Empathy Mapping • WorkshopBank
The output is a one-page portrait of someone's world that aligns the team on who they are designing for, responding to, or trying to help.
How to run it
- Choose the specific person to map. Not "the customer" but "a first-time visitor to the booking platform who is booking travel for elderly parents." The more specific, the better the map.
- Gather any research, interview notes, quotes or observations you can put in front of the group.
- Draw or print the canvas. The classic Gray layout has the person's head or a photo in the centre, surrounded by six sections: See, Hear, Say, Do, Think & Feel, with Pains and Gains below.
- Invite a group that has some legitimate knowledge of the person (people who have met them, served them, researched them or sat next to them).
- Label each section clearly and have a few starter prompts ready for each one.
Run this exercise live
The facilitator console stays in this browser. Its QR handoff is a short-lived participant snapshot containing only public exercise instructions, phase, prompt, and timer state.
What participants need now
Materials:
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Prompts to use +
Choose the specific person to map. Not "the customer" but "a first-time visitor to the booking platform who is booking travel for elderly parents." The more specific, the better the map.
Gather any research, interview notes, quotes or observations you can put in front of the group.
Draw or print the canvas. The classic Gray layout has the person's head or a photo in the centre, surrounded by six sections: See, Hear, Say, Do, Think & Feel, with Pains and Gains below.
Invite a group that has some legitimate knowledge of the person (people who have met them, served them, researched them or sat next to them).
Label each section clearly and have a few starter prompts ready for each one.
Run this with your AI assistant +
Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.
Adapt this exercise for my exact room. Exercise: Empathy Mapping • WorkshopBank. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: Choose the specific person to map. Not "the customer" but "a first-time visitor to the booking platform who is booking travel for elderly parents." The more specific, the better the map.; Gather any research, interview notes, quotes or observations you can put in front of the group.; Draw or print the canvas. The classic Gray layout has the person's head or a photo in the centre, surrounded by six sections: See, Hear, Say, Do, Think & Feel, with Pains and Gains below.; Invite a group that has some legitimate knowledge of the person (people who have met them, served them, researched them or sat next to them).. Return a concise facilitator script with timing, wording, safety notes, and remote/in-person adjustments.
Origin unverified
- Where we observed it: The strongest current observations come from WorkshopBank; aggregators are listed as additional observations, not origin proof. (1 source observed, including WorkshopBank.)
- What that means: we track where an exercise has been observed in public sources. We do not claim to know who created it, or how popular it is.
- No efficacy claims: appearing in this library is not a claim that the exercise is proven effective. Facilitator judgment and context decide whether it works for a given room.
- Method lineage: this exercise shares its method name with work attributed to Dave Gray and Sunni Brown in our people index. That is a name match, not an origin claim.
- Corrections: if you have evidence of an earlier or more accurate source, read our methodology and trust boundary and tell us.