Empathy Map Template
An empathy map template for product teams covering what users say, think, do, and feel — plus their pains and gains. Built for synthesis after user interviews. Free to copy, download, and use. No signup required.
# Empathy Map **Persona / User Segment:** [Name — e.g. "Startup Sarah: Solo PM at Series A"] **Scenario:** [Context — e.g. "Preparing a PRD after customer discovery"] **Author:** [Name] **Date:** [Date] **Sources:** [N interviews, session recordings, support tickets] --- ## WHO are we empathising with? [2–3 sentences describing this user: their role, context, and the situation we're mapping] **Goal in this scenario:** [What they are trying to accomplish — the job they're hired to do] --- ## SAYS > Direct quotes or close paraphrases from research. Use real language — don't sanitise. - "[Quote from interview or support ticket]" - "[Quote]" - "[Quote]" - "[Quote]" *What do they say publicly vs. what do they say to close colleagues? Note any gaps.* --- ## THINKS > What they think but might not say out loud. Infer from behaviour, hesitation, and subtext. - [Thought / belief about the problem or solution] - [Worry or concern they haven't voiced] - [Assumption they hold about how things should work] - [What success looks like in their head] --- ## DOES > Observable actions and behaviours — what you see them actually do. - [Workaround they use today] - [Tool they switch to / from] - [Repetitive behaviour that reveals friction] - [What they do immediately after encountering the problem] --- ## FEELS > Emotional state. Mark the intensity. | Emotion | Context | Intensity | |---|---|---| | [Frustrated] | [When they have to manually copy data between tools] | ●●●●○ | | [Anxious] | [Before presenting the PRD to leadership] | ●●●○○ | | [Relieved] | [When the synthesis finally comes together] | ●●●●● | | [Proud] | [When the team ships based on their PRD] | ●●●●● | --- ## PAINS > Obstacles, frustrations, and fears standing between them and their goal. - **[Pain]:** [Specific description — e.g. "Takes 3–4 hours to manually tag and group 40 interview notes"] - **[Pain]:** [Description] - **[Pain]:** [Description] - **[Fear]:** [What they're afraid of if things go wrong] --- ## GAINS > What they hope to achieve — the outcomes, benefits, and desires. - **[Gain]:** [What a great outcome looks like — e.g. "PRD that references specific customer quotes"] - **[Gain]:** [Description] - **[Gain]:** [Description] - **[Aspiration]:** [Bigger career or personal goal this connects to] --- ## Key Insights > The 3 most actionable insights from this empathy map — the non-obvious things that should change how you design. 1. **[Insight]:** [What it means for product design or messaging] 2. **[Insight]:** [What it means] 3. **[Insight]:** [What it means] --- ## Design Implications | Insight | Design response | |---|---| | [Pain or gain] | [Feature, copy, or UX change that addresses it] | | | |
How to use this Empathy Map template
Fill it immediately after interviews — while memories are fresh
The empathy map is a synthesis tool, not a data collection tool. Fill it within 24 hours of your last interview while direct quotes and body language are still vivid. Don't wait for a batch of 10 interviews.
Keep SAYS and THINKS separate
The gap between what users say and what they think is where the most valuable insights live. If a user says 'I don't mind the extra steps' but takes three workarounds to avoid them, that contradiction belongs in THINKS.
Use it with your team, not just for your notes
Print or share the empathy map in your next design critique or sprint planning. It builds shared understanding faster than a 5-page research report. Engineers who see a real user quote are more motivated to solve the right problem.
Convert pains and gains directly into product opportunities
Every pain is a feature request in disguise. Every gain is a success metric in disguise. Use the Design Implications section to translate the empathy map directly into product decisions — not just as a research artifact.
Want a Empathy Map grounded in your actual customer data?
PMRead ingests your customer interviews, feedback, and Slack threads — and generates PRDs backed by real evidence, not guesses.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between an empathy map and a persona?
A persona is a composite profile of a user type — who they are, their goals, frustrations, and background. An empathy map is a deeper dive into a specific scenario — what a user says, thinks, does, and feels in a particular context. Empathy maps are more useful for design; personas are more useful for strategy and positioning.
How many users should one empathy map represent?
One empathy map should represent one user type in one scenario. If you're finding that the SAYS and THINKS sections contradict each other because you're mixing two different types of users, split into two maps. Blended maps produce blended, unusable insights.
When should I use an empathy map vs. a journey map?
Use an empathy map to understand a user's internal state — their emotions, beliefs, and motivations — at a given moment. Use a journey map to understand how that state changes over time across multiple touchpoints. Start with empathy maps per stage, then assemble them into a journey map.
Can I create an empathy map from secondary research instead of interviews?
Yes, but mark it clearly as assumption-based and validate it quickly. G2 reviews, Reddit threads, and support tickets are useful sources. The risk of skipping primary research is that your empathy map reflects the loudest voices (people who write public reviews) rather than your actual target user.
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