Understanding Empathy - Beyond the Buzzword

In this presentation, I am making the case that everyone has a natural talent for empathy and also attempting to show how anyone can design for empathy by following a few simple steps with the help of the Empathy Interview template.

Transcript

1. Understanding "Empathy" -Beyond the Buzzword Presented by Adharsh Dhandapani
2. YOU MUST HAVE HEARD THE TERM "EMPATHY" A LOT IN STATEMENTS LIKE... "Empathy is the USP of Design Thinking.” "Great designers/product managers/strategists have Empathy for the users.” "Non-designers need to gain Empathy for the users as well”
3. And thus, might have assumed that Empathy is just a meaningless buzzword.
4. But is "Empathy" really just a Buzzword?
5. Imagine the following scenario. In Order to Understand Empathy beyond the Buzzword
6. What do you feel when you see a stranger getting hit hard by a nail in the back of his hand?
7. You would probably cringe in pain! Right? As though you went through the same painful experience yourselves.
8. Is due to the presence of Mirror Neurons The reason this happens...
9. Without Going too much into Science Mirror Neurons are triggered when you see an action and also when you perform the same action! And with no difference between the two!
10. We all have a natural talent for Empathy. What this means is
11. One has to constantly practice & hone the same in order to develop it. But, with any natural talent...
12. So, how do you practice Empathy? TL;DR: By constantly triggering mirror neurons.
13. And we already make use of Mirror Neurons in many ways without even realizing... For Example:- Empathy Interview: Asking open-ended questions to elicit stories from users. Observation: Getting out of the building and observing users. Design Thinking workshop: Giving an opportunity for non-designers to gain empathy for the end-users/clients.
14. In this presentation, let us focus on Empathy Interviews further... With the objective of making the case that anyone can design and conduct an empathy interview.
15. Steps for designing an Empathy Interview 1) Adopt a beginner’s mind. 2) Make the interviewee comfortable. 3) Open-ended Questions seeking stories. 4) Explore the different emotions intentionally.
16. We propose using the below template. So, in order to intentionally design an Empathy Interview...
18. Under "Existing Assumption about the persona and the problem" write down your assumptions and biases which you might have. Then, duly strike those off to remind yourself to be mindful of your biases while designing your designing your interview. Step 1: Adopt a beginner's mind
19. In the example below, the interviewer is designing an interview of a Product Manager in AgriTech Startup with the objective "To understand the future hope and vision of food startups". Step 1: Adopt a beginner's mind
21. Why would the interviewee, who is mostly a stranger to the interviewer, choose to reveal details about his/her feelings, emotions, motivations, etc? Hence, it is important to build rapport with the interviewee and make them feel comfortable so that he/she opens. Hence, under the section "How might we build rapport with the interviewee?", we brainstorm for ways to make the specific interviewee comfortable and thus open up during the interview. Step 2: Make the interviewee comfortable
23. Think about it - interviews provide a unique opportunity to listen to stories from users - which is not possible in emails, chat etc. so, it is important to ask open-ended questions seeking stories. Hence, list down your planned open-ended questions under the section "Key questions for exploration of stories". Step 3: Ask open-ended questions seeking stories
25. It is important to explore the different emotions displayed during the interview intentionally and this can be done in two steps. 1) Under the section "Keywords in connection with the emotions": Note down the keywords/sentences from the interviewee and the corresonding emotion displayed. 2) Under the section "Outline of the Story": Representing the context/story corresponding to keywords/sentences preferably using pictures. Side-note: Never mind if you think that you are terrible at drawing - the objective here is just to represent the stories visually. Step 4: Explore the different emotions intentionally
27. As shown in the next slide. Hence, the four steps for designing an Empathy Interview is cooked into the template.
29. If there is one take away from this presentation: One doesn’t need to be a professionally trained designer to employ Empathy at work. Everyone has this natural talent and everyone can design for empathy by following a few simple steps.
30. ADHARSH DHANDAPANI Presented by Intrapreneur at IBM and guest author of The Design Thinking Toolbox Email: adharsh2208@gmail.com
31. For more such practical tips & techniques on various Design Thinking Methods & Tools The Design Thinking Toolbox: A Guide to Mastering the Most Popular and Valuable Innovation Methods Available in Amazon!
32. Thank you.