Empathy Maps: a Guide to Getting Inside a User's Head

Empathy is fundamental to human-centered design, yet it’s rarely discussed in the context of team dynamics.

Most stakeholders don’t interact with users directly, so they depend on research to understand them. Even one strong quote or story can expose false assumptions and push the team toward more user-centered decisions.

Empathy mapping helps build shared understanding by showing what users think, feel, say, and do. It turns research notes into a clear, human picture the whole team can use.

Used well, it makes empathy a practical research tool and a common reference for design and strategy. It also strengthens qualitative insights by adding emotional and behavioral context.

Empathy Map

More often than not, UX professionals encounter clients or colleagues who depend on their assumptions to guide the user journey and design processes.

While empathy mapping alone cannot shift a culture that disregards user research, it can spark change — especially when a team creates empathy mapping exercises collaboratively to promote shared understanding.

What Is an Empathy Map?

An empathy map is a collaborative tool used for visualizing what a particular user is experiencing, thinking about, and feeling during a user experience session.

It is mainly made to help teams develop a stronger understanding of users and a much more profound empathy, considering their motivations, emotions, and not simply behaviors on the surface level.

Insights gathered from empathy maps inform the creation of user personas, which serve as detailed representations of different user types to help designers tailor their solutions to meet specific user needs.

An empathy map is generally divided into four main sections or quads, which are considered common core elements.

• Says captures direct quotes and verbal expressions from users during interviews or conversations.
• Thinks describes internal thoughts users don't express aloud. This includes beliefs, hopes, doubts, and aspirations.
• Does covers observable actions, interactions, and behaviors users demonstrate during their experience.
• Feels includes emotional states like frustration, excitement, confusion, or satisfaction.

All designed empathy maps logically focus on the user, who is usually represented by a persona or actual person from your research and illustrated by placing at the center of the map. Everything bound by the quadrants focuses on the user’s experience.

Empathy Map 4 Quadrants

The empathy map, created by Dave Gray of XPLANE, is now a global sensation. It is used in UX, product strategy, marketing, and even customer care. It is a particularly useful tool for synthesizing qualitative research, such as interviews or diary studies.

When employing empathy maps, teams can identify patterns, synchronize on crucial user concerns, and construct with greater precision, sympathy, and coherence.

Because user insights are organized visually, teams do not have to rely on assumptions or secondhand information. Design choices are made based on the lived experiences of authentic users.

Why Empathy Maps Are Important

Empathy maps keep teams focused on the user instead of opinions, assumptions, or internal goals.

They make user thoughts, feelings, and behaviors visible, which shifts conversations toward real needs. The process also helps synthesize research, reveal gaps in understanding, and show where deeper research is needed.

Most importantly, empathy maps push everyone, designers and stakeholders, to view the product from the user’s perspective. Used early, they help prioritize user needs from the start and guide design and development toward more relevant outcomes.

They also build shared understanding across the team, improving decisions and reducing miscommunication.

Source:Startaê Team on Unsplash

When to Use an Empathy Map

Empathy maps are helpful tools for understanding users on a deeper emotional level, particularly after completing qualitative research. Empathy maps can also help understand diverse user groups.

These are the moments you would use them:

• Post-user interviews or field studies -> Transform insights into organized observations.
• During synthesis analysis -> Work with your team to create concepts of user emotions and thoughts, gaining new insights.
• While developing personas or journey maps -> Construct detailed user narratives and utilize empathy maps as frameworks.
• To foster empathy among stakeholders -> Enable non-research employees and executives to appreciate the user’s experience firsthand.

Empathy mapping is a valuable resource whenever the objective is to incorporate the user’s perspective into discussions. Understanding the user's needs ensures that products resonate with users by addressing their emotions and behaviors.

How to Create an Empathy Map

Creating empathy maps requires more than filling in templates. The value comes from user research quality and team conversations the exercise generates.

Start with a Real User

Choose one particular individual user to begin with. This can be someone you interviewed or observed as part of your research, or it can be an aggregate persona that embodies important characteristics from several users.

Remember, the more specific and real your subject is regarding actual behavior and feedback, the more depth and meaning the empathy map you create will carry.

A detailed persona description is crucial as it serves as a broad representation of user motivations, guiding your understanding of actual user needs and preferences.

Empathy Map Template

Gather Qualitative Research

Each section of an empathy map should be grounded in qualitative data. Survey responses can add perspectives users may not say directly.

Start by gathering notes, transcripts, recordings, and observations.

Pull out moments where users mention pain points, positive moments, uncertainty, and priorities. These details give each quadrant meaning.

Use direct quotes to keep the insights accurate and authentic.

Set Up the Empathy Map Framework

Set up the four-quadrant structure with your user at the center. Use digital tools like FigJam, Miro, or Mural for remote collaboration. Physical sticky notes work well for in-person sessions.

• Says quadrant: Include direct quotes and paraphrased statements from user conversations.
• Thinks quadrant: Capture internal beliefs, hopes, concerns, and mental models that users expressed or implied.
• Does quadrant: Document specific actions, behaviors, and interaction patterns you observed.
• Feels quadrant: Note emotional states, including frustration, excitement, anxiety, and satisfaction.

Fill in the Map Collaboratively

Fill each quadrant with insights from your research. Do it with the team in a synthesis session.

Review key interview moments. Use quotes and specific examples.

If something is unclear, discuss it and write a research-based hypothesis. Don’t guess without evidence.

Capture emotions, goals, and challenges by viewing the situation from the user’s perspective.

Reflect and Identify Insights

Pause for a moment and inspect the comprehensive perspective after all necessary steps have been taken to complete the map. Is there any significant emerging data you can observe that provides deeper insights?

• Are there contradictions, such as users claiming to enjoy something while preferring a different action much of the time?
• Are there emotionally intense areas that point to problems or unfulfilled needs?

Information as such becomes the core ideas from which design decisions their problem statements. Gaining insights from this analysis is crucial for tailoring strategies based on a deeper understanding of user needs and behaviors.

Share and Revisit the Map

When you feel your empathy map is complete, disseminate it to the entire team. It is not only for the researchers; every designer, engineer, marketer, and stakeholder has a piece of it. Discuss it in meetings, use it to prioritize features, or as a springboard for inspiration.

Source: Miraxess on Unsplash

Above all, treat it as a living document. Change it when your understanding of the user evolves due to new research insights. Ensure that all team members understand user insights to enhance collaboration and effective communication.

Every user-centered empathy map is an incredible tool for developing user understanding. It does not need expensive gadgets or rigorous analysis; only authentic narratives, willingness to listen, and a pledge to look from the user’s perspective.

Tips for Running an Effective Empathy Mapping Session

• Don’t Stress About Getting It “Right”: People may debate where a note belongs, like feeling, pain point, or observation. That is fine. Teams interpret the same data differently. The goal is not perfect labeling. The goal is shared understanding and emotional clarity about the user journey.
• Keep the Focus Tied to Your Project Goals: Empathy mapping is not meant to capture everything. It helps you understand how a specific audience experiences the problem you are solving. If the scope gets too broad, the exercise loses direction. Keep it anchored to the project goals.
• Customize the Map to Fit Your Context: Adjust the map to match your audience and research. If you are working in B2B and emotions are not relevant, change or remove that section. The map should support the session goals, not force a rigid structure. Include concrete actions, like refreshing pages or comparing prices, when they help explain behavior.

Tools to Support Empathy Mapping

In 2025, a few key tools have emerged as the go-to choices for teams looking to create empathy maps that are collaborative, actionable, and grounded in real user data.

FigJam

FigJam has become a favorite for design and product teams thanks to its intuitive templates, real-time collaboration, and seamless integration with Figma. Many empathy mapping sessions now start with FigJam due to its ease of use, especially for teams already working in design tools.

Miro

Miro remains a gold standard for remote collaboration. Its robust empathy map templates, sticky note system, and clustering features make it ideal for multi-disciplinary workshops and synthesis sessions. In 2025, Miro’s AI tools also help speed up insight grouping and labeling.

Notion

As a flexible workspace, Notion is widely used for documenting empathy maps alongside personas, research notes, and journey maps. Its simplicity makes it a go-to for teams that prefer a lighter, text-based alternative to whiteboards.

These tools support empathy mapping and strengthen cross-functional understanding by making insights visible, shareable, and grounded in real user voices. The best tool is the one your team will actually use — and these four continue to stand out in 2025.

Read more:

• The Must-Know UX Laws That Drive Great User Experiences
• Strengthening UX Through Detailed Design Validation
• Mastering UX Mockup: a Comprehensive Guide

FAQ

Who Uses an Empathy Map?

An empathy map is used by product teams, UX designers, marketers, and researchers to better understand users or customers. It’s especially helpful for aligning teams on user needs, motivations, and pain points before making design or business decisions.

What Are the Four A's of Customer Empathy?

The Four A’s of customer empathy are Awareness, Acknowledgment, Appreciation, and Action. These steps guide companies to recognize customer needs, validate their experiences, show gratitude, and respond with meaningful solutions.

How Long Does It Take to Create an Empathy Map?

Creating an empathy map typically takes 30 to 90 minutes, depending on team size and the depth of discussion. Simple sessions can be done quickly, while more detailed maps may take longer if multiple user segments are involved.

What Comes First, Empathy Map or Persona?

An empathy map usually comes before a persona. Teams often create empathy maps to capture real user observations and insights, which are then synthesized into personas. This ensures personas are grounded in user research, not assumptions.

Is There an Empathy Map Template?

Yes. Many free and customizable empathy map templates exist online, offered as PDFs, whiteboard tools, or editable files in platforms like Miro, MURAL, and Figma. These templates typically include four quadrants: Says, Thinks, Does, and Feels.

Conclusion

Behind every user interaction lives a real human being with hopes, frustrations, and goals. Empathy maps help teams remember this fundamental truth. They transform abstract research into concrete understanding that guides better product decisions.

Start your next user research synthesis with this question: "What were users really thinking and feeling?" That deeper inquiry separates good products from exceptional ones.