Empathy conversations are what designers call short, unstructured interviews, where you try to put yourself in the interviewee’s shoes, rather than maintaining an objective distance. 

Simply talking to people can reveal unique insights about their needs, beliefs, values, experiences, preferences, and motivations. You are trying to get people to tell stories and share emotions.

The conversations can be scheduled in advance (and held online, on the phone, or in-person) or they can be intercept encounters, where you catch people in a public space and ask them if they are willing to speak with you. Intercept encounters can be particularly useful if you want to talk with people about a particular physical space or service as they are using it.

The key to both planned and intercept conversations is to ask questions that evoke stories about people’s experiences. As you talk, try to delve deeper into what they are saying and why. 

A key point is that empathy conversations are not about informing the people you talk with, or promoting your products and services. It’s about listening and capturing. It’s a form of authentic engagement.

Connecting with users is inspiring, and empathy for people can serve as a compass for your team throughout a project. Some important things to remember are:

• Practice truly listening and picking up on comments to dig into further. This is a key difference from structured interviews, which have a pre-determined list of questions. Use your script as a guide only. Feel free to ask follow-up questions and see where they go.
• Test your assumptions and move beyond judgment. Ask yourself if you have any facts or evidence, or if it is based on a guess or intuition.‍
• Assume a beginner’s mindset and be willing to ask questions that you may think you already know the answer to.

Assign roles

Once you have some experience conducting empathy conversations, you may feel comfortable doing them on your own. But to start, try doing the conversations with three people:

• Role 1 - Lead: Does the interview, sets the pace, and asks the questions that guide the conversation. 
• Role 2 - Support lead: Supports the lead questioner by thinking of follow-up questions in case the lead gets stuck and following up on any interesting threads that the lead misses.
• Role 3 - Observer and scribe: Takes copious detailed notes, including any nonverbal cues, such as body language and emotions, especially those that might contradict or elevate any verbal responses.

Dividing roles in this way to start will make sure that you move into the synthesis stage with a wealth of human “data,” and that you don’t miss any important insights.

Building a script

While empathy conversations do not need to adhere to a strict set of questions and may veer in unexpected directions, you should still develop a few questions as a starting point. This will help you begin, especially if you are nervous, and help you stay on track with what you really want to learn more about.

Your script should include no more than 10 open-ended questions, and preferably only 3-4. You might also want to collect some basic demographic information (e.g., gender, nationality, age).

Running the conversation

Start by introducing yourself and the project, including why you want to talk with them. If it is an intercept encounter, be sure to ask if the person is willing to be interviewed first – before you take up too much of their time.  

You might want to have a short information sheet about your research that they can read (or you can read to them). Depending on the nature and subject matter of the conversations, you might also need to have a consent form that explains how your data will be used, confidentiality and any other important aspects of the project that the interviewees need to be aware of and agree to.

Now shift focus to the interviewee. Ask how their day is going and what they’ve been up to. You want to ease them into it. Gradually move into your questions, and ensure you keep to the time you’ve told them you will take.

When it’s time to wrap up, signal that the interview is over, but keep listening! Often people launch into a long, juicy story as they reflect on the interview experience. Be sure you have some sort of koha (gift) to thank them, even if it’s something as simple as a chocolate bar. 

Most importantly, be sure to thank them!

8 tips for effective empathy conversations

1. Encourage stories

The stories people tell reveal how they think about the world. Ask questions that get people talking about their experiences. For example, you might ask an international student: “Tell me about your most difficult experience during your time in Aotearoa”.

2. Ask “why” five times

Even if you think you know the answer, ask people why they do or say things. Sometimes the answers will surprise you. Avoid saying “usually” when asking a question. Instead, ask about a specific instance or occurrence (e.g., “Tell me about the last time you...”)

3. Ask neutral, open-ended questions 

“What do you think about our programme’s orientation?” is a better question than “Don’t you think our orientation is great?” The first question implies there is no right answer. The second one is leading and invites a yes/no answer.

4. Keep the questions short

Try to stick to ten words per question. This helps keep your discussion focused.

5. Ask one question at a time

Resist the urge to ask all of your burning questions at once. Let the interviewee talk.

6. Look for inconsistencies

These inconsistencies often reveal interesting insights. For example, a student might say they are feeling one way but their body language and expressions tell you something else.

7. Wait seven seconds before talking again

Sometimes silence is the best question – often people will fill it with unexpected insights. If they pause before answering, embrace the silence. Suggesting an answer can unintentionally influence people’s comments.

8. Test the test

Run through your questions with a colleague to check that your intended meaning aligns with their understood meaning. If not, tweak your questions.

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A journey map is a tool that visualises the experience of a person over time. It is often used to show the experience a customer has with a service or product, including searching for the product/service, booking and paying for it, using it, and offering feedback or considering using it again. 

A journey map can be used to identify pain points and opportunities for improvement, or to imagine future products and services.

Using journey maps in international education

Here is an example of a journey map created for international students in New Zealand by Study Auckland and Education New Zealand Manapou ki te Ao (2017). The map is intended to be a guide to specifically showcase: 

• how things impact students at different times in their journey 
• the main jobs or activities they are trying to get done at each stage 
• who and what they connect with to assist them 
• the difficulties they encounter (and therefore what opportunities exist for improvement)
• their overall emotional experience at each step in the journey.

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Source: Study Auckland and Education New Zealand (2017). International Student Experience Design Project. (https://www.aucklandnz.com/study-work-and-live/study/news/international-student-experience-design-project)

Activity: How could you use this map to design your own student journey? 

• Print out a very large copy of the map above and post it on a wall or table. 
• Now think about what your students are feeling, doing and thinking at each of these key moments. Use sticky notes to plot these on the map. Where are their main pain points? Where are the opportunities for improvement?
• Consider what changes to the journey map need to be made as a result of the recent pandemic and lockdowns. For example, is your student journey now more complex with online and/or offshore study options?
• Where are the key opportunities for imroving your student experience? Look for quick wins, as well as the biggest pain points for students. 
• You could also use this map to create a journey for staff at your institution, especially if you want to improve your own internal systems and processes. Follow the same steps above, but this time think about what staff are thinking, feeling and doing at each stage. Where are the main pain points and opportunities for improvement for them?
• You could also create a “future-state” journey map for students and/or staff. This map would visualise the potential experience that students could have with a new or improved programme.

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This topic has explained how two human-centred innovation tools can be used to improve the experience that you offer international students. The following resources may be useful for readers who want to learn more about other similar tools.

IDEO (2015). The field guide to human-centred design

Miro Customer Journey Map template

Oblo and POLI.design. Service design tools. An on-going project bridging academic research and professional practices in service design.

Stickdorn, M et al (2018). This is service design doing.

Study Auckland and Education New Zealand (2017). International Student Experience Design Project. (https://www.aucklandnz.com/study-work-and-live/study/news/international-student-experience-design-project)

‍TheyDo Customer Journey Mapping tool