Empathy map: definition, importance and how to create it

An empathy map is a tool that allows to know the target customer of a company. and, consequently, adapt to their needs so that the company's service or product responds to those needs. It is based on the creation of a document that answers specific questions and that, once completed, will allow us to get to know the ideal customer much better. 

What is an empathy map

An empathy map is a tool that allows a company to know its target customer in a more detailed and reliable way. It can be presented in different formats, although most commonly it is a document divided into quadrants (four at the top and two at the bottom), with each quadrant answering a specific question about the client. 

The six questions that appear on a map of empathy are as follows:

• What do you think and feel?
• What do you listen to?
• What do you see?
• What does it talk about and what does it do?
• What are your pains?
• What are your needs?

Each of these questions responds to ways of feeling that the customer in question has. Thus, by answering them, the company can get a much better and more complete picture of the type of target customer it has in front of it, which helps it to tailor its products or services so that they really meet the customer's needs. 

On the other hand, it has to be borne in mind that the questions presented by an empathy map are general, and which should be adapted to each specific case. For example, when the empathy map asks <>, it is asking how the client sees the world around him, who are his friends, what is his everyday world. When you ask <>, you are referring to their fears and frustrations, the obstacles they have to overcome to acquire the product or service you are offering, etc.

How to create a quality empathy map

When creating a quality empathy map, there are usually eight phases that need to be carried out for the map to successfully fulfil its function:

1. Defining the business ideaThe first thing that is necessary when creating an empathy map is to know what product or service you want to sell. That is to say, to have a specific business that offers something to a hypothetical customer and that will help him to solve some of his needs. 
2. Customer segment definitionThe second phase to carry out the empathy map will be to know the customer to whom the product or service to be sold will be addressed. In other words, identify the hypothetical customer who might be interested in the product that the business defined in the previous phase is going to offer. 
3. What do you think and what do you feel?The next phase is already the first question of the empathy map. It consists of putting yourself in the shoes of the hypothetical client defined in the previous phase and answering the question of what he/she thinks and feels with the information we have about him/her. 
4. What do you listen to?The next phase tries to answer the ideas that the client has from the ideas that come to him. Who influences him/her, what media he/she uses, etc. 
5. What do you see?In this phase, the aim is to get to know the client according to his or her everyday world, the people around the hypothetical client and how they influence him or her. 
6. What does it talk about and what does it do?In this phase you will seek to understand what their hobbies are and what subjects interest them. 
7. What are your pains?This is a very important phase, as it has to define the obstacles that the hypothetical customer will have to overcome before becoming a real consumer of the product or service offered. 
8. What are your needs?Finally, an attempt will be made, based on all the information that has been gathered so far, to respond to the real and most immediate needs of the hypothetical client. 

From each of the phases carried out to develop the empathy map, an empathy map will be obtained. detailed information on how the ideal customer feels and sees the world around him or her to whom the products or services are addressed. In this way, using the information provided by the empathy map, the most appropriate decisions can be made so that the product or service offered to the customer is really adapted to their needs, according to their most immediate expectations, to the influences around them and to the obstacles that may exist between the customer and consumption.