Hinda recently graduated from university and is making the transition to full-time work. She feels unprepared to navigate aspects of the real world like finding a job, workplace expectations, and negotiating her salary. In particular, she had difficulty negotiating a salary increase with her current employer when moving from an undergraduate to graduate degree because she lacked leverage and industry experience. This document outlines an empathy map that captures Hinda's feelings of worry, anxiety, and feeling left to fend for herself without proper guidance on real-world skills from her university education.

1. DESIGN THINKING ACTION LAB
SCHOOL TO WORK TRANSITION
EMPATHISE AND DEFINE
Darren McMurtrie

2. EMPATHY MAP
Say Think Feel
I had already been working 4 days a week
for the past 4 years.
It won’t be so hard to make the transition. Confident.
The biggest adjustment was knowing that
you had to be somewhere at 9am every
morning.
All of a sudden I have to change my routine
(which I enjoy). I am losing my free time.
Put out by reality.
Finding someone that wanted to hire me. Where do i look? I don’t know where to go
for information.
Worried.
Not knowing how the world works, or what
you want.
XXXXXXXXX Worried. Anxious.
The university tells you expectations, office
ettiquette, what to wear, but that’s it.
Is that all? Isn’t there more? Left to fend for myself.
They gave me the degree, then it was up to
me.
It’s up to me now. No-one really knows the
situation I’m in.
Left to fend for myself.
I told them I would leave then. I told them
if you value me at that, then we arent a
good fit.
This isn’t fair. I am worth more than that. Self empowered.
I was going from undergrad to grad, and
my boss didn’t want to give me an increase
in salary. And that was very difficult to
negotiate because I had no leverage and
nothing to negotiate with except that now I
have a piece of paper.
This isn’t fair. Why don’t they teach this
stuff at school? Money, negotiations... real
world stuff?
Helpless. Angry.

3. A confident, task-oriented, independent, recent
university graduate (Hinda) needs a way to
understand real world money matters before
entering the workforce. Not only did she not
know how to negotiate her salary, but was
already at a disadvantage due to having no
industry experience.
PROBLEM STATEMENT