The empathy map
Six boxes about one person. The tool below adds the question no template asks: was this note heard, or was it invented in a meeting room?
Short answer
What is an empathy map?
A six-box layout holding what you know about one person: says, thinks, does, feels, pains, gains. Its job is to make a team argue about a human being rather than about “users” — which only works if the notes came from a human being.
The short version
- The gap between says and does is the output. When the boxes agree, you asked and never watched.
- It is meant to describe one observed person, not a composite. The moment it is invented, it is a persona with extra boxes.
- A map built in a workshop is visually identical to one built from ten interviews, and gets used the same way.
- An empty quadrant is usually the one nobody asked about — and often where the surprise was.
Free · No signup · Nothing leaves your browser
Six boxes, and one question per note
Mark every note heard or imagined. That single switch is the difference between research and a persona — and it is the thing no empathy map template asks you for.
Says
Quotes. Their words, not your summary of them.
Thinks
What occupies them that they would not say out loud here.
Does
Observed actions. What you watched, not what they reported.
Feels
The emotion, named. Anxious about what, exactly?
Pains
Fears, frustrations and obstacles in their way.
Gains
What they want, and how they would know they got it.
Where these notes came from
- 33% imagined. Fine, as long as everyone reading the map knows which notes those are.
# EMPATHY MAP Date: 2026-09-12 Notes: 6 — 4 heard, 2 imagined (33%) ## Says [heard] The spreadsheet works fine for us ## Thinks [imagined] If I admit it is broken I will have to own fixing it ## Does [heard] Rebuilds the same pivot table every Monday morning ## Feels [heard] Resigned about month end, not angry ## Pains [heard] Two evenings gone every single month ## Gains [imagined] Leaving on time on the last Friday ## Problems ⚠️ 33% imagined. Fine, as long as everyone reading the map knows which notes those are. ## What this does NOT say An empathy map is a record of one person, or of a composite you assembled. It does not tell you how many people are like this, and a map of an invented person is indistinguishable in shape from a map of a real one. Checked with the free tool at https://gonogo.team/empathy-map
What this cannot know. How many people are like this one. An empathy map records a single person, or a composite you assembled — and a map of an invented person has exactly the same shape as a map of a real one, which is why the provenance switch is the only honest defence.
Notes come from customer interviews, and the Mom Test is how you keep the “says” box from filling up with compliments.
If most of your map is marked imagined, the next step is one real conversation. A 15-minute session ends with a written GO / WAIT / NO-GO and the reasoning behind it. Free tier, no card.
The failure nobody sees
Empathy maps fail in a specific and quiet way: they get filled in from memory and imagination, in a room with no customer in it, in forty productive minutes.
The resulting artefact is visually identical to one built from ten interviews. Same boxes, same sticky notes, same confident tone. It gets pinned to the same wall, quoted in the same planning meetings, and used to settle the same arguments — and nobody downstream can tell which kind they are looking at.
There is no clever fix for this, only bookkeeping: mark each note as heard or imagined when you write it, and keep the ratio visible. A map that is 30% imagined is useful and honest. A map that is 90% imagined is a persona, and knowing that changes what you are willing to decide with it.
Imagined notes are not forbidden — they are hypotheses, and hypotheses are how you know what to ask next. The damage comes from forgetting which ones they were.
The gap is the finding
The best pair of notes on any empathy map looks like a contradiction:
Says
“The spreadsheet works fine for us”
Does
Rebuilds the same pivot table every Monday morning
That pair says the problem is real and that the person has stopped noticing it — which is a much more useful thing to know than either note alone, and neither interview questions nor analytics would have produced it by themselves.
When says and does agree word for word, the usual cause is that you only asked. The tool above flags those echoes, not because agreement is forbidden, but because it is worth a second look before it goes on a wall.
What an empathy map cannot do
It cannot tell you how many people are like this. One map is one person. Five maps that rhyme are the beginning of a segment; one map is an anecdote with excellent presentation.
It cannot rank anything. Every note is the same size, and the trivial irritation sits next to the thing that loses them their job.
It cannot be checked by anyone else. Unless the provenance is written down, a reader cannot tell research from invention — which is the whole reason this version asks.
The notes have to come from somewhere
If most of your map is marked imagined, the honest next step is not a better map — it is a conversation with one real person.
A 15-minute session works through your idea across seven criteria, including whether the problem is real and whether anyone will pay, and ends with a written verdict and the reasoning behind it.
15 min · free tier, no card
Frequently asked questions
What is an empathy map?+
What is the difference between says and thinks?+
How do you fill an empathy map properly?+
What does it mean if says and does contradict each other?+
Is an empathy map the same as a persona?+
Is this tool free, and does my data leave the browser?+
Related guides