Understand your customer
Turn interviews into a value proposition written in their words, not yours.
2–3 hours after the interviews are done Product managers, marketers, and founders sitting on interview notes
The distance between 'we talked to customers' and 'we know what to build' is synthesis. Interview notes rot in documents; this sequence converts them into three artefacts a team can actually argue with.
Prerequisite: at least five real conversations with people in one segment. If you have not done them, do that first — filling these canvases from imagination produces confident fiction.
- 1
One Empathy Map per interviewee, then find the pattern
Map each person separately before you merge anything — averaging five people into one map produces a composite nobody resembles. The recurring quotes and the say/do gaps across maps are your real findings.
Carry forward
The pains that appeared unprompted in at least three maps, and the exact phrases people used for them.
- 2
Build the customer profile, then map your offer against it
The left column is your product; the right column is what you just learned. Fill the customer side first, entirely from the empathy maps. Then check the pairings: every pain reliever must answer a documented pain, quantified where possible.
Carry forward
A one-sentence value proposition using the customers' own vocabulary, and the feature list that survived — plus the list that did not.
- 3
Wire it into the business with a Business Model Canvas
A validated proposition still needs channels that reach this segment, a relationship model they will accept, and revenue that exceeds the cost of serving them. The canvas is where customer insight becomes a business decision.
Carry forward
A canvas where the segment and proposition blocks are evidence-backed, and the remaining blocks are clearly labelled as the next assumptions to test.
What you walk away with
Per-person empathy maps, a value proposition in customer language, and a business model canvas that marks exactly which assumptions remain.
Start with step one
The Empathy Map editor opens with guided prompts on every block — 20-30 minutes to a first draft.
Begin: Empathy Map