Empathy Map Template
One page that forces your team to see the world through your customer's eyes — what they say, think, do, and feel — before anyone writes a line of code.
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What is an Empathy Map?
An empathy map is a collaborative one-page canvas — popularized by Dave Gray of XPLANE — that organizes everything your team knows about a customer into six areas: what they say, think, do, and feel, plus their pains and gains. It's the fastest way to turn scattered interview notes into a shared picture of the human you're building for.
Its power is in the contradictions it surfaces: when what customers say conflicts with what they do, you've found where the real insight — and usually the real product opportunity — is hiding.
The 6 Sections, Explained
Says
What have you heard them say out loud?
Direct quotes from interviews, support tickets, reviews, and sales calls. Keep the exact wording — paraphrasing smooths away the insight.
Thinks
What occupies their thoughts?
What matters to them that they might never say in a meeting: worries, ambitions, doubts. This is where the gap between what people say and what they believe lives.
Does
What do they actually do?
Observable behavior: the workarounds, the spreadsheets, the tools they use despite complaining about them. When Says and Does conflict, trust Does.
Feels
What is their emotional state?
Name the emotion and its trigger: anxious about the quarterly report, relieved when the export finally works, embarrassed asking IT for help again.
Pains
What stands in their way?
Fears, frustrations, and obstacles between them and what they want. These become your Value Proposition Canvas pain relievers.
Gains
What does success look like?
Wants, needs, and the measures they'll be judged by. These become your gain creators.
Empathy Map Example: B2B SaaS Buyer
Here's a completed empathy map for a fictional operations manager, built from customer-interview notes. Notice that every entry is specific and observable — "anxious on Monday mornings" beats "stressed," and a direct quote beats a summary every time.
Persona
Maya, operations manager at a 45-person e-commerce company, responsible for order fulfillment
Says
"I spend half my Monday rebuilding the same spreadsheet." · "I just need to know which orders are stuck."
Thinks
If fulfillment slips again this quarter, it lands on me. Nobody upstairs understands how manual this still is.
Does
Exports CSVs from three systems every morning; keeps a personal Slack channel of workarounds; stays late Thursdays to reconcile.
Feels
Anxious on Monday mornings (report day); defensive when leadership asks "why is this late?"; proud of the workaround system she built.
Pains
Data scattered across tools; no single source of truth; blamed for delays she can only see after the fact.
Gains
One dashboard she trusts; catching stuck orders same-day; walking into Monday leadership meetings with answers instead of apologies.
Read as one page, Maya's map practically writes the product brief: a single source of truth, same-day exception alerts, and a Monday-ready report. Feed the Pains and Gains rows directly into your Value Proposition Canvas and you've connected empathy to strategy.
How to Run an Empathy Mapping Session
Start from Evidence
Map one real persona from interview notes and observed behavior — an empathy map of assumptions just documents your bias
Map as a Team, Silently First
Everyone adds sticky notes individually before discussing — it stops the loudest voice from becoming "the customer"
Hunt the Contradictions
Circle every place Says and Does disagree — then design your next customer interviews around exactly those gaps
Get Your Free Empathy Map Template
Print it A3 for workshops or fill it digitally — six sections and one persona at the center.
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