Empathy Mapping: The First Step in Design Thinking

Summary

Rachel Krause and Sarah Gibbons from NN/g present a practical, four-quadrant framework (Says, Thinks, Does, Feels) for empathy maps that translates qualitative user research into a shared team artifact. The article distinguishes between individual user maps and segment-based aggregate maps.

Why it matters

Empathy mapping remains one of the most common initial rituals in UX and Agile teams. A clear, up-to-date reference prevents practitioners from treating the method as a one-off workshop output. By explicitly flagging contradictions between quadrants and empty sections as signals of research gaps, the article guides teams toward iterative evidence collection rather than mere box-ticking.

Highlights

• Specific, verbatim quotes in the 'Says' quadrant are more effective than general statements because they clarify exactly where the experience breaks down.
• An unfilled quadrant is a strong signal that more research is needed before proceeding with the design process.
• Contradictions between quadrants (e.g., positive actions coexisting with negative emotions) are not errors to be fixed, but research clues pointing to unexpressed user needs.

Critical take

The core methodology relies on XPLANE's 2012 workshop format; consequently, the article feels more like a polished reminder than a methodological advancement. Additionally, repeated references to NN/g's paid courses and a section titled 'Using AI in Empathy Mapping' that appears in the table of contents but is absent from the text make the piece feel more like a marketing funnel than an information source.