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Empathy Map
It's a persona framework that does a deeper dive into the psychology of the targeted person or user segment. It's pretty much a persona framework on steroids.
When to use this?
When you have extensive knowledge about your target users, their behaviors, goals, and challenges, you can leverage your research insights to guide and complete fill out each section of the empathy map.
Use an empathy map only for your primary persona(s). For secondary persona(s), apply the persona framework instead.
Empathy map example we used on a gamified piano application
Can you use before research?
Yes, if you have a subject matter expert or a team with extensive knowledge about your target audience, you can use this technique. Have everyone brainstorm their understanding for each section using sticky notes, then collaboratively place the notes into the appropriate sections. Do this as a group activity:
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