Empathic Interview
What is Empathic Interview about ?
“'Kindly let me help you or you will drown,' said the monkey putting the fish safely up a tree." --Alan Watts
In this short example you see that a good intention for helping is often not enough. Real solutions require clarity about what exactly is the core of the problem, how the problem is interwoven with other stakeholders and what the real needs or already lived best practice are. So a big part of innovating is about understanding the situation and asking the right questions to find good solutions that bring real benefit.
Empathic interviews help find out about that in an easy way, supporting connection and trust towards the people you design for and with. Empathic interviews are not meant to be used for statistics or scientific studies, therefore they don't need to be precise or representative. They are led with curiosity and the wish to get to know your interviewee, to understand their lives and very subjective perspectives.
Empathic interviews are
- a great start for a social innovation challenge;
- a wonderful source of inspiration for new ideas;
- a way to build up trust and connections; and
- open up your social innovation project for participation of the beneficiaries, which is highly empowering for them.
Thanks to IDEO for this graph and helpful tips
Audience
Is participant experience relevant for Empathic Interview ?
Requirements
Not specifically
Run Through
-Make sure to be clear about the purpose for the interview. Why do you want your group to contact others and find out about them? It is perfectly fine to use empathic interviews just for a first impression of a topic. Nevertheless the clearer the purpose is to everyone the easier you can use and integrate the collected material later on. (Just make sure that you don't unnecessarily narrow your perception by your preassumptions).
-Have either a few guiding questions prepared and written down on a flipchart or commonly collect helpful questions with the group after their briefing. Make sure your group sees the question just as an inspiration and encourage your group to be with their interviewees in the very moment and not give too much attention to the prepared questions. But sometimes prepared questions help to get started or have a general feel for the field in which they move.
-Depending on the target group you are planning to interview, it might be necessary to prearrange meetings. We had good experiences by just spontaneously asking people on the street or in the park -- people our participants met randomly. This allows more ease and spontaneity in the conversation than a prepared and prearranged session. But of course that only works with some target groups/topics.
Material for
A pen and a sketchbook for each participant. Alternatively you can use a few sheets of paper and a hard surface to write on (e.g. a clipboard or a book).
A digital camera or mobile phone camera for each pair is ideal but not required.
A printout of the interview recommendations.
For the harvesting: a pinboard or large wall to collect the insights, flipchart markers, and post-its in different colours (recommended size 12,5x7,5cm)
ERASMUS +
Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Program of the European Union. Find more information about the program and its goals here: https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/.
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
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