To understand and share the feelings of another
– definition
How can you possibly help someone if you don’t know what they’re feeling? How can you possibly offer them value or gain, if you don’t even know their pain?
This is your job.
Beyond the message and the copy, if we aim to create and develop a solution for our potential audience, then we need to understand what’s bothering them in order to alleviate their issues with our solution or product.
To best understand your end-user, you must find a place to empathize with them and realize what they are truly going through.
With a high level of empathy, you can better put yourself in their shoes, and understand their dilemma, their pain, their anguish, their frustration, their complexity, and what would possibly be the ideal solution to their woes or problems.
Of course, this process helps you realize who you’re really talking to and better adapt your approach, whether they’re devs or not, blue or white collars, decision-maker or end-user, millennial or boomer, etc.
In the end, each person or user has certain problems they’re trying to solve, and by empathizing with them, you get to better understand them…and hopefully help them.