Empathy Map

Hey everyone! Here is my first blog post on a design thinking topic. Today I will try to draw an empathy map of my close relative Helga.

Just to give you a general idea of the person I am going to describe, I will outline a couple of traditional, old school profile characteristics. Helga is in her early 30s, married, with above average income and well-educated (Ph.D. in labor law requires superior intellect, believe me). Also, she is a mother of a wonderful curious boy and this fact will have a huge influence on the empathy map, as you notice later. Due to a significant, nearly nine years, age difference we never had a truly close relationship: no secrets sharing or discussing private life. But having lived together in the parental home for a couple of decades makes me believe that I know Helga and could share interesting insights about her.

But enough about relationships and demographics. It is time to dive into the exciting world of the customer insights.

THINK AND FEEL?

For Helga her family is everything. Although she is blameless in fulfilling her work responsibilities and is unlikely to say it publicly (if it all), family harmony counts for her a bit more than career success. It is family that makes her tick. Nonetheless, Helga is a very ambitious hard-working attorney and project manager. As a result, she spends a lot of her time solving legal issues of the company. Helga is emotionally stable and knows how to control her feelings. I never saw her crying or complaining. She prefers to identify, frame the problem and take actions only after consideration of legal and moral consequences.

Imagining Helga’s dreams will be more like an intelligent guessing for me. As every mother she should be dreaming of a bright future for her son, including but certainly not limited to his robust health, perfect education, interesting and rewarding job and happiness in private life. But as a woman Helga would also like to look beautiful, be loved and successful. Thus, she is ambitious and aspired to combine self-realization in the career field with family life.

SEE?

Helga is currently on her maternity leave and works from home. Thus, her environment could be described by one single word – home. Diapers and toys, baby food and stroller, mobile phone and laptop are the items that surround her in everyday life. Child and husband, mother and father, phone calls with colleagues and friends are the people making Helga’s life. She often encounters small discoveries while taking care of her child. These discoveries are facilitated by invaluable assistance from her parents that share their wisdom in child upbringing.

When the child sleeps peacefully, Helga might have some time to talk to her friends. She is really conscious of maintaining close relationships with her high school, college friends and former colleagues. Helga used to have monthly reunions with them but the birth of the child made her put on hold participation in these activities.

Working at home and spending tremendous amount of time with the child certainly limits market offers Helga is exposed to. Context advertising by Google and Amazon offering law books and diapers, TV commercials promoting baby food and mailed coupons look like an extensive list of the offers and media channels Helga deals with.

SAY AND DO?

Helga is typically very rational in her decisions. But, to tell the truth, her emotions, ambitions and fears sometimes overcome the rationality. For instance, she can be prepared to pay a pretty penny for a fancy dress just to follow the trend. She is affluent but it is the only impact of emotions on her actions that I noticed. Provoking behavior or freak appearance do not seem to match her inner perceptions.

Helga is always polite and responsive. She truly respects every person and always tries to nurture good relationships. However, if she sees fraud, non-fulfillment of responsibilities or crying injustice she is eager to fight for her rights. No matter whether it is dishonest merchant, irresponsible colleague or corrupted governmental official, Helga will take the necessary effort to restore her rights. I could remember lengthy legal proceedings with a corrupted municipal deputy who was unwilling to allocate funds to repair the elevator lighting in the house she lives in. Numerous complaints did require considerable time and effort but were important to Helga from a moral standpoint.

HEAR?

Helga is a kind of person that likes to make her own decisions. But it does not mean that she is perfectly independent in her judgments. As mentioned by Shannon Ford in an article “Creating Quality Personas”, information browsing, shopping mode and decision-making process are key customer insights for creating deep-dive quality persona. The major influencers in Helga’s case include her husband, her parents and her bosses. As I mentioned above, friends’ impact on Helga has declined with the growth of her family.

Helga’s husband certainly has an influence on her decisions regarding the day-to-day business. He has IT background and strongly influences purchases of all electronic devices (phones, laptops, tablets etc.) as well as appliances (microwave or washing machine). Her parents are also sure to exert an influence on Helga’s decisions primarily in the questions related to child care and general moral dilemmas. The bosses’ opinion also matters. It sometimes determines her purchasing behavior for banking services and insurance.

PAIN

Helga has a no-regrets mindset, thus, she is not upset by some opportunities she might have missed in the past. Nonetheless, she has some future concerns and considerations that present a problem. As far as I know she is trying to purchase a house and move out of a small flat she and her family currently live in. But even the above average income of the family does not enable her to fulfill this dream.

Helga is unwilling to run into debts and undertake the insolvency risk. Given the lengthy recession in the economy, high interest rates and layoffs she is reluctant to get a mortgage. The economic downswing also brought reduction in wage growth. This creates a vicious circle, since the disposable income is not sufficient for the purchase of the house and risk aversion eliminates other means to the goal. This remains the major pain of the young family. Uncertainty about the future and growing desire to provide her son with all the best fuel Helga’s dissatisfaction and frustration.

GAIN

Apart from the own house dream, Helga has strived long for entering the C-level of the company. For her it is more a matter of prestige and recognition, rather than greater income. Being a smart attorney she is fond of challenging tasks and cases but places a great importance on the work-life balance and ability to spend time with her nearest and dearest. These are the major criteria she uses to measure personal success or failure.

Helga could use a number of strategies to fulfill her need for achievement. Since the founders of her current company are still actively involved in the decision-making on executive level it might be difficult for Helga to pursue career objectives in this setting. Thus, she might consider switching to a respected multinational law firm or starting her own law practice. However, I am very excited which of two dreams (house or career ambitions) will outweigh. If the own house idea prevails, Helga might try to negotiate an employee stock ownership plan with her current employer or get an interest-free loan from the company. I personally find the second option a bit more feasible but I will not bet on it.

That’s it for today. I would be glad if you post comments, make suggestions and provide constructive feedback. Take care and see you next week in my blog or in person.