Creating Empathy Maps w/ Scott Sehlhorst

In October, LeadingAgile SVP, Scott Sehlhorst spent some time talking with Dave about the importance of Personas and Proto-Personas and how to use them. In this episode of SoundNotes, Scott is back to talk about Empathy Maps, how they work, why they are so valuable and how to create one. During the conversation, Scott and Dave talk through each step of creating an Empathy Map. The podcast is one of our longer ones, but if you are seeking a better understanding of how to put one together, you’ll find a lot of valuable information in this interview.

You’ll probably want to download a copy of David Gray’s Empathy Map to have on hand while you listen to this episode. You can find that here: http://gamestorming.com/empathy-mapping/

 

SHOW NOTES

00:08 Interview Begins
00:50 Some background on Scott
02:30 Intro to the topic of Empathy Maps and how they relate to Proto-Personas and Personas
03:09 What is Empathy? How does it relate to Sympathy and Cognitive Empathy
05:46 What is an Empathy Map and who creates it?
08:42 Understanding their understanding of their problem
09:39 Whose job is it to create it?
10:45 Where to learn how to interview users
11:30 How do you pick which customers to focus on? (And the set up for the example we walk through)
20:20 Who are we empathizing with? (Understanding the role you are focusing on)
21:17 Understanding what they need to do
24:13 What is the goal they are trying to achieve?
26:25 Understanding what success means for the person we are focusing on
27:54 What they see and what do they say - situational awareness and how they interpret what they see
30:08 The disconnect between what do I see and what do I say
32:16 What do they do
33:19 The Double Design Process (Double Diamond Design)
36:18 Moving from empathy maps to experiment maps or the value proposition canvas
37:28 What do they hear (and how it is not all about sound)
41:18 What do they think and feel
45:45 How often do I revise the empathy map
48:35 When I’m done filling out the empathy map, what do I do with it?
51:05 How to reach Scott with additional questions about Empathy Maps
51:57 Podcast Ends

LINKS FROM THE PODCAST

LeadingAgile SoundNotes: Using Personas to Reduce Risk w/ Scott Sehlhorst (our earlier podcast on personas)
http://bit.ly/2BGumyJ
David Gray’s Updated Empathy Map
http://gamestorming.com/empathy-mapping/
"Mental Models"  - Indi Young
http://amzn.to/2BGBtaw
"Interviewing Users: How to Uncover Compelling Insights" - Steve Portigal
http://amzn.to/2zTzQWl
"Impact Mapping: Making a big impact with software products and projects" -  Gojko Adzic
http://amzn.to/2k4cKpA
Double Design - The Double Diamond Design Process
http://bit.ly/2B9EwvF

CONTACTING SCOTT

If you’d like to contact Scott you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/scott-sehlhorst/
Twitter https://twitter.com/sehlhorst
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sehlhorst/
Blog: http://tynerblain.com/blog/

CONTACTING DAVE

If you’d like to contact Dave you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
Email: [email protected]

SEND US YOUR QUESTIONS

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to [email protected]

UPCOMING CLASSES

And if you are interested in taking one of our upcoming Certified Scrum Master or Certified Scrum Product Owner classes, you can find all the details at https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/