Empathy Map Template
Dig deeper into your customer's mind with the empathy map template. Visualize all your user needs and develop products people will love.
About the Empathy Map template
Many businesses and organizations have created an empathy map template to help them understand their audiences, users, and customers. It’s a great tool to gain insights and develop personas or customer segments.
What is an empathy map?
Empathy maps are visualization tools that allow you to articulate what you know about specific types of users. They are often considered a part of the design thinking methodology, and they empower you to create a shared understanding of user needs and help decision-makers with key judgment calls.
One good empathy map example is how UX professionals use it. They must create products beneficial to users they have never met or interacted with. To do so, it’s important to understand their users and help their colleagues do the same, so an empathy map is a powerful tool that helps them do both.
Benefits of empathy mapping
Many businesses employ empathy mapping as part of the design process because it’s helpful in understanding your users, their desires, and what they want out of your product.
Put a narrative to your data
The basis of empathy mapping is typically some firsthand data received from users that describe their thoughts on using the product. One of the major benefits of empathy mapping is that it requires you to tease out more about the customer from this data, determine what they’re feeling, and create a narrative that informs the rest of your UX & UI design.
Get inside the heads of your users
Empathy maps are also a useful exercise because they force you to put yourself in the shoes of your users and determine how they approach and interact with your product. It’s easy for designers to lose sight of real-world user experience with the product, so empathy maps help keep you grounded.
Easily visualize customer needs
Another benefit of empathy mapping is that it’s a visual exercise that distills various pieces of information about the customer experience into a single reference point. Empathy maps can be used and referenced by different stakeholders and team members at various points of the development cycle, and they’re relatively simple to create.
When to use an empathy map
Empathy maps are highly useful whenever your team needs a greater understanding of user needs, such as collaborating on user personas, and building the “user” in your user story.
Empathy maps help you sketch out profiles for a user or persona. They distill your knowledge into a single source of truth. An empathy map can help you summarize and analyze qualitative research such as survey responses and interview transcripts. By putting this information on a single page, you can uncover gaps in your knowledge and figure out how to fill them. Empathy maps are easy-to-use and digestible methods to illustrate user attitudes and behaviors.
The 4 elements of an empathy map
Empathy maps are divided up into four quadrants.
1. Says
The Says quadrant records what a user says during an interview. Try to capture exact quotes, such as, “I use this product every day because it helps me streamline my workflow.”
2. Thinks
In contrast, the Thinks quadrant summarizes what the user is thinking throughout the experience. Based on your qualitative research, ask yourself what occupies the user’s thoughts, what matters to them, and what challenges they’re facing. The key here is to uncover the things they might be too shy or reluctant to share. For example, “This feature is really irritating.”
3. Does
Like the name implies, the Does quadrant captures the actions the user takes. For example, if you’re watching a user interact with a product, you could record the following: “Keeps refreshing the page.”
4. Feels
The Feels quadrant records user emotions. What worries them? What excites them? For example, “The user is excited about the price point. The user is worried that this is too hard to use.”
Create your own
Miro is the perfect workspace to create and share your empathy map. Get started by selecting this empathy map template. Then fill the four quadrants discussed above and brainstorm different points to add to each section via sticky notes based on the initial customer statement. Or, if you wish, you can create your own empathy map example from scratch, using our diagramming and collaborative features.
Why are empathy maps important?
Empathy maps are important because they give designers an avenue into the mind of the customer and help them empathize with their experience, desires, and needs. They’re also useful for taking insights you gain from user research, digging deeper, and applying them to find concrete solutions.
How do you use persona empathy mapping?
To create an empathy map, start with a direct statement from a customer gleaned from user interviews or direct feedback. From there, you create a constellation of thoughts, feelings, and actions that underly the customer’s statement and help you understand why they made the statement and what their underlying motivations are.
How do I create and use an empathy map of my target audience?
You can create an empathy map by conducting user interviews and filling the empathy map template collecting data about how your customers feel about either your product or service. Ideally, it would be best to do an empathy map with your target audience to have data about who they are and how they interact with your product. People use the empathy map to improve product features and discover where the product or service falls short.
Get started with this template right now.
Research Topic Brainstorm Template
Works best for:
Desk Research, Brainstorming, Ideation
Coming up with a topic for a research project can be a daunting task. Use the Research Topic Brainstorm template to take a general idea and transform it into something concrete. With the Research Topic Brainstorm template, you can compile a list of general ideas that interest you and then break them into component parts. You can then turn those parts into questions that might be the focus for a research project.
Empathy Map by Axelle Vanquaillie
Works best for:
Market Research, Research & Design
Empathy Mapping template is a valuable tool for gaining deep insights into user experiences. It helps you understand their motivations and challenges, ensuring your products address real needs. Ideal for UX researchers and designers.
5Gs Retrospective
Works best for:
Agile Methodology, Retrospectives, Meetings
The 5Gs Retrospective template offers a structured approach for teams to reflect on their projects or iterations, focusing on five key aspects: Goals, Gains, Gratitude, Gaps, and Growth. It provides elements for identifying achievements, expressing gratitude, and addressing areas for improvement. This template enables teams to conduct retrospectives systematically, fostering a culture of learning, appreciation, and continuous improvement. By emphasizing the five dimensions of reflection, the 5Gs Retrospective empowers teams to optimize their performance, enhance collaboration, and achieve their goals effectively.
Product Roadmap Template
Works best for:
Product Management, Roadmaps
Product roadmaps help communicate the vision and progress of what’s coming next for your product. It’s an important asset for aligning teams and valuable stakeholders – including executives, engineering, marketing, customer success, and sales – around your strategy and priorities. Product roadmapping can inform future project management, describe new features and product goals, and spell out the lifecycle of a new product. While product roadmaps are customizable, most contain information about the products you’re building, when you’re building them, and the people involved at each stage.
Miro Basics: Guide for New Participants
Works best for:
Agile
The Miro Basics: Guide for New Participants template offers a comprehensive overview of essential Miro functionalities and best practices for new users. It provides step-by-step instructions, tips, and examples to help participants navigate the Miro platform confidently and effectively. This template empowers new users to leverage Miro's collaborative features and unleash their creativity in visual collaboration. By promoting proficiency and engagement, the Miro Basics: Guide for New Participants enhances collaboration and productivity across teams.
Service Experience Observation Sheet
Works best for:
Research & Design
The Expanded Service Blueprint provides a detailed view of your service processes and interactions. This template is ideal for comprehensive service analysis and improvement. Use it to align teams, visualize the customer journey, and identify opportunities for optimization. It's perfect for enhancing service delivery, fostering collaboration, and ensuring a seamless and efficient service experience for your customers.