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Books as Resources for your continued learning. 

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Books as Resources for your continued learning. 

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You have begun a design thinking process through:
1. Empathy Interviews (Empathize)
2. Identifying, defining and clarifying Barriers (Define)
3. Brainstorming Solutions (Ideate)
4. Decide how, when, where and with who you want to "TRY" your solution. (Prototype)
5. Follow up to check on the solution progress (Test)
6. Try again, through mistakes, failures and attempts we open up to new ideas and trying again. We Learn when we are most present (vulnerable).

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Another quick video on Empathizing from the Design Thinking Process. 

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Another quick video on Empathizing from the Design Thinking Process. 

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What we create will ...?

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Look and note non-verbal communication during the story.

Often people say what they think others want to hear even if their facial expressions, gestures, body movements, to name a few, tell us, as listeners, what they wish they could say or what they might be really feeling.

We can never assume what someone is feeling or even thinking but we can get an idea based on those gestures.

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Identify the feeling words being used. These are impact words from their stories, that affected themselves and others. They can be both positive and negative.

Acknowledging the impact, guides how we interact with our participants as we work with them. It also tells us their why, especially when we 'hear' what mattered to them through feeling words.

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What part of their responses do I focus on?

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What part of their responses do I focus on?

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1. When listening to the person's story, you can start to
'hear' what they are lacking through phrases similar to:
a. I didn't know
b. I couldn't
c. Nobody told me
d. I tried... but it never worked
e. I never do ... that's not my style, that's not me, that's not how we do things
f. I am frustrated by
g. If only I had
h. They don't listen to me about

2. The verbs, descriptions or just words that occur after the
phrases above will tell us or help us start to uncover those unmet needs.

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What am I looking for after the story telling?

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What am I looking for after the story telling?

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This is one of many resources to help guide you through an empathy interview process.

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By prompting to share more, the person will have the opportunity to open up more and you will learn to increase your own listening skill set. (Note how you feel as a quiet listener the first few times.)

It's the natural ability to build trust.

At first, some people may still hold back because we are so conditioned to quickly give information and limit details due to lack of time, attention and true interest on the part of 'listeners'.

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Empathy Interviewing to identify unmet needs, root causes and more about areas to develop through stories. 

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Empathy Interviewing to identify unmet needs, root causes and more about areas to develop through stories. 

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1. Decide what the purpose is of your empathy interviews.

2. Choose open ended questions to gain more insight, no more than 2-3. There are different recommendations on time for each interview. 20 - 30 minutes does work and if you can block an hour that will give time to those that need more warm up or trust building time.
a. Tell me about a time when...
b. What happened when you tried...
c. Tell me an experience with...

3. Only prompt with the following:
a. Tell me more about that...
b. How did that make you feel?
c. Walk me through that...

4. If you can record through video (with informed consent) then you can go back to take more in depth notes. Think of non-verbal communication like gestures, facial expressions, body language.

5. If you can not record be sure to take limited notes so that you are truly present and listening or consider working in teams of two so both are present however maybe one is focusing on engaging with the interviewee and the other focuses on the non-verbal language and taking notes.

6. Note taking in front of a person opening up can impact their responses and feelings.

7. Analyzing to find the unmet needs may take up to 30 minutes after, especially if you are able to go back to a video recording or discussing with your team mate. So plan for time accordingly.

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Highlighting what would be very relevant and similar to ECI Leadership working with their staff as a company would work with their customer.

Whatever I am 'creating', I am 'planning' with my staff in mind.
1. Why does a person come to me?
2. Why do they need me?
3. How do I make their life and work easier?
4. How to identify true needs behind my staff's words?

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Solutions are designed for people

Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing. This is how Wikipedia describes empathy.

What is empathy for me and how does it linking to IT?

Whatever I am building, I am building with the user in mind. Why does a person come to me? Why does he need me? How to make his life and work easier. How to identify true needs behind customer words?

By being an IT guy I do enjoy working with PC. I can enjoy how nice icons are constructed or how many RAM's it has. However, not forgetting working with people and for people.

Empathy and Design Thinking

Empathize is considered the starting point for any design project.

Design thinking begins with developing a deep understanding of your users and the problem you are trying to solve for them. Only by creating empathy for your users, you can design truly breathtaking solutions for their problems.

Get to know your target users through user research, market research, or stakeholder interviews. The empathize phase is for designers to spend time getting to know the user and understanding their needs, wants, and objectives.

Types of empathy

There are three types of empathy:

1. Reflective empathy-With this type of empathy, you respond to others' emotions and motivations.

2. Emotional empathy-This form of empathy enables you to know and act on what others feel.

3. Cognitive empathy-This is the ability to take the perspective of another person and accurately imagine that person's experience.

It is the skill of cognitive empathy that you need to master to understand users' needs.

How to build empathy with your user?

To master the quality of empathy, you must do the following:

Develop the virtue of patience-so you can listen for the user's point of view.

Ideally, observe users in their natural environment.

Adopt a novice mindset when interacting with the user.

Let go of your initial assumptions and beliefs when observing users so you can perceive their actions with a novice mindset.

If doing user research is not possible, visualize yourself in the users' environment or facing the same situations they face.

Resonate with your users' subjective world.

Refrain from judging users.

Do not urge to think of a fix for a problem during research. Concentrate only on empathic listening until you've completed your research.

Empathizing with your users, lets you put aside your assumptions and gain unanticipated insights.

Empathy map

An empathy map is a collaborative tool team can use to gain a deeper insight into their customers. It was originally created by Dave Gray and has been gaining popularity with the agile community.

Below you will find questions to be answered during customer interview and observation sessions.

What is the customer (persona) thinking and feeling?

What is the customer concerned about or afraid of?

Is the customer satisfied? Why or why not?

What are his priorities, dreams, and aspirations?

What causes an emotional reaction for the customer?

What is the customer hearing?

What or who influences the customer?

Is your customer easy to influence?

Where does the customer get their information?

What information channel does your customer use the most?

What is the customer seeing?

Does your customer spend more time in the public or in private?

What does your customer's environment look like?

How does the customer interact with their environment?

What is the customer saying and doing?

How does the customer portray themselves in front of others?

Words he uses when talking?

Information withhold or leave out when sharing with others?

What is the gap between what they say and how they act?

What are the customer's pains?

What obstacles does the customer need to overcome?

Why hasn't the customer been able to reach their goals?

What frustrations are on the horizon for the customer?

What does the customer gain?

What methods does the customer use to achieve success?

How a success measured and what does it look like?

What are the short and long term goals of the customer?

A mind map is an excellent tool complimenting your journey to successful problem-solving.

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What Is Empathy In IT? A comprehensive guide to building empathy for your users - Empathize IT

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Solutions are designed for people Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing. This is how Wikipedia describes empathy. What is empathy for me and how does it linking to IT? Whatever I am building, I am building with the user in mind.

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How do we get people to tell their stories?

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How do we get people to tell their stories?

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The Power of Vulnerability | Brené Brown | TED