Empathy Mapping: The First Step in Design Thinking
An empathy map helps teams step outside their own assumptions and into the user's perspective. Learn how to build one from research, use it to define design problems, and avoid the most common mistakes.
What Is an Empathy Map?
An empathy map is a collaborative visualisation tool that externalises a team's knowledge about a specific user type. Divided into four quadrants — Says, Thinks, Does, Feels — it forces teams to distinguish between what users verbalise, what they actually believe, how they behave, and how they feel emotionally. The gap between what users say and what they think is often where the most valuable design insights live.
The Four Quadrants
- Says: Direct quotes from user research. What users explicitly stated in interviews, tests, or surveys. Keep this quadrant grounded in verbatim data.
- Thinks: What users are thinking but may not say aloud — beliefs, concerns, motivations. Often inferred from tone, hesitation, and behavioural cues during observation.
- Does: Observable actions and behaviours. What did they click, skip, revisit, or avoid? Sourced from usability tests, analytics, and contextual observation.
- Feels: Emotional state during the experience — frustration, delight, confusion, trust. Sourced from facial expressions, think-aloud verbalisations, and post-task ratings.
How to Build an Empathy Map
- Define the user and scenario: One specific persona, one specific situation. Broad empathy maps produce generic outputs.
- Source from real data: Pull quotes, observations, and task recordings from recent research. Never fill quadrants from assumptions alone — label assumptions as hypotheses to validate.
- Workshop format: Gather your cross-functional team. Give each person sticky notes. Populate quadrants independently for 10 minutes, then consolidate. Disagreements reveal knowledge gaps worth investigating.
- Look for tensions: Where Says conflicts with Does, or Thinks conflicts with Feels — these contradictions are your richest design opportunities.
Empathy Map vs. Persona
A persona is a composite character profile (demographics, goals, bio). An empathy map is a research synthesis tool — richer in attitudinal and behavioural nuance, built collaboratively, and used to align teams rather than communicate to stakeholders. Use empathy maps to build personas, not the other way around.
Key Takeaways
- Four quadrants: Says (verbatim quotes), Thinks (unstated beliefs), Does (behaviours), Feels (emotions).
- Grounded in research data — hypothetical empathy maps reinforce existing assumptions rather than challenge them.
- Contradictions between quadrants are where the most actionable insights hide.
- Use empathy maps in workshops to build team alignment, not just as designer artefacts.
The empathy map's four quadrants — the gap between what users Say and what they Think is often where the most valuable design insights live.
