What Does Empathy Really Mean?

The term Empathy is bandied about by many people who don’t really know what it means, or what it should mean. It has become a proxy for not…

The term Empathy is bandied about by many people who don’t really know what it means, or what it should mean. It has become a proxy for not being able to articulate customer needs completely, and reliably.

Design Thinking is possibly the most visible process that starts with a stage called Empathy…

The Design Thinking Process

As a problem solving, and solution designing method, it must overcome the challenge we all face — commonly known as the fuzzy-front-end of innovation. Few are getting this right; yet understanding which needs of a target customer group are unmet is arguably the most important step in designing winning solutions that are actually based on winning market concepts. Why aren’t we focusing on fixing this weakness?

“Develop a deep understanding of the challenge”

We’re only improving what we’re good at…

If we can’t develop a deep understanding of the customer challenge before executing the subsequent steps in the Design Thinking (or any problem solving) process, we will not h…