Understanding the thoughts, emotions, motivations and needs of the audience a business serves is often a series of questions. These questions are a starting place.

The key to success is listening to the answers and taking action. That way the questions continually engage the audience and the level of feedback you gain helps to optimize how you operate your business

Empathy Map Questions

·  What are your customer’s concerns?

·  What are your customer’s real feelings?

·  Is your customer happy with your product/service?

·  How does your customer react to _________________?

·  Is your customer angry or upset about your product/service?

·  What are your customer’s dreams and aspirations?

·  What are your customer’s preoccupations?

·  What really counts with your customer?

·  What are your customer’s fears?

·  Who is your ideal customer?

·   What do they think about during the day?

·   Are they feeling stressed? Relaxed?

·   What other factors are they wondering about during a typical day?

·   Do they hate their job? Love their job?

·   What is their core yet unexpressed priorities?

·   What causes an emotional reaction for them?

·   What are their dreams and goals?

·   What worries keep them up at night?

STEP TWO: What does the person HEAR? What Friends Say, What the Boss Says, What Influencers Say

·  What channel does your customer use the most?

·  Is your customer easily influenced?

·   What influences your customer?

·  Who influences your customer?

·  Through which channel does your customer get their information?

·  Does your customer listen to family and friends?

·  Is your customer more influenced by peers and co-workers?

·  What music do they listen to?

·   What “self talk” goes through their head?

·   What kind of ideas, information and opinions are being shared with your target customer by their friends and family?

·   What kind of things do they hear at work?

·   Who are the people they are most influenced by?

·   What are the mediums and tactics used to influence them?

STEP THREE: What the person SEES: Environment, Friends, What the Market Offers

·   How does your customer interact with their environment?

·  What does your customer’s environment look like?

·  Is your customer more in a private environment or a public environment?

·  How does your customer respond in a private environment?

·   How does your customer respond in a public environment?

·  What is your customer exposed to on a daily basis?

·   What problems does your customer face within their environment?

·   Are they highly visual?

·   Are they looking for great design or content?

·   What do they see?

·   What does their environment consist of?

·   Who are the other individuals who form a part of the customer’s environment?

·   What kind of product offerings do they see?

·   What kind of issues and challenges do they usually have?

STEP FOUR: What does the person SAY and DO? Attitude in Public, Appearance, Behavior Towards Others

·   What does your customer say to others?

·   How does your customer respond to others?

·   What are your customer’s actions after a conversation?

·   Does what your customer says match what your customer does?

·   How does your customer portray themselves in front of peers?

·   Does your customer influence others with their actions?

·   Does your customer influence others with their words?

·   What information does your customer hold back from others?

·   What information does your customer repeat to others?

·   What are they telling others?

·   What actions are they taking on a day-to-day basis?

·   What is their behavior when they are surrounded by people?

·   What, according to them, are their priorities?

·   What is the gap between what they express and their actual actions?

·   Do they act as influencers and opinion leaders for others?

·   Place direct quotes from your customers HERE.

STEP FIVE: PAIN – Fears, Frustrations, Obstacles

·   What are your customer’s pain points?

·   What does your customer fear the most?

·   What does your customer fear the least?

·   What kinds of frustrations does your customer face on a daily basis?

·   What obstacles have gotten in the way of what your customer wanted?

·   What obstacles does your customer still need to overcome today?

·   Why hasn’t your customer been able to reach their goals?

·   What future fears could your customer have?

·   What frustrations could your customer have in the future?

·   What frustrates them about their current situation?

·   What are the moving away from?

·   What are their main concerns or causes for frustration?

·   What stands between them and reaching for their aspirations?

·   What are the methods they employ to reach their goals?

STEP SIX: GAIN – Wants/Needs, Measures of Success, Obstacles

·   What kinds of success has your customer had?

·   How did your customer measure the success that they had?

·   How did your customer obtain their success?

·   Is the customer happy with your product or service?

·   What future success does your customer have?

·   What long term goals does your customer have?

·   What short term goals does your customer have?

·   What makes your customer the happiest?

·   What are your customer’s wants and needs?

·   Where would they like to be?

·   What are they moving toward?

·   What are their expressed goals and needs?

·   What is their metric for measuring success?

·   What are the methods they employ to achieve success?