Quality Improvement Zone

An empathy map brings together information about what people see, hear, say and do, helping teams develop a deeper understanding of the factors that influence their experience. It helps teams move beyond assumptions and develop a shared understanding of what matters most to the people they are seeking to support.

A typical empathy map includes:

• Think and feel: what matters to the group, their concerns, motivations and aspirations. This should be informed by evidence rather than assumptions
• Hear: what they hear from other people and influences within their environment
• See: what they experience in their surroundings and the factors that shape their experience
• Say and do: how they behave, what they communicate and how they interact with the system
• Pains: the challenges, frustrations or barriers they encounter
• Gains: what they hope to achieve and what success looks like from their perspective

Empathy mapping helps teams understand the experiences of people who interact with a system and develop a shared understanding of their needs, challenges and priorities. By bringing together information from multiple sources, teams can better understand how a service or process is experienced by those who use it.

Empathy mapping can help you:

• understand different perspectives within a system
• develop a shared understanding of the experiences of service users, learners, patients or staff
• identify unmet needs, barriers and challenges
• uncover opportunities for improvement
• design change ideas that are more likely to meet people's needs
• support person-centred approaches to improvement

Empathy mapping works best when it is based on information gathered directly from the people whose experiences you want to understand. This might include feedback, surveys, interviews, observations, compliments, complaints or other sources of insight. A template can be downloaded below. You can also start with flip chart paper and sticky notes or an online whiteboard.

1. Identify the group you want to understand

Decide whose experience you want to explore. This could be students, patients, service users, staff or another group that interacts with the system.

2. Gather information about their experiences

Collect information from a range of sources to build an evidence-based understanding of the group's experiences, needs and perspectives.

3. Complete the empathy map

Using an empathy map template, organise the information into the relevant sections:

• Think and feel: What evidence do you have about what matters to them, what concerns they may have, or what they hope to achieve?
• Hear: What messages, opinions or influences are they exposed to?
• See: What do they experience in their environment?
• Say and do: What do they communicate and how do they behave?
• Pains: What challenges, obstacles or frustrations do they face?
• Gains: What outcomes are important to them and what are they trying to achieve?

Wherever possible, use evidence from the group themselves rather than assumptions made by the improvement team.

4. Review the completed map

Look for patterns, common themes and areas of unmet need. Consider whether different people may experience the system in different ways and what factors might contribute to this.

5. Use your learning to inform improvement

Use the insights gained from empathy mapping to deepen your understanding of the system and identify opportunities for improvement. The findings can help inform process mapping, driver diagrams, project aims and the development of change ideas.