
Empathy and the Design Process
My thoughts on why empathy is so crucial in the design process, work, and life. This demonstrates my writing skills and understanding of the Stanford Design Process and how it applies to work and life.
When I walked into the store that Saturday morning in 1999, I was instantly irritated. I had not worked the previous day, my first day off in over ten days. As I looked around the store, it was messy and in disarray. The further I walked towards the back of the store, the more my anger built. I thought, "why is the store such a mess" and "why were they so lazy"? I was ready to have a tough coaching conversation with the manager on duty, but I had to wait because everyone was working with customers. I went to the office and dropped off my personal belongings before coming to the sales floor. While I waited for the manager to finish what she was doing, I reviewed our daily layout, which had information about sales from the previous day and instructions for the current day. When the manager on duty finished with the customer, I asked, in a displeased tone, "What happened yesterday? Why is the store such a mess?" The manager immediately got defensive, and I could tell they were agitated. "It was so busy yesterday, and we had an employee call out right before their shift, so I couldn't find anyone to cover. We made our sales plan by 40%" I was immediately taken aback and ashamed. I apologized and thanked the manager for their hard work and the results they achieved despite being short-handed. It was then that I had my first realization on why putting myself in others' shoes to truly feel what they're feeling was important as a leader. It was the first time I connected that being an empathetic leader could make a difference in the store results and the morale of my employees.
Empathy was a topic that arose again in the graduate class that I took in the Fall semester of 2022. CEP 817 - Learning Technology through Design taught me innumerable lessons about the five-step Stanford Design Thinking Model, of which empathy was the first step. When I started to write this reflection, I was stuck on how to encompass my learnings from the class in the essay, so I brainstormed and incubated a few ideas for several days. I took my written reflections from each step of the design process: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test, and I put each into a word cloud software to see the most used words in those reflections. The word that appeared repeatedly was employee. When I thought about that more, it made sense because the employees were the end-users of the prototype designed and tested throughout the course. After reflecting on my brainstorming and incubation on the semester's content, I had a realization that empathizing, the first step of the design process, is not only the driver of the design process, but it has been vital throughout my career. In my current professional context and my entire professional career, I have been striving to practice and teach empathy since that conversation I had so many years ago. Empathy has the potential to unlock understanding if people take the time to listen to others.

The statement that empathizing is the driver of the design process summed up my most significant learning from CEP 817. Being the first step of the design process, if empathizing didn't happen, or those utilizing the design process chose to ignore what the end-users said, a process or product could fail. End-users must be taken into account throughout the entire design process so that the final product is something that will be beneficial to the end-user. During the second step of the design process (define), we asked, "what is the root cause of the problem"? The answer to this question helped get to the core issue of any problem and helped guide the ideation of solutions. By asking this question, it helped reframe the situation to take end-users into account; thus, empathizing continued to steer the design process. Empathy was carried through ideation and prototyping, as brainstorming and creating initial solutions to problems must take end-users perspectives into consideration to be successful. The final step of the design process (test) was again driven by empathy. This step directly asked for feedback on solutions to the problem. If designers took the feedback and applied it to further prototype iterations, they had a good chance of a successful product. According to Rikke Friis Dam (2021), "...empathy allows design thinkers to set aside their own assumptions about the world to gain insight into users and their needs." If empathy was the driver of the design process, then assumptions were the roadblocks to a successful product or process design. Anywhere that designers failed to put aside their assumptions, they forgot their end-users. I remember realizing that my assumptions about the manager leaving the store messy didn't allow me to put myself in their shoes and understand their perspective. If I had taken the time to put my assumptions aside, ask questions, and see their views, I probably wouldn't have gotten so frustrated.
My peers in CEP 817 and I shared many examples of good and bad designs throughout the semester. I feel confident that, at least, part of why the good designs were "good" was because empathizing was built into the design process. Those designs deemed "bad" either didn't take end-user feedback and needs into account, the designer made assumptions about the end user's needs, or the designer skipped the empathizing step of the design process. There could have been many reasons for this, including resource constraints or a lack of understanding of how empathizing can positively impact a design. Anytime I see, use, or interact with a bad design, I wonder about the designers, "what were they thinking?!" The answer to this question, most likely, is that they didn't empathize or put themselves into the shoes of their users, and they made assumptions about what was best.
I want to avoid someone asking "what was she thinking" when designing a process in my current work context. Up to this point in my career, after having the uncomfortable realization that I was allowing assumptions to get in the way of connecting with employees, I have tried to infuse empathy into my everyday practices. When I felt myself getting irritated or annoyed with a situation, I tried to ask what may be going on with the other person. I wanted to put myself in their shoes. I had to practice this recently when I was putting together a plan to reopen our offices in Austin and Los Angeles for the new hybrid work environment. I sent a meeting invite to the Vice Presidents and Directors of my company. The meeting invite included the information that we were looking for feedback on the office reopening process. I knew this was a sensitive topic and worried that many people thought we would force them to return to the office for work five days a week. I included a note in the meeting invite that working in the office was voluntary, and anyone who wanted to continue to work from home could do so. I immediately received several responses asking if we would force employees to come back and work in the office five days a week. I was surprised and annoyed that I was getting that question, as I had included the information in the meeting invite. Before I let myself get too upset, I tried to look at it from their perspective. I reminded myself that everyone was very busy, as we were prepping for our biggest launch of the year, and they may have skimmed the invite. I also realized that when you looked at the invite on a mobile device, you had to click on the invite and scroll to the bottom to see the message. After suspending my assumptions and looking at the situation from their perspective, I understood the flaw in my design. From now on, I would not "bury the lead" and put information that I know was crucial to understanding the message in a much more visible place. I also decided to have someone proof any invites or communication to large groups to ensure that I communicated the message effectively. Feedback from another perspective would help positively impact the final product, the email invite. Although sending a meeting invite to a group of people seems like a small, mundane task, it proves the point that the design process is valuable in many contexts. Had I not taken the time to understand why I had gotten questions about returning to the office when I thought I had effectively communicated the information, I could have very quickly made the same mistake in the future. Had I continued to make the same mistake, it could have damaged my credibility in my role.Â
I have a large project coming up at work to implement a digital reward and recognition software. Employees will use the software to give public and private recognition to each other and provide rewards like gift cards and experiences. I have started the process with empathy and will continue to use empathy to drive the vetting of vendors, choosing the software, and implementation of the system. I have utilized an anonymous survey, along with in-person interviews, to determine what rewards and recognition employees prefer and any suggested vendors used at their previous employers. Once we identify vendors to demo the product for us, I will include employees from all levels in the meetings so that we have multiple perspectives. Before choosing a vendor, we will present options and pros and cons and allow the team to vote on their favorites. Once a vendor is selected, employees will be able to provide feedback on the types of rewards they'd like to see on the platform, such as the businesses they prefer for gift card options, experiences they'd like to have, such as a visit to a spa, car detailing, etc. By involving employees of all levels throughout this process, I anticipate the adoption and use of the platform to be higher than if one person or only executives made the decisions. Through the first step of the design process for implementing the system, I have found that what I thought people would want for rewards was different from what they said in the survey. I am grateful that the design process starts with empathy to meet the end user's needs. Implementation will not be the end of the design process. It will be essential to continue to practice empathy and solicit feedback. The environment around us is constantly changing due to impacts like inflation, changes in employment rates, pandemics, etc. What may work after initial implementation may not work after some time. It will be crucial to consider the perspective of the users' past implementation steps.
I am a designer. I never thought of myself as a designer until this class and learning about the Stanford Design Thinking Model. I never thought of myself as creative, and I didn't realize how much empathy plays into what I do at work. I was delighted to discover that I have been operating from a place of empathy since that eye-opening conversation in 1999 while continuing to improve my efforts. I have practiced empathy in a way that has helped me genuinely understand employees and help them be successful through the processes I have designed.
References
Dam, R.K. (2021). 5 Stages of the Design Thinking Process. Interactive Design Foundation. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/5-stages-in-the-design-thinking-process