An empathy map template that behaves like real sticky notes.
Says, Thinks, Does, Feels, plus Pains and Gains -- add, edit and remove notes in each quadrant, pre-filled with a worked example so it is never a blank grid. Works on a phone screen or a shared display. No signup to use it.
Six buckets for what you know about one user.
An empathy map is a synthesis tool, not a presentation piece. It takes what you have gathered about one specific person in one specific situation -- from interviews, support logs, or plain observation -- and sorts it into what they say, what they think, what they do, how they feel, what is frustrating them, and what a good outcome would look like to them. The value is in the sorting, and in noticing where two quadrants contradict each other.
Edit the example, or clear it and start your own.
This is a worked example for the same insurance broker portal user as our journey map tool, so you can see how the two artefacts complement each other. Every note can be edited or removed, and you can add as many new notes as you like to any quadrant, entirely with the keyboard if you prefer.
Says
Direct quotes -- things they have actually said
Thinks
What they might be thinking but not saying out loud
Does
Observable actions and behaviours
Feels
Emotions and how they experience the situation
Pains
Frustrations, obstacles, risks they are worried about
Gains
What success looks like -- wants, needs, measures of a good outcome
Export your empathy map
How to run the session that produces one.
- Bring real material into the room: interview recordings or transcripts, support tickets, sales call notes, session recordings -- anything that is actually about the user, not about your product.
- Fill Says and Does first. These are things that were observed or recorded, and they anchor the exercise before anyone starts guessing.
- Fill Thinks and Feels as inferences from that evidence, and say out loud when you are guessing rather than reporting -- it keeps the group honest about what it actually knows.
- Pains and Gains usually surface naturally once the first four quadrants are full -- if they do not, that is often a sign the research input was too thin.
- Keep one note per idea so it can be moved, merged, or challenged on its own -- a quadrant full of paragraph-length notes is much harder to work with later.
A map from a room is a hypothesis, not research.
If a note on this map came from an assumption rather than something a real user said or did, it belongs on the map as a question to check, not a fact to design against. An empathy map filled in without real user input is a record of what your team believes, which is a genuinely useful starting point -- but it is not evidence, and treating it as evidence is how teams end up solving problems users do not actually have.
FAQ
What is an empathy map used for?
An empathy map organises what you know or believe about one specific user into six buckets -- what they say, think, do and feel, plus their pains and gains. It is a synthesis tool: you use it to make sense of interview notes, support tickets or observation, not to invent a user from nothing.
What is the difference between an empathy map and a persona?
A persona is a finished, presentable summary of a user type, usually built to be shared and referred back to. An empathy map is the working document that comes before it -- messier, quadrant-based, meant for a team to fill in together while synthesising research, not to be the polished output itself.
How do I run a session that produces one?
Base it on real input if you have any -- interview transcripts, support tickets, session recordings, sales call notes. Give everyone sticky notes (or use this tool live on a shared screen), work quadrant by quadrant, and put each observation in its own note so it can be moved, grouped, or challenged individually. Says and Does should come from things you actually observed; Thinks and Feels are inferences, and it is worth marking which is which as you go.
Is an empathy map built in a workshop reliable evidence?
No -- treat it as a hypothesis. An empathy map filled in by a team, without real user input behind it, records what the team believes or assumes about a user, which can be a useful and clarifying exercise but is not research. Validate the Pains and Gains it produces against real users before you commit design or engineering time to acting on them.
Want your map emailed to you as a PDF?
Leave your details and we'll send a formatted copy of an empathy map, plus a short worksheet for running the session with your own team.
Part of a set
Turn what you have synthesised into a shareable summary with the User Persona Builder, or trace it across a process with the Journey Map Builder.
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