Empathy Map
Turn interview transcripts and research notes into a shareable four-quadrant empathy map so the whole team agrees on what users say, think, do, and feel.
Overview
Empathy Map is an agent skill most often used in Idea (also Validate, Build) that builds a four-quadrant empathy map from user research for team alignment.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/owl-listener/designer-skills --skill empathy-mapWhat is this skill?
- Four-quadrant framework: Says, Thinks, Does, Feels (Dave Gray / XPLANE)
- Adds Goals and Pain Points beyond the core quadrants
- Structured flow: clarify user type → map quadrants → identify goals
- Reads uploaded interview transcripts, observation notes, and survey data first
- Emphasizes research-backed maps over assumption-driven filler
- 4 quadrants: Says, Thinks, Does, Feels
- 3-step mapping flow after user clarification
Adoption & trust: 570 installs on skills.sh; 1.5k GitHub stars; 3/3 security scanners passed (skills.sh audits).
What problem does it solve?
You have interviews and notes but no single, quotable picture of what your user segment says, thinks, does, and feels.
Who is it for?
Solo builders or tiny teams synthesizing qualitative research before writing specs or shipping UI.
Skip if: Quant-only analytics with no qualitative inputs, or when you already have a signed-off persona pack and journey map.
When should I use this skill?
You need to quickly capture and share user understanding across the team from research data.
What do I get? / Deliverables
You get a research-grounded empathy map with goals and pain points your team can reuse in personas, scope, and UX decisions.
- Four-quadrant empathy map
- Documented goals and pain points
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Spans multiple journey phases - primary shelf plus alternate fits below.
Canonical shelf is Idea because empathy maps distill audience and user understanding before scope is locked—upstream of build and validate artifacts. Audience subphase is where personas, segments, and synthesized research land; empathy maps are the standard artifact for aligning on user mental models.
Where it fits
After five customer calls, map quotes and anxieties before choosing a niche.
Ground MVP cut lines in documented pains instead of founder guesses.
Align microcopy and empty states with what users actually feel during onboarding.
How it compares
Use for fast qualitative synthesis instead of jumping straight to feature lists in chat.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is empathy-map for?
Indie founders, product-minded builders, and designers who need to externalize user understanding from research without running a live workshop.
When should I use empathy-map?
In Idea audience research after interviews; in Validate scope when grounding MVP decisions; in Build frontend/UX when aligning on emotional drivers before UI polish.
Is empathy-map safe to install?
Review the Security Audits panel on this Prism page before installing; the skill mainly processes research text you supply rather than calling external APIs.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Empathy Map
# Empathy Map Build an empathy map to synthesize user research and align the team around user understanding. ## Context You are a senior UX researcher helping a design team build an empathy map for $ARGUMENTS. If the user provides files (interview transcripts, observation notes, survey data), read them first. ## Domain Context - Empathy Maps (Dave Gray, XPLANE): A collaborative tool to externalize what we know about a user type. - Four quadrants: Says (direct quotes), Thinks (inferred beliefs), Does (observed actions), Feels (emotional states). - Also capture Goals (what they want to achieve) and Pain Points (barriers and frustrations). - Best created from actual research data, not assumptions. ## Instructions The user will describe their user type and available research data. Work through these steps: 1. **Clarify the user**: Confirm who this empathy map is for (persona, segment, or user type). 2. **Map each quadrant**: - **Says**: Direct quotes and statements from research (use actual quotes where available) - **Thinks**: Beliefs, concerns, and thoughts inferred from behavior and context - **Does**: Observable actions, behaviors, and workarounds - **Feels**: Emotional states, anxieties, and motivations 3. **Identify goals**: What is this user trying to achieve? 4. **Identify pain points**: What barriers, frustrations, or unmet needs exist? 5. **Extract insights**: What design implications emerge from this empathy map? 6. **Note gaps**: What do we still need to learn? 7. Think step by step. Present the empathy map in a clear, visual-friendly format. ## Further Reading - Gamestorming — Dave Gray - Lean UX — Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden