This document provides an overview of empathy interviews and their role in the design thinking process. It discusses different types of interviews like focus groups and skilled interviews. Empathy interviews are described as the cornerstone of design thinking, as they allow designers to understand users' needs and perspectives. Various empathy tools are introduced, such as empathy maps and the "five whys" technique. The document also includes examples of empathy interview questions. Breakout activities are proposed to have students practice conducting empathy interviews on topics like online learning apps. The goal of interviews is to generate user insights that can help identify problems and opportunities to design better solutions.

2. Module 1&2
Empathy
Interviewing

3. Contents
• Empathy(Recap)
• Focus Group vs Skilled Interview
• Empathy Interview/Skilled interview
• Interview Question & Rules
• Empathetic tools
• Breakout activity-1
• Insights
• Breakout activity-2
• Assignment
• Summary

5. Empathy
• In Empathize stage, the design thinker puts himself or herself into the shoes of the
end user and tries to understand the needs of the customer.
• The stage is oriented towards understanding the intended users and the problem
from their viewpoint by observation, engagement and immersion.
• Perform empathy work interviews, observations, research etc to gain a deep
understanding of end users and challenges

6. Three Primary Methods of Empathetic Research
1. Observation
2. Focus Groups
3. Skilled Interviewing

7. Focus Group vs. Skilled Interview

8. Focus Group vs. Skilled Interview
Focus Groups Skilled interview
use the Power of Interaction One to one interaction
the panellists interact with each other The subject interacts only with the
interviewer
often leads to unexpected insights More refined insights
More activities, surveys etc Open/Direct questions
Note: What is the Focus group for this semester project?( Answer in Chat box)

9. Empathy Interview/ Skilled Interview
• Empathy interviews are the cornerstone of Design Thinking.
• By entering and understanding another person’s thoughts,
feelings, and motivations:
• we can understand the choices that person makes
• we can understand their behavioral traits
• we are able identify their needs.
• This helps us innovate, and create products or services for that
person.

10. Sample Empathetic Interview
• Assume you are running a restaurant in KLU road/ wish to open a
restaurant in KLU road.
• Questions you ask your current customers:
• Where do you have your food during college days?
• What do you prefer to have for breakfast/lunch and dinner?
• Why do you prefer to have that?
• What snacks you like more?
• How do you feel the foods in nearby shops?
• What is your expected menu for a day?

11. GENERATE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

12. 1. Pair Up
One to ask questions
Other one to take notes
and pictures
Answers
Questions
2. Your goal is to make
him/her to talk as
much as possible
3. Stay neutral to
avoid influencing the
user
4. One question at a
time
5. The silence is good !
The user thinks, feels
and going to ….talk
6. Open questions
Interview Rules

13. 7. Get the users telling
stories
8. Watch his/her
emotions
9. Search for
contradictions
10. Ask 5 times “why” to
deeply understand user
11. Take pictures for the
sharing of your interview
12. Identify his/her
challenges, the famous
job to-be-done
Interview Rules

14. Empathize tools
• Assume a beginner’s mindset
• Ask What-How-Why
• Ask the 5 whys
• Empathy map
• Conduct interviews with empathy

15. • Forget your assumptions and personal beliefs
• Misconceptions or stereotypes limit the amount of
real empathy you can build.
• A beginner’s mindset allows you to put aside
biases and approach
• Design with fresh eyes
• What you should do
• Don’t judge
• Question everything
• Be truly curious
• Find patterns
• Listen without thinking how you’re going to
respond
1. Empathize - Beginner’s mindset

16. • Tool to help you better observe
• Especially good for analyzing photos
• What you should do for a specific observation
• Divide a sheet into 3 parts – What / How / Why
• What = write what you observe the user is doing without making assumptions
• How = understand what the user is doing. Is it positive or negative, does it
require effort? Use plenty of adjectives
• Why = now you have to interpret; guess motivations and emotions, make
assumptions that you have to test with users later
2. Empathize – Ask What – How - Why

17. • Repeating the Why question 5 times to identify
the root cause of a problem
• Write down the problem and make sure that all
people understand it.
• Pay attention to the logic of cause-and-effect
relationship.
• Assess the process, not people.
• When you form the answer for question "Why" -
it should happen from the customer's point of view.
3. Empathize – Ask the 5 whys

18.  Says
 quotes from what users say during interview
 Thinks
 What users seem to think when experiencing
the product
 Does
 Actions that the user takes during the
experiment
 Feels
 The user’s emotional state (adjective +
context) like Impatient: pages load too slowly
4. Empathize – Empathy map

19. Cont…EMPATHY MAPPING

20. • Ask why.
• Never say “usually” when asking a question.
• Encourage stories
• Look for inconsistencies.
• Pay attention to nonverbal cues.
• Don’t be afraid of silence.
• Ask questions neutrally and don’t suggest answers.
5. Empathize – Conduct interviews with empathy

21. Breakout Activity Rubrics:
• Response of the Group: 2 Marks
• Inclusion of given goal: 1.5 Marks
• Presentation/Output of Activity: 1.5 Marks

22. Breakout session-1
• Among the project team students, create a batch of customers(Interviewee) and
another batch of Design thinkers(Interviewer). One batch acts as interviewer and
other one acts as customers.
• Prepare a set of 5 interview questions on the topic of “Online learning apps and
student mindset?”
• 20Min for activity
• Discussion in main room

23. S No: Questions
1
2
3
4
5
Breakout session-1

24. Insights
• Empathy interviews are used to gather insights.
• These insights can then be used to identify issues and generate potential solutions.
• Insights form the cornerstone of the design and innovation process, a lighthouse
for what you should do next, and a catalyst for creating new value for your
customers.
• The ever-increasing explosion of data puts more knowledge at our fingertips than
ever before, but you need to know what to do with it.

25. Interviewee’s goals &/or motivation Interviewee’s aspirations
Interviewee’s current experience Interviewee’s challenges
&/or pain points
3 most important points about
interviewee
User Insights &/or Needs
What went well with interview?
What did not go well with interview?
How can we do better for next interview?
Post Interview Analysis

26. Breakout session-2
• Among the team, create a batch of customers(Interviewee) and another
batch of Design thinkers(Interviewer). One batch acts as interviewer and
other one acts as customer.
• Conduct an interview with set of 5 interview questions on the topic of
“Online learning apps and student mindset?”
• 20Min for activity
• Discussion in main room

27. S No: Questions Insights
1
2
3
4
5
Breakout session-2

28. Interview Questions Your Answer
Assignment
Conduct empathetic interview for your end sem project “What can be design
that will make 100% of citizen in India to be vaccinated for COVID-19?”

29. Summarize Empathetic Interview….
• Context: where, when, who and why?
• Insights: what have you learned about your target users
• Challenges: what are the pain-points, obstacles, gaps
• Opportunities: What are some opportunities and new possibilities
• Perspectives: How would you rethink about your design challenge project

30. Interview rules
Identify the group of people whose problem that needs to be
solved
Interaction ways to understand the customer
Interview process

31. Thank You