“Empathy is a tool for building people into groups, for allowing us to function as more than self-obsessed individuals.” -Neil Gaiman

Often when working on technology products, we solve problems as we see them – at the implementation level. We build an interface that makes sense for the code we wrote or data that we modeled. It makes sense to us and we are good at using the product. When we do this, we are really focusing on ourselves first, not the people that will use the product. Because the people using our product don’t understand our models and restrictions, it will be difficult for them to learn and understand. The people, even those technical in nature, have a mental model of what they expect that is different than the model of the creator.

To correct this problem, we need to find a way to separate outselves, as creators, from making solutions that will make our implementation easier.

To do this, we need to force our brains to think about the people that our using our product. This will help us remain empathetic in the process of building the product.

A reality map can be a great tool in solving this problem. This tool helps you by thinking about how the product will be used in reality, ignoring the implementation. You focus on how people will use the product over its lifetime.

Interviewing the people that will be using you product is another good way to be more empathetic. Talking to the people can provide a better sense of both their goals and their problems. You can then take the information from the interviews to build personas that you can use throughout your implementation.

Not referring to your audience as “user” is another great way to remain empathetic. You can read more about my thought on that here.

It is very easy to get caught up in your work and forget about who the product is for. Using tools like reality maps and interviews at the beginning of the process can help you form the correct state of mind. Then continuing with personas and referring to your audience with correct terms can help keep you in that state of mind.