Empathy - Dirty Word or Key to New Products?
15 March 2007Jeffrey Phillips has a story on his blog “Innovate on Purpose” entitled “The Empathy Gap”. It basically starts by talking about what one politician calls the Empathy Gap.
One idea in particular caught my attention - his concept of the empathy gap. “The Politician” suggested that there was an empathy gap - simply not enough empathy for people who have less, earn less, have fewer educational opportunities.
He then goes on to equate this to an empathy gap that exists between a business and its customers. In many cases we can’t shake our own world-view as the producer of a good or service, to really see through the eyese of our consumers.
This was a particularly thought provoking item:
Generally we think of empathy as something that is exhibited when others are sick or hurting in some way. We may think of nurses or caregivers as empathetic. How often do we think of product managers or product designers as empathetic?
I think he hit this spot on in that word empathy has a connotation of weakness or at the very least something exploitable. On the contrary to really make products that win, we need to see through or empathize with customers instead of being confrontational.
If you thought like your customer, how much easier would pricing negotiations, sales, new product introductions, and customer support be?
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