An industrial designer once asked me “What differentiates a great product design from the many other less successful ones?”.
I paused for a while to ponder. One word came to mind. Empathy.
Understand in-depth the needs of the target users for your product is the foundation for successful product design. Knowing what truly are the problems they are facing, beyond the surface of what they say (in surveys, in focus group studies, superficial market research), will lay the seeds for innovation, for breakthrough product designs that solve their problems and address their needs. And that requires empathy. The product manager, the designer, the engineer, the team needs to spend considerable amount of time to observe, to experience the “lives” of their target users.
When the team is empathetic to the “pain points” and needs of the users, and combining their domain expertise, they will then better able to come out with solutions that solve the problems users faced, provide a product/service that is more effective, or reduces risk or is fun or make users feel delighted.
I’ve been practitioner of Design Thinking for many years, even before I first got to know formally about this design and innovation methodology that has helped companies like Apple and IBM created global successes. Not surprisingly, empathy is the first step of the Design Thinking process.
Khengwah Koh
Principal Consultant
Askvisor Consulting