Empathizing big question: Who is directly impacted by the issue you are addressing, and how can you understand their needs?

Step 1. Listen to and understand your audience

• Set aside time to understand the perspectives various users. Your goal is to listen to them, either through surveys or dialogue, to better comprehend the issue. This may require initiating a connection with the user and determining how you can relate or offer a follow-up question.

Step 2. Immerse yourself in someone's experience

• A keystone in building empathy is putting yourself in someone else's shoes. If you faced a similar problem as them or were to have similar experiences, can you imagine what that might look like? This may require some imagination.

Step 3. Document your findings

• Throughout this learning process, you may learn new things that would be best kept documented. Be sure to take notes on key points from the empathy stage that you can refer to later in the design process.