Show the empathy map to the stakeholder; let them correct it.
technique — attributed to Ruud Janssen
Janssen's validation step is precise. Once the empathy map is drafted, hold it up in front of the stakeholder and say four people spent forty-five minutes thinking about you. We would like you to point out the differences between what we think you think and what you really think. The stakeholder will help adjust the map. The discipline matters because most empathy mapping ends without the validation step, which means the design proceeds on assumptions the team never tested. With the validation step, the design is built on corrected understanding rather than imagined understanding. The technique generalizes for any user research context where insights have been generated without the user signing off on them.
For event designers, product researchers, and service designers thinking about how to validate stakeholder understanding. The technique is most useful as a feedback loop after empathy-mapping sessions.
validation, stakeholder-correction, feedback, co-creation