What is an empathy map, and what is it for?
A collaborative visualisation that gathers what a team knows about a type of user — what they say, think, do and feel — to build shared understanding and support decisions.
An empathy map externalises a team's scattered knowledge about a particular kind of user onto one shared canvas, so the understanding isn't trapped in individual heads. It serves two purposes:
- Create a shared understanding of user needs across the team.
- Aid decision-making, by keeping the real user in view when choices are made.
The canvas typically captures, around a depiction of the user: what they say and do (observable), what they think and feel (inferred), plus their pains and gains (goals). The value is in the act of filling it in together — disagreements surface, gaps in knowledge become visible, and the team converges on one picture of who they're solving for.