EA Voices

<p><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>What interests me is that in many cases success in our work is not about the content per se (see </span><a style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;” title=”From Business Design to business Change” href=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/blog/from-business-design-to-business-change-1-the-content-paradox/#Blog series: business design to business change”>post #1 </a><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>of this series). Let me start this blog by recommending a somewhat strange, but brilliant and award winning movie ‘</span><a style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;” title=”1999 American comedy-fantasy film written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Spike Jonze” href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Being_John_Malkovich”>Being John Malkovich</a><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>’. It is – quite literally – about entering the head of John Malkovich. This is exactly what I try to keep in mind when meeting new clients. Seeing reality through John’s eyes. It became my associative reminder: “Be John Malkovich,  be </span><em style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>[Client’s Name]</em><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>! “.</span></p><p><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”> </span></p><div class=”captionImage left” style=”width: 214px;”><img class=”left” src=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/assets/BlogDocuments-2/Being-john-malkovich.png” alt=”Being John Malkovich” title=”There is not one reality” width=”214″ height=”317″/><p class=”caption”>Be aware of the subjective reality in business change</p></div><p> </p><p><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>Although of interest, I do not just mean diving into the requirements regarding my client’s business problem – this is all content. What I mean is taking it a step further. What drives my client? What are his/her fears or frustrations? What are his/her shortcomings? What is the meaning of this context for my design approach? I have experienced that having a somewhat deeper understanding of my client’s pain and gain (see below) pays off. It has improved my approach towards a business solution and has helped me gaining trust and acceptance. The Empathy Map below has, apart from my John-motto of course, helped me in changing my perspective.</span></p><h2>The Empathy Map</h2><p>The Empathy Map is a technique developed by <a title=”Go to the EXPLANE website” href=”http://www.xplane.com/”>XPLANE</a> and presented in the book <a title=”Book: business Model Generation” href=”http://www.amazon.com/Business-Model-Generation-Visionaries-Challengers/dp/0470876417/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1280587028&amp;sr=1-1″>Business Model Generation</a>. It looks like this:</p><p></p><div class=”captionImage leftAlone” style=”width: 600px;”><img class=”leftAlone” src=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/assets/BlogDocuments-2/_resampled/resizedimage600456-empathy-map-for-business-design.png” width=”600″ height=”456″ alt=”” title=””/><p class=”caption”>Empathy map</p></div><p>The Empathy map is most often used to develop imaginary client profiles for customer segments. I used it for the first time in the field of <a title=”Business Model Management” href=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/consultancy/business-model-management/”>business model management</a>. I find it equally powerful for existing individual clients. It is a collaborative tool for teams (workshops) but I use it for myself on the back of a napkin as well. The following is what I do to get inside my client’s head. Please note I adjusted some of the standard questions in the technique to fit my purpose here: </p><p><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>1. Tape a big flip over sheet to the wall, in landscape orientation;</span><br/><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>2. Draw the head of the manager in the centre – with resembling characteristics for more empathy, and fun – and draw the template around it, with keywords. You can also download the </span><a style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;” title=”Download the empathy map poster in PDF” href=”http://ebookbrowse.com/empathy-map-poster-pdf-d341627585″>empathy map poster template</a><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”> </span><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>and print a poster;</span><br/><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>3. Enter the client’s head and answer the following questions one by one by placing sticky notes on the sheet (in this order).</span></p><div><span style=”font-size: xx-small;”><img class=”left” src=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/assets/BlogDocuments-2/_resampled/resizedimage600279-empathy-map-questions-for-business-design.png” alt=”Empathy map questions” title=”Ask these quentions about your client” width=”600″ height=”279″/></span></div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><span style=”font-size: xx-small;”><br/></span></div><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>4. Analyse the results above, and answer the following questions:</span></p><p><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”><img class=”left” src=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/assets/BlogDocuments-2/_resampled/resizedimage600172-empathy-map-final-questions-for-business-design.png” alt=”Empathy map questions” title=”Final quentions about your client” width=”600″ height=”172″/></span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”><br/></span></p><h2><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>The result</span></h2><p>Below I present a case I made anonymous. Let us call my client Kees – team manager, 62 years old, insurance company, 5000+ employees, big change ahead. The result could look like this:</p><p> </p><div class=”captionImage left” style=”width: 600px;”><img class=”left” src=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/assets/BlogDocuments-2/_resampled/resizedimage600463-Results-empathy-map-Alex-Hendriks2.png” alt=”Empathy map result” title=”This is what is inside your clients head!” width=”600″ height=”463″/><p class=”caption”>If you’re working on buniess change, you should know what is inside your clients head</p></div><p>By entering the head of Kees for about an hour, I changed my perspective and gained some valuable insights for consulting him in the design and change challenges in his project.</p><p>Please share your experiences and ideas on this with me at <a title=”E-mail Alex” href=”mailto:a.hendriks@bizzdesign.com”>a.hendriks@bizzdesign.com</a>, or leave a comment. </p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>