Empathize
Empathy interview
A structured conversation focused on understanding a user's experiences, pain points, and context - not validating a solution.
Empathy interviews go beyond surveys. The interviewer asks open questions, listens for stories and emotions, and avoids leading the user toward a preferred answer.
Strong interviews surface pain points in context - what happened, what was hard, what workarounds people use. Those signals feed journey maps, personas, and eventually problem statements in the Define phase.
Related terms
- Pain point - A specific frustration, friction, or unmet need that a user experiences in a real context.
- User persona - A research-based profile of a target user segment - goals, behaviors, and constraints - used to keep teams aligned on who they serve.
- User journey - A map of the steps, touchpoints, and emotions a user goes through while trying to accomplish a goal.