Week at a Glance
📜 Quote: Quality > Quantity
🗳 Talk of Product: Empathy Maps
📈 Market Highlights: Performance and News
🧠Mental Framework: Aristotal’s ‘Four Causes’: Material
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Estimate read time: 4 minutes
📜 Quoting a Great:
"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough."
Mae West
🗳 Talk of Product:
Empathy Maps
Last week we went deep into the Personas. Understood what they are, how they are made, and the benefits they derive while making a product.Â
Today, we are taking a step further. We go deep into the user's mind. We'll understand what an Empathy Map is.Â
An empathy map is a visual tool to understand and empathize with a particular user or customer. It helps in gaining insights into their thoughts, feelings, needs, and behaviours concerning a specific product, service, or experience.Â
While drawing the map, there are several questions which need to be answered:Â
Who are we empathising with?Â
What do they need to do?
What do they see?
What do they say?Â
What do they do?
What do they hear?Â
What do they think and feel?Â
These questions help clarify the user's state when they use the product and the internal and external triggers for product usage.Â
To make an effective Empathy Map, there are four steps:Â
Establishing focus points and goals.Â
This ensures that we avoid the majority of the noise around the product and establish concrete goals to be achieved.Observing the user's world from their eyes.Â
Walk a mile in another person's shoes to know them, literally. See what they see, hear what they hear, to ultimately understand what got them to the product.Looking at their internal self.Â
There are things which one says, but their actions aren’t consistent with the words, because internally their compass points in another direction. So to map out what the compass shows and deliver on it.Summarising the findings.Â
Well, if it’s not a one-person team, then findings need to be summarised and presented.
📈 Market Highlights:
Major Global Macroeconomic Events:
ECB raises rates to 3.1; the highest in 22 years.
China’s PMI improves in May
🧠Mental Framework:
Aristotal’s ‘Four Causes’: Material
Aristotle's material cause is the underlying substance or matter that constitutes a thing. It helps answer questions about the composition and characteristics of an object. To illustrate this concept, let's consider the example of a floor and explore why it may be stable yet have a slight bounce.
Inquiring about the material cause of the floor would lead us to examine the material from which it is constructed. In this case, if the floor is made of wood, we can attribute the stability and the subtle bounce to the properties of the wood itself. Wood possesses a degree of flexibility that allows for a slight give when weight is applied, resulting in the observed bounce.
On the other hand, if the floor were made of concrete, it would lack the bounce due to the rigid and inflexible nature of concrete. Conversely, if the floor were somehow constructed out of cotton candy, it would not provide stability at all, as cotton candy lacks the necessary structural integrity.
The material cause focuses on identifying the substance or matter involved in the composition of an object, irrespective of its specific shape or form. In the case of a floor, it could be made of various materials, and each material would serve as the material cause. For example, if the floor were made of concrete instead of wood, concrete would be the material cause.
By examining the material cause, we can gain insights into the unique properties, characteristics, and behaviours of different substances. This understanding contributes to our comprehension of the diverse nature of objects and the reasons behind their specific qualities or behaviours.
I would love to hear from you about the things you’ve noticed!