This document discusses approaches for identifying the needs of others, including empathy, beginner's mindset, interviews, questionnaires, shadowing, observation, and demonstration. It emphasizes putting oneself in another's shoes through empathy and entering situations without assumptions using a beginner's mindset. Specific techniques are outlined, such as observation without interpretation, listing possible reasons for behaviors, and asking to be shown how someone interacts with objects. The goal is to better understand people by developing relationships over time through active listening and flexibility.

2. Warm-up:
How could ALA be more friendly to
blind students, Staffulty and guests?

3. Needs versus Wants?

4. Needs Identification

5. Human Centered Entrepreneurship: The BUILD Process

6. Approaches to Identifying Needs
•Empathy
•Beginner’s Mindset

8. Empathy
Putting yourself in someone’s shoes enables you to get beyond
what people say to what they think and feel.
Being in-context means gaining true empathy through being
with people in their real settings and doing the things they
normally do. We begin to take on the perspective of the
interviewee which enables us to identify needs with their
perspective in mind.

9. Beginner’s Mindset

10. Beginner’s Mind is critical when entering a environment
without carrying assumptions with you that
are based on prior experience.
This is often very hard to do since we interpret the world based
on our experience and what we think we know. This lens of
personal experience can influence what we focus on and can
make us unable to see important issues.

11. Beginner’s Mindset
•What stands out to you?
•What is happening?
•What questions would you ask
if you knew nothing about the
context or activity of the people
in the photo?
•How could you look at the
photo as a beginner, without
making assumptions about what
is happening?

13. Tools for Identifying Needs
•Interviews
•Questionnaires
•Shadowing
•Observation
•Demonstration (“Show Me”)

14. Interviews

15. Questionnaires

16. Shadowing

17. Observation

18. Observation
What do you see
happening in this image?
•Describe only what you see,
don’t interpret yet.
What is the reason for
this behavior?
•List five different possible
interpretations for why this
person’s behavior.

19. Show Me

20. When you are in the interviewee’s environment, ask
him/her to show you the things they interact with
(objects, spaces, tools, etc).
Capture with pictures and notes to jog your memory
later.

21. Show me Practice:
Show a partner how you enter contacts into
your phone. Answer any questions they
have.

22. Get to know people.
Have empathy.
Talk less, listen more.
Build relationships over time.
Plan to be flexible.

23. Time to Practice

25. REMEMBER:
Observers
•Empathy
•Beginner’s Mindset
Blind & Leaders
•Emotional Intelligence
•Feedback!

26. Copyright © African Leadership Academy, 2012