Empathy Interview Guide

“Empathy interviews are conversations with the people who are impacted by what you are designing. … These interviews allow your team to move beyond simply observing behaviors and making inferences to deeply understanding someone’s hopes, fears and motivations.”��- The Design Gym

Our Approach

Your interviews should be inspired by four essential mindsets:�

1. Listening as an intentional choice: Focus on what the person is sharing with you, rather than your opinion about their perspective, needs, and aspirations. This could look like you shifting your attention back to the speaker in those moments when you realize you’re already thinking about your next question or your mind drifts to somewhere else. It’s normal; the important thing is to proactively shift your attention back.�
2. Defer judgement: Respect/honor the worldview of your interviewee. Stay curious about what makes them hold the opinions instead. This could look like you asking a follow up question when they share something that you know you will / want to dismiss and then asking your interview buddy how they interpreted that part of the conversation.�
3. Center the Speaker: Listen from a place of love. Be humble and acknowledge that you are not the expert. This could look like you asking yourself what values am I hearing from this interviewee, and in the moments you feel like you already know, you can reflect back what you’re hearing to check for understanding.�
4. Trust the process: Sometimes the conversation will require you to take detours. Be prepared for it and follow it for some time as it might take you to hidden insights.

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Leading a strong interview is harder than it seems. (Ask Oprah, Terry Gross and John Stewart, who made whole careers out of this.) It’s not just about asking pre-written questions: It’s about intentionally crafting a conversation that allows you to serve as a witness to your partner’s experience. This requires practicing spontaneity, humor, love and curiosity – while also suppressing your own point of view, personal experiences and ego.

The obstacles to leading a strong conversation often involve habits that have become a natural part of the way we communicate, which makes them especially difficult to break. Consider each of these empathy interview blockers, and how you feel when they happen to you:

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• Assuming: Recognizing a piece of the story they’re sharing, connecting it to something similar you’ve heard elsewhere or what you know about them and drawing conclusions vs deeply listening in that moment. It might even prompt you to cut them off.
• Silver Lining: Cheering up, downplaying, reassuring; trying to make them feel better or different immediately. Examples: It’s not so bad. There’s nothing to be upset about. At least ___ didn’t happen. Don’t cry, it’s not the end of the world. You’ll feel better soon. (Notice how we do this to kids all the time!)
• Fixing: Giving solutions, advice, beliefs or opinions. Examples: You should try ____. Have you thought of ____? When I was in that situation, I just ____.
• Interrogating: Asking questions in an evaluative, analytical way. Examples: What did he mean? Why did you do that? What were you thinking? What are you going to do about it?
• Discounting: Minimizing the person’s feelings by blaming, criticizing, disagreeing, or defending someone else. Examples: You are being oversensitive. I’m sure he didn’t mean to hurt you. You should have known better. Why didn’t you think about that before?
• Stealing the thunder: Shifting the focus to yourself. Examples: What happened to me was way worse. Now you know how I felt when ____ happened to me. You think you have it bad? Just listen to what happened to me…
• Sympathizing: Feeling sorry for them, showing pity. Examples: Oh, you poor thing. Poor baby. Oh, bless your heart. I’m sorry that happened to you. *Note on “I’m sorry” – people may disagree that saying you’re sorry is sympathy. If you say you’re sorry, it comes across as that you’re feeling bad for the person, which is the definition of sympathy. Saying you’re sorry is like the deer looking down into the hole- “Too bad for you, I’m up here looking down at how terrible your life is, judgment-judgment-pity-pity.” You should only apologize for something you did wrong…if you didn’t cause the other person’s upset, you have nothing to be sorry about. You should turn to other expressions of empathy instead.

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Choose your interviewee on purpose. Designers often prefer to identify “extreme users,” or folks whose experiences sit far beyond the norm. For example, the challenge to improve an after-school sports program might benefit from the perspective of a young person who has never liked playing sports at all. It’s also essential to apply an equity lens in thinking about the identity markers of your interviewees: Be careful to not default to inviting participants you have easy access to because of your own privilege or bias. �

Prepare yourself. In addition to identifying who you want to interview and familiarizing yourself with your questions, you’ll also want to create a plan for what you will do in case you are triggered by something your interviewee says. Create a plan to attend to your healing during the interview (taking a pause or break, observing and writing down what’s coming up for you, breathing techniques, etc.) and after (debriefing with the observer/transcriber, journaling, meditation, etc.)�

Prepare your interviewee: Set the tone for the conversation ahead of time by advising them of how long the conversation will take, what to expect, and answering any questions they have. It’s helpful to allay any of their fears at this stage; if they’re feeling apprehensive, that hesitation will interfere with your ability to lead a healthy conversation.��Buddy up. It will be challenging to actively listen to an interviewee and also take unbiased notes. Therefore, you should conduct your empathy interview with a buddy who can transcribe notes so that you can focus on listening deeply. We also suggest that you record the interviews in case you miss something in your notes and you need to reference the recording.

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Before the Interview

During the Interview

Build rapport. Avoid jumping right into the empathy interview questions. Instead, take a moment and ask your interviewee, “how are you doing today?”. Then, share the purpose of the interview today and how you plan to use what you learn today in the design process. At the end of the interview be sure to share gratitude for their participation in today’s conversation and ask if there’s anything else they would like to share.

Notice nonverbal cues. Be aware of body language and emotions.

Don’t be afraid of silence. Interviewers often feel the need to ask another question when there is a pause. If you allow for silence, a person can reflect on what they’ve just said and may reveal something deeper.

Seek stories. Even when you think you know the answer, ask people why they do or say things. The answers will sometimes surprise you. A conversation started from one question should go on as long as it needs to.

Be precise. Transcribe exactly what the person said, not what you think the person said or a summary of what was said.

Empathy interview tips and mindsets adapted from Stanford’s the d.school and the National Equity Project’s Liberatory design mindsets.

Review the mindsets and blockers that support (and impede) powerful conversations. Watch these videos, and reflect: Which mindsets and/or blockers do you see present in these conversations?

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Empathy Interview from Project Enybody

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HogL_mp0JDU

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Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiD33_6-NAM (from 5:30)

Practice