Design Thinking- Empathy and the Writing Process
In my second year of university, four years ago, I decided to take a class about the mindset and practice of Innovation. I remember this period of my life very vividly — I was deeply unsure of the direction I wanted to take post-graduation and was willing to try my hands at different things, with hopes that at least one would click. This Business School offering stood out to me, so I believed it was worth a shot. The class ran over a period of four months and as I expected, was very different from what I was used to considering my background as a pure Humanities student. This made it somewhat challenging, but it was exciting nonetheless. Although I did not eventually go on to become a Management Consultant like I considered at the time (thankfully lol!), taking the class was beneficial to me, as it was then that I was first introduced to the fascinating and transformative concept of Design Thinking.
Design Thinking is an approach to problem solving that seeks to provide innovative solutions to difficult, or as is commonly said in the business world — “wicked” problems. It is highly user-centric, as the entirety of the 5-phase Design Thinking process involves deeply understanding the needs of the end users, and the further development and refinement of ideas and solutions that directly address them. All 5 phases are important and necessary, but the one that has always stood out to me the most is the second — Empathise. Although Design Thinking is an approach very commonly used for technology and business related problems, I have overtime come to see how this principle, which has birthed some of the world’s innovative products and services, can equally be applied by writers like me.
Empathy is the ability to understand and share in the emotions and feelings of another person. Essentially, to put yourself in their shoes. Empathising is a crucial starting point for Design Thinking because by thoroughly understanding the needs, desires and pain points of the target market of a product or service, organisations are able to create the best possible solutions for them. Similarly, during the planning stage that occurs before writing begins, it is important to have a crystal clear understanding of who the intended readers are, as well as what they want to see. For this to happen, persona development, one of the components of the Empathising phase, is required.
Persona development involves the fictional representation of a person, who embodies the needs and interests of your larger target audience, which are both made known to the writer through research. For example, for an article intended to educate people about the Nigerian music scene, your persona, realistic or fictional, could be a foreigner planning on visiting the country for the first time, who would like to get familiar with the pop culture beforehand. This will give you an idea of what to cover in your article — top Nigerian artistes, trending playlists, nightlife locations across the country that play the best music, and so on. As depicted by this example, empathy is the first step into turning what you want to write, to what your audience wants to read.
As much as writing is an outlet for me to simply express my thoughts and opinions, I’m challenging myself to put a lot more thought into the planning process. And if you’re a writer, I’m challenging you to do the same as well! When creating written work — or anything intended for public consumption really, applying the Design Thinking principle of empathy can help ensure that it resonates with, and is useful and relevant to whatever audience you desire to reach.
Is this a standard part of your planning process, or you’re hearing of it for the first time and will be trying it out? Please share in the comments, I’d love to know. xx
