EMPATHY MAPPING: THE FIRST STEP IN DESIGN THINKING

Summary from the TLDR Design newsletter

Empathy maps organize what teams know about users into four areas—Says, Thinks, Does, and Feels—to create shared understanding, reveal contradictions, and expose gaps requiring further research. Useful maps are grounded in qualitative evidence, keep assumptions clearly separated from observations, and evolve as new research arrives rather than remaining static workshop artifacts. AI can help organize and synthesize existing evidence, but it should not be used to invent user insights or replace the human analysis required to understand users.