Empathy is a (learnable!) Super Power - NIDC 2020

Empathy is a Super Power!

It’s a key ingredient in the development of products that people love, and in the creation of high performing teams. It is cited as one of the core future skills for work by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) in it’s ‘Skills for 2030’ report.

However empathy is also a skill the world is critically lacking in at the moment. Barack Obama has referred to this as an ‘Empathy Deficit’ - and called it ‘more important than the federal budget deficit’.

So - what exactly is empathy, and more importantly, how can we become more empathetic?

This talk will cover the definition of empathy, why it’s important, and how it can be used to build better products.

More interestingly the primary focus will be that the first step toward empathy is understanding oneself.

Transcript

1. training@instil.co January 2018 © Instil Software 2019 Empathy is a Superpower 9 Oct 2020 emma.mulholland@instil.co
2. Emma - Product Person @e_mulholland
5. What is empathy?
7. “ the ability to share someone else's feelings or experiences by imagining what it would be like to be in that person's situation ”
8. “Empathy fuels connection; sympathy drives disconnection” Brene Brown
11. Elements of empathy • Perspective taking • Staying out of judgement • Recognising emotion • Communicating the recognition
12. Why is it important?
13. Software is easy…. people are hard
14. Empathy is a skill for the future of work
15. How do we use it to build better products?
16. • At every stage of the product life cycle • For every role in a product team Always, everywhere, everyone
17. Areas of influence • Team • Stakeholders • Users
18. Team • Individuals • Feedback loop • Team canvas • Psychological safety
19. Stakeholders • Engagement over management
20. Users Understand via: • Personas • Empathy map • Journey mapping • Dogfooding Validate your assumptions • Immersive user research, rather than just quantitative data, surveys, or interviews
21. So… how do I work on my empathy skills?
22. Know yourself Image credit: Fifth Discipline Fieldbook by Peter Senge
24. Tools & techniques to become self aware
25. Create your own timeline
27. Conditions I like to work in Best way to communicate with me The ways I like to receive feedback Things I need Things I struggle with Things I love Other things to know about me Time / hours I like to work Create a self manual to share with others https://medium.com/@cassierobinson/a-user-manual-for-me-d3a851fbc694
28. Tools & techniques to become empathetic • Read from a diverse range of source material • Diversify your social media and social circles • Listen more than speak • Be vulnerable
29. E.M.P.A.T.H.Y model
30. Takeaways?
31. • Empathy is a critical skill … superpower! • That you can learn • Self awareness is key • Be kind to yourself, then be kind to others