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Empathy Interviews Protocol

By

Stacey Caillier

PUBLISHED October 31, 2021

PUBLISHED October 31, 2021

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Goal:  To gain a deeper understanding of a user’s experience of the issue you are working on.

Norms for Empathy Interviews:
  • Seek to understand, not confirm
  • Ask once, clearly 
  • Ask questions that elicit stories and feelings
  • PROBE: “Tell me more…”  “What was that like for you?”
Prep for Interviews (15 min):

What questions could you ask a student/practitioner/stakeholder to understand their experience of your group’s problem/issue, and the factors contributing to it?

  • Question Selection/Brainstorm  (3 min):  Individually, review the questions below. Adapt these or generate a few questions of your own.
  • Share & Organize (5-10 min):  As a group, identify/organize your top 5-6 questions. Will they help you understand what makes X challenging, or when students experience success (i.e. the root causes you need to address)?
  • Predict & Plan (3 min): Each person shares one thing they think they will hear. If you are doing the interview with a partner, decide who will interview and who will take notes.
Consider these possible Empathy Interview Questions (ones in bold highly recommended!):
  • What is one word you would use to describe how you feel about X?
  • Tell me about a time when you felt successful in X…
    • What happened? What made this a success? (What did you do? What did others do?)
  •     Tell me about a time when you X was hard… 
    • What happened? How did that feel? Why was that hard? What do you wish would have happened? 
  • What advice would you give another student/person about X?
  • What advice would you give to me about X?
  • What do you wish others knew about X?
  • Suppose you could have three wishes to make X the best it could be. What would they be, and why?
  • What do you wonder about X, or wish you knew?
  • Draw me a picture of what you think about when you hear X… (then “Tell me about what you drew.”)

Click here for this protocol in document format

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