Design thinking: How to build empathy

Design thinking is all about building a deep understanding of your customers and their experiences, and then designing products and services that meet their unmet needs.

But how do you build that connection? How do you find out what your customers think, want and feel? 

It starts with the first stage of the design thinking process: Empathize.

Human-centred design puts the people you’re designing for at the centre of everything you do. During the empathize stage, you’ll build a deeper, more holistic awareness of what your customers care about, which will help you uncover their true, underlying needs.

To build empathy, you have to put your assumptions and preconceptions aside, and truly immerse yourself in the user’s world. Through activities including user interviews, observations, empathy mapping, and persona development, you’ll become experts in your users. Everything you learn from this research can then be used to form insights about what the people you serve really value. You can then use this to start generating ideas for truly impactful, user-centric solutions.

Interested in finding out more about how to build empathy with your customers? Check out this video where we explain more about how to gain empathy and fresh insights from real people.

Schedule a free consultation with one of our senior team today to explore how we can help you build a culture of innovation for your business.

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