Empathy Map: Understanding Your Target Customer

⚠ This worksheet does not save. Print it or save it as a PDF before closing — use the button below. You will upload the PDF into Blackboard to submit at the end of the unit.

How to use this: An empathy map captures what your target customer thinks, feels, says, and does around the problem you're solving. Complete this during or immediately after the empathy interview activity.

Who Are You Mapping?

Name your target customer

Describe this person in 2–3 sentences: who they are, their situation, and their relationship to the problem you're exploring.

THINK & FEEL

What's going on inside their head?

Their worries, aspirations, what really matters to them — even if they don't say it out loud.

What are they worried about? What do they dream about? What matters most to them that they might not say out loud?

SAY & DO

What do they say and how do they behave?

Their attitude in public, what they tell others, how they actually behave day to day.

What do they say about this problem to friends or colleagues? What actions do they take (or avoid taking) around it?

SEE

What is their environment like?

What do they encounter in their daily life that relates to this problem?

What do they see around them? What solutions (good or bad) do they already encounter? What do they observe others doing?

HEAR

What influences them?

Friends, media, authority figures, cultural messages — who shapes their thinking on this topic?

What do they hear from people they trust? What messages does the media or their community send about this problem?

PAINS

What frustrates them?

Obstacles, fears, frustrations around this problem.

What's the worst part of the current situation? What barriers or fears get in the way?

GAINS

What would success look like?

What do they want? What would make this problem go away?

What outcome would make them happy? What would they say if the problem were solved?

Key Insight

The one thing you now understand that you didn't before

This is the most important part of the empathy map — the insight that will shape your venture.

Based on everything above, complete this sentence: I used to think ___, but now I understand ___. This changes my idea by...