Empathy Map
Canvas

Assessment & Discovery Tools

A structured canvas for mapping how someone experiences
their world — what they think, feel, see, hear, say, and do.

Where This Tool Helps

Most leaders default to empathy as a feeling. Something you either have or you don't. The Empathy Map reframes it as a practice — a structured way to step outside your own perspective and map someone else's experience across seven dimensions.

Where this tool earns its keep is in the gaps it exposes. You'll find you can fill some zones quickly — what they say, what they do, the observable behaviors — and struggle with others. What they think and feel, what they hear from people you never interact with. That asymmetry is the insight. The zones you can't fill are exactly where your assumptions are doing the most work.

The canvas is sequenced to move from the concrete to the internal. Start with who you're mapping and what they need to accomplish, then work through the observable dimensions before turning inward to thoughts and feelings. The final step — PAINS and GAINS — forces you to hold both sides of their experience at once.

How to Use This Canvas

  1. Choose one person. Not a role, not a segment, not "our stakeholders." One specific human being whose experience you need to understand better. Name them at the top.
  2. Fill in zones 1 and 2 first. Anchor who they are and what they need to do before mapping their experience. Without this frame, the other zones become abstract.
  3. Work the outer ring (zones 3–6). These are the observable dimensions — what you can see, hear, and verify. Fill these from evidence, not assumption. Where you catch yourself guessing, mark it.
  4. Move to zone 7 last. Thoughts and feelings are interpretive. The outer zones give you data to ground your interpretation. PAINS and GAINS force a balanced view — resist the pull to focus on only one side.
  5. Revisit with fresh data. After your next conversation with this person, return to the canvas. Update what you got wrong. The map improves every time you test it against reality.

Before your next session:

Look at the zones you filled most easily. Now look at the ones with gaps. What does that pattern tell you about where your understanding is built on observation versus assumption?

If this person could see your canvas, which zone would they say you got wrong?

1

Empathy Map Canvas

1
Who are we empathizing with?

Who is the person we want to understand?

What is their situation? What is their role?

2
What do they need to DO? Goal

What do they need to do differently?

What job(s) do they need to get done?

What decision(s) do they need to make?

How will we know they were successful?

6
What do they HEAR?

From colleagues?

From friends?

From second-hand sources?

What are they hearing others say?

7
What do they THINK and FEEL?
Pains

Fears, frustrations, anxieties

Gains

Wants, needs, hopes, dreams

What other thoughts and feelings might motivate their behavior?
3
What do they SEE?

In the marketplace?

In their immediate environment?

Others saying and doing?

What are they watching and reading?

4
What do they SAY?

What have we heard them say?

What can we imagine them saying?

5
What do they DO?

What do they do today?

What behavior have we observed?

What can we imagine them doing?

2 Based on the Empathy Map Canvas by Dave Gray (xplane.com)

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