131 Customer InsIghts desIgn 131 1 what does she see? describe what the customer sees in her environment • What does it look like? • Who surrounds her? • Who are her friends? • What types of oΩers is she exposed to daily (as opposed to all market oΩers)? • What problems does she encounter? 2 what does she hear? describe how the environment infl u- ences the customer • What do her friends say? Her spouse? • Who really infl uences her, and how? • Which media Channels are infl uential? 3 what does she really think and feel? try to sketch out what goes on in your customer’s mind • What is really important to her (which she might not say publicly)? • Imagine her emotions. What moves her? • What might keep her up at night? • Try describing her dreams and aspirations. 4 what does she say and do? imagine what the customer might say, or how she might behave in public • What is her attitude? • What could she be telling others? • Pay particular attention to potential confl icts between what a customer might say and what she may truly think or feel. 5 what is the customer’s pain? • What are her biggest frustrations? • What obstacles stand between her and what she wants or needs to achieve? • Which risks might she fear taking? 6 what does the customer gain? • What does she truly want or need to achieve? • How does she measure success? • Think of some strategies she might use to achieve her goals. The Empathy Map Few of us enjoy the services of a full team of social scientists, but anybody examining a business model can sketch profi les of the Customer Segments addressed therein. A good way to start is by using the Empathy Map, a tool developed by visual thinking company XPLANE. This tool, which we also like to call the “really simple customer profi ler,” helps you go beyond a customer’s demographic characteristics and develop a better understanding of environment, behavior, concerns, and aspirations. Doing so allows you to devise a stronger business model, because a customer profi le guides the design of better Value Propositions, more convenient ways to reach customers, and more appropriate Customer Relationships. Ultimately it allows you to better understand what a customer is truly willing to pay for. How to Use the (Customer) Empathy Map Here’s how it works. First, brainstorm to come up with all the possible Customer Segments that you might want to serve using your business model. Choose three promising candidates, and select one for your fi rst profi ling exercise. Start by giving this customer a name and some demographic characteristics, such as income, marital status, and so forth. Then, referring to the diagram on the opposite page, use a fl ipchart or whiteboard to build a profi le for your newly-named customer by asking and answering the following six questions: bmgen_final.indd 131 6/15/10 5:39 PM