Cracking User Empathy

Products, and by extension the companies that own them, are often created to solve genuine real-world problems. This is one of the primary reasons why successful products (and companies) do well — they identify a problem and design simple, elegant solutions around them.

Creating a product is both an art as well as a science — designing a friendly and intuitive UI is an art, while defining and prioritizing features is a science. In the intersection of art and science is user empathy — it is the foundation on which the product is built. Understanding the target audience and empathizing with them goes a long way into building a product that not only solves user problems but leaves them wanting more.

While user empathy is an easy concept to understand, it is equally challenging to leverage and implement. This is where the role of product managers is critical — they are the custodians of the product, and it is their job to ensure that the product solves the users’ problems in an effective and efficient way.

In the remainder of this blog, we talk about how empathy can enable product managers to create user-centric products.

Create “Empathy Maps”

An empathy map is a user behavior map developed for individual persona. It helps answer the question — what does the user feel/do/think when he/she uses the product? A lot of time needs to be spent on answering this question alone. At its very core, the answer to this question defines the success/failure of the product itself.

An example of an empathy map is shown below. The user is at the heart of the map, and product managers try and answer the “who, what, why, when and how” of the product. The better they are able to answer the question, the better they understand their users. The better they understand their users, the better they will be able to solve their problems.

Each persona can have one or more empathy maps, and these maps are defined at a product-level. Hence, it is imperative that empathy maps are not re-used between products and a lot of thought is given to developing a unique map for each persona and product.

Do not try to please everybody

While empathizing with users is important, every user is different. Their needs are different, their wants are different, the way they think is different. Hence, their reaction and attitude towards a product may be different. This poses a big challenge for product managers — how do they create a product that keeps ALL its users happy? The answer is simple. They should not try to do so. In an attempt to make all users happy, product managers often end up over-engineering the product, resulting in a sub-standard product which very few users love.

If user requirements are analyzed, they can be largely categorized into two groups based on the Pareto principle — 80% users ask for a specific feature set, while the other 20% ask for a different feature set. Trying to build for both these set of users is a recipe for disaster. Instead, the product should be designed for the larger group. This will ensure that a high majority of the users shall love the product, leading to increased user traction.

Below is a perfect example of what we just discussed:

A/B Testing:

Often, user empathy leads product managers in different directions for the same product. This is where A/B testing is essential. The ultimate test is one where the product is exposed to the user and feedback is taken. This feedback is like gold-dust. The deeper the insights and feedback from end users, the better the improvements in the final product.

There are specialized tools available which help perform A/B testing, but in an ideal scenario, the in-house consumer data analytics should work closely with the development and testing teams to configure a load balancer to run one set of features for 50% of the users and another set of features for the remaining 50%. If A/B tests are successful, then there are high chances that the product will be accepted by most users. If not, then it may be time to go back to the drawing board!

Market Research and Data Analysis are critical

We have spoken about user empathy and how it should be used to define and develop the product. But this does not in any way undermine the importance and need of market research. Insights derived from market research help understand the users better. Not all users are the same and a user’s perspective is not constant. As products and technology evolves, the user’s needs and perspectives also evolve.

Most product managers collect a lot of data through various tools — Google Analytics, user surveys, user reviews, user feedbacks, consumer data capturing, etc. But seldom is the data used and deconstructed effectively. An important skill as a product manager is to understand how to slice and dice the data and interpret the results.

To put it simply, empathy is the first step towards a great user experience, but it needs to be backed up with solid market research and data analysis, in order to understand the users and design the final product.

To put it simply, Empathy is the First step to great User Experience but you still need help to finish what you have started with in depth data analytics.