Empathy map for the Stanford Online Design Thinking Action Lab course.

1. Middle aged mother of 3 who gave up a very successful
career in the medical management �ield to raise a family.
Graduated from college with a BA in Business
Administration while working full time then put career on
hold immediately after receiving degree over a decade
ago. Self made career. Worked way up from regular employee
through management chain. Highly respected in her �ield.
Attended college to legitimize professional position.
Professional with outdated educational
background needs a way to update skill set because
academic experience has lost relevance for today’s
modern workplace.
As the workplace evolves and jobs that didn’t even exist a few years ago
become commonplace highly speci�ic educational programs rapidly lose
value. Technological con�idence has become at least as important as
acquired knowledge. Learning can no longer be compartmentalized into a
time boxed duration. What value is an education with a shelf life?
—THINK—
Distance from safety of learning
environment hinders new skills
Equates youth with technical af�inity
Wants very much to close skills gap but
feels that it is an insurmountable
obstacle
Unable to use earlier con�idence and
success as a foundation
Wonders what value she brings to the
table and plays down prior successes as
no longer “relevant”
—FEEL—
Afraid of making technical mistakes
Takes inability to learn new skills and
concepts quickly as a sign of failure
Deep down knows that she has
professional value but struggles to
project con�idence
Wants very badly to duplicate earlier
academic success but feels she has
missed the boat
Very proud of having raised a family but
has professional regrets
—DO—
Discomfort with technology, gets
frustrated by unfamiliar software
Dismissing suitable positions out of
hand due to self-perceived limitations
Goes straight to skills required on all job
listings
Not comfortable discussing skills gap,
defensive about what she “doesn’t
know”
Guarded language and posture when
discussing topic
—SAY—
Education has moved on from book
learning to computer learning
15 years ago anyone would be lucky to
get me as an employee but today I don’t
have the technical skills
Even the way you manage people has
changed
Basic skills haven’t changed, but the
advanced skills have
If I was hiring someone I would hire a
new graduate over me
OBSERVE INFERSTAKEHOLDER
PROBLEM STATEMENT INSIGHTS
Mark Congiusta, Design Thinking Action Lab, 8/5/13