DESCRIPTION
The Empathy Map is a visual framework used to understand a target audience or user by exploring their perceptions, emotions, motivations, and behaviors. The map typically includes sections such as what a person says, thinks, does, feels, sees, and hears, helping teams build a holistic understanding of the audience. The method helps to move from assumptions to genuine audience insight, making communication more relevant and emotionally resonant.
What makes it very special is the deep audience perspective. Rather than starting with the brand or product story, it begins with the internal world of the audience. This ensures that narratives address real motivations, frustrations, and aspirations, increasing engagement, persuasion and identification with what is said.
ORIGIN
Created by Dave Gray, while working at XPLANE (a visual thinking consultancy) somewhere around 2010, the method was introduced in the book “Gamestorming” by Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, and James Macanufo. This adaption focusses on a general storytelling perspective/use as a tool ensuring emotional and empathic messaging.
USED BY
The empathy map is widely used in design thinking workshops, UX and product design, marketing and brand strategy, customer experience design, business storytelling and communication strategy to particularly add emotional customer-centricity to organisations and innovation stories.
Approximately needed time
- Step 1: 1 hours
- Step 2: 2 hours
- Step 3: 2 hours
- Step 4: 2 hours
- Step 5: 2 hours
- TOTAL: 9 hours
METHOD
MATERIAL YOU COULD NEED: Sticky notes or digital whiteboard, markers or collaboration tools, customer research or persona data, interview or survey insights
STAKEHOLDER GOOD TO KNOW: Marketing or brand strategists, product or service designers, customer-experience specialists, sales or support representatives
STEPS
AUDIENCE PERSONAs
You need to clearly identify whose perspective you are mapping. Without a defined audience, empathy becomes vague and generic. Teams select a specific persona or audience segment and summarize key demographic and contextual information: profession, goals, challenges, environment, etc.
Supporting methods: Persona, Jobs-to-Be-Done, SCARF model
Example: A storytelling consultancy defines the persona:
“Mid-level marketing manager trying to explain digital transformation to leadership.”
This becomes the “hero perspective” of the empathy map.
MAPPING THE WORLD
A person’s environment strongly shapes how they interpret information and stories. Participants fill the sections:
- Sees: environment, competitors, trends
- Hears: messages from bosses, colleagues, media
This reveals what influences the audience’s thinking.
Supporting methods: Market analysis, trend mapping, stakeholder management and mapping
Example:
- Sees: constant digital-transformation buzzwords.
- Hears: leadership demanding faster innovation.
These pressures shape the emotional context for your story.
MAPPING EXPERIENCES
The most powerful stories connect with emotions and hidden motivations. Participants explore what the audience worries about, hopes for, secretly fears and truly cares about.
This often requires empathy and discussion, not just data, and is therefore best done in a diverse and audience representative team.
Supporting methods: Emotional curve, SCARF model and behavioral psychology
Example: The marketing manager thinks “Will leadership blame me if this fails?”, therefore they feel pressure, uncertainty, and ambition. These emotions shape how they receive stories about innovation.
MAPPING BEHAVIOUR
People’s actions and statements reveal practical constraints and social behaviour. Participants map:
- Says: what the person openly communicates
- Does: observable actions or behaviour patterns
Often there is a gap between what people say and what they truly think. This is the place to close this gap
Supporting methods: behavioral observation, customer journey mapping, Jobs-to-Be-Done
Example:
- Says: “We need a clear transformation roadmap.”
- Does: delays decisions because risk is high.
This tension becomes a strong narrative element.
MAPPING INSIGHTS
The empathy map itself is not the final output, but its value lies in the insight that (in)forms storytelling. Participants identify patterns across the map:
- What pains dominate the persona’s experience?
- What motivations drive them?
- What narrative message would resonate?
They then craft a story/communication addressing these insights.
Supporting methods: Story circle method, hero narrative framing, transformation map
Example:
Insight:
“The audience isn’t afraid of change; they’re afraid of looking incompetent during change.”
Therefore the story emphasizes learning journeys instead of perfect solutions.
The empathy map is a foundational tool in design thinking because it keeps teams focused on user experience rather than internal assumptions. It works best when based on real customer research, not speculation. They are often used together with personas, customer journeys, and value proposition design and the method encourages teams to separate facts (observations) from interpretations (assumptions) in strucutred way.
PROMINENT BRANDS USING IT:
The empathy map is widely used across design and innovation teams, particularly in companies practicing design thinking, such as: IDEO, Airbnb and IBM to just mention some. They use empathy mapping to guide product design, marketing communication, and storytelling in sync.
