routes, primary information sources, public figures, and social network. Consider whose opinion he is particularly willing to hear and whom he may easily dismiss. What movies, books, or online communities shape his opinion of the product?
- "Benefits": our characters' needs, wants, aspirations, and goals. This is where we record information on his methods of goal-achieving, his experiences along the way, his daily sources of happiness, and his metrics for failure.
The outer blocks represent the consumer's external environment and experiences, while his internal environment and psychological makeup are shown through these interior blocks.
Summary
An empathy map is a useful tool for fully immersing oneself in the client's reality. You may refer to the previously prepared map whenever you want to learn more about or test customers' opinions on various areas of the good or service. Time savings is also another clear benefit of this practice. In most cases, teams may finish the map in one to two hours if preparation time is not included. You may maintain the relevance and use of your map by regularly gathering mini-assessments and updating information from reliable sources.