Create an empathy map

Outcome

One empathy map for one user or one persona at one moment, filled from research. It has four quadrants (says, thinks, does, feels) plus pains and gains. Each note traces to a source. Under the map you have a short list of tensions, the places where what the person says and what they do disagree, and the design question each tension raises.

When to use it

• You have just finished a round of interviews and need a shared picture of one user before deciding anything.
• The team describes the user from their own point of view and needs to see the research instead.
• You are building a persona or a journey map and want a structured input for the thoughts and feelings.

When not to use it

• You need to see a sequence over time. An empathy map has no time axis; map the journey instead.
• You have no research. A map filled from the team's guesses shows the team's beliefs, not the user's.
• You are trying to compare several user groups at once. Make one map per group, or derive personas first.

Before you start

• Research notes. Interview transcripts, session recordings, support tickets or survey answers about the user you are mapping.
• One subject. One participant, or one persona that several participants fit.
• People. Two to five teammates who will use the result. Mapping works best as a group exercise.
• Time. Sixty to ninety minutes for one map.
• The template. Open the Empathy Map Template in Figma or print the PDF.

Steps

Step 1: Name the subject and the moment

Write who the map is about and the moment it describes, such as a first-time user on the day they import their data. Put it in the middle of the map.

You should now have: a named subject and moment in the centre of the template.

Step 2: Fill "says" with direct quotes

Go through the notes and copy what the person said, word for word, onto notes in the says quadrant. Write the source on each note, such as the participant code.

You should now have: a says quadrant of verbatim quotes, each with its source.

Step 3: Fill "does" with observed actions

Add what the person did, from recordings, observation or logs, to the does quadrant. Write actions as verbs: exported the file twice, opened the help page and closed it.

You should now have: a does quadrant of observed actions, each with its source.

Step 4: Fill "thinks" and "feels" from evidence

Add what the person seems to believe or worry about to thinks, and their emotional state to feels. Base each note on something in the research, such as a hesitation, a tone of voice or a remark made in passing. Mark any note you inferred rather than observed.

You should now have: thinks and feels quadrants, with inferred notes marked.

Step 5: Add pains and gains

Below the quadrants, list what gets in the person's way (pains) and what they are trying to achieve (gains). Take them from the four quadrants, not from new ideas.

You should now have: a list of pains and gains drawn from the quadrants.

Step 6: Read the tensions

Compare the quadrants. Look for places where says and does disagree, or where thinks explains a surprising action. Write each tension as one sentence, then turn it into a design question.

You should now have: two to five tensions, each written with the design question it raises.

Worked example

A budgeting app. The team has six interviews with people who stopped using the app within a month.

1. Subject and moment: a lapsed user, the week they stopped opening the app.
2. Says: "I'm pretty organised with money." "The categories were fine." "I just got busy."
3. Does: recategorised the same supermarket transaction four times; turned off the weekly summary email; kept a separate spreadsheet.
4. Thinks (inferred, marked): the app's totals do not match my bank, so I cannot trust them. Feels: mildly embarrassed when the summary showed overspending.
5. Pains: categories that keep changing, totals that differ from the bank. Gains: knowing at a glance whether this month is on track.
6. Tension: they say the categories were fine, but they recategorised the same transaction four times. Design question: what makes a transaction's category not stick? A second tension: they say they are organised but keep a separate spreadsheet. Design question: what does the spreadsheet show that the app does not?

The two questions became the brief for the next round of interviews.

Checklist

• The map has one named subject and one moment.
• Every note traces to a source in the research.
• Says holds verbatim quotes, not paraphrases.
• Does holds observed actions, written as verbs.
• Inferred notes in thinks and feels are marked.
• Pains and gains come from the quadrants, not new ideas.
• At least two tensions are written, each with a design question.

Common mistakes

• Filling it from the team's assumptions. The map then describes what the team believes about the user.
• Mapping several people at once. Notes from different kinds of user cancel each other out. Make one map per subject.
• Paraphrasing quotes. A paraphrase drifts towards what the team wanted to hear. Copy the words.
• Stopping at the quadrants. The value is in the tensions between them. A filled map with no tensions read is decoration.

Related

• Empathy Map Template: the says, thinks, does and feels grid, in Figma or as a PDF.
• Create a user persona: turn several maps into a persona set.
• Create a customer journey map: follow the same person through time.