Empathy and the Design Thinking Process
When creating something, whether that be a website, a product or a service, the creators use the Design Thinking process to understand their users and build a plan around their needs. The first step in this process is the empathy stage.
Empathy in a general sense helps us see other people’s emotional and physical needs. It helps us understand what others see out in the world, how they react to certain things and how they interact with the world. When it comes to design thinking and how empathy plays a part in the design process, researchers and designers are interested in the why more so than the what.
“Unlike traditional marketing research, empathic research is not concerned with facts about people (such as their weight or the amount of food they eat), but more about their motivations and thoughts (for instance, why they prefer to sit at home watching TV as opposed to going out for a jog),” (Dam & Siang, 2020).
Undercover Boss
Season 2: Episode 4 Frontier Airlines
Frontier Airlines CEO Bryan Bedford goes undercover for this episode of Undercover Boss, which aired on Oct. 17, 2010.
Frontier is an airline company based in Denver, Co., and offers more than 650 flights a day from around the U.S. and Central America (2010). It is 1.6 billion dollar company and is a compilation of two other airlines – Republic and Mid-West Airlines. When the merger happened, there were layoffs within the company, and Bedford explained that employees were asked to a take a 10% pay cut.
With the merger, Bedford said that if 6,000 employees had not taken the pay cut, they would have lost their jobs. He goes on to talk about the stressful situation the company was in with the merger and how merging three companies together is difficult.
“It is the perfect time to go undercover and find out what are employees are thinking and feeling,” Bedford said.
The episode begins by highlighting Bedford’s family life. He is very spiritual and also talks about his sister’s death, which is what brought him close to God.
Bedford goes undercover as Richard Jacobs, an unemployed welder who is looking for a fresh start. He heads to Denver, Frontier’s home base, where 165 flights come and go each day.
Sue – Aircraft appearance coordinator | Denver
Sue is an enthusiastic worker who helps everyone around her get the job done and is happy while she is doing it. She makes jokes with Bryan and motivates him to move fast as her job is to clean the planes after they land in a short amount of time. Sue is helpful and informative and has a “hustle” and “get it done” attitude.
She explains how they (her and Bryan) have to get there right when the aircraft lands, she is helpful and informative but in a rushed way, she knows they are about to be busy. Sue always seems to be laughing and smiling and tries to make work fun.
She has two kids, a daughter, 29, and a son, who passed away at 21. She was born in Chicago and moved to Colorado because she thought it was safer.
Valerie – Cross-Utilization Agent | Oklahoma City
Valerie is a calm and caring Frontier employee. She began her day by showing Bryan how to marshal a landing plane into the terminal. Then, she heads to the luggage port and opens to latch to begin the unloading process. She explains that you must count the number of bags that board the plane to solidify the weight and distribution aspects of the plane taking off. In addition, the day with Valerie was very hot; Valerie said, “if I can handle it, he can handle it,” after the heat started getting to Bryan.
She moved to Oklahoma City from Hawaii and is also very spiritual. She loves to give back and work to help the less fortunate.
Tui – Flight Attendant
Tui is frustrated with Bryan right when their day begins. Bryan is being very talkative with the boarding passengers, and it slows down the boarding process. He becomes very frustrated with Bryan as he is talking too much, but he continuously tries to help Bryan and give him tips. Tui also is a flight attendant who likes to give the passengers an enjoyable experience. He explains the Frontier brand of “A Whole Different Animal” to Bryan.
In addition, he explains that he is barely making ends meet even though he works six days a week. He works hard for his family and is the father of eight children. He also explains that he would like their 10% pay cut brought back.
Hector – Lavatory Services
Hector explains to Bryan that they like to do their job right the first time and that safety is the number one priority. He explains that working extra time helps him out, but it is difficult. He advocates for his fellow employees and gets a little emotional about their dedication to the job and working hard. Hector explains that just a little bit more money goes a long way for people and that having a great attitude goes a long way.
Empathy Maps
Bryan Bedford as Richard
Bryan Bedford met with four different employees across the Frontier company and saw how each of them positively impacts the overall business each day. He saw the physical demand of the jobs, and he noticed that there is never enough time to truly do a good enough job from a sanitation aspect. The empathy map above shows his thoughts, feelings and actions while working with the four employees.
Tui – Flight Attendant
Tui is a flight attendant who knows Frontier’s message inside and out. He sells the brand well and helps to make every passenger’s flight a safe and enjoyable one. He is a good instructor and kept Bryan moving throughout the whole flight. Even when things got out-of-hand, Tui remained calm and helped Richard figure it out.
You can view my Empathy Map presentation below.
Recap & Conclusion
Bryan Bedford had a memorable experience being an undercover boss. He came back from four different jobs with a brand new outlook on his company. He knows they are doing ok, but they have a lot of work to do. He connected with each of the employees he worked with and saw how hard they work every day.
After meeting each of the four employees, he wanted to give something back to each of them. He gave Valerie $10,000 to the charity of her choice. He named an aircraft after Sue’s son. Hector received a vacation, and Tui received help paying for his son’s college. These kinds actions were really cool to see after Bryan’s experiences.
He saw how the pay cut impacted his employees, and he promised to phase out the pay cuts over the next three years.
“It’s easy to take hard work for granted. It’s another thing to get out of the office and experience it side-by-side.” – Bryan Bedford
References
Dam, R.F. & Siang, T.Y. (September 2020). Design thinking: Getting started with empathy. Interaction Design Foundation. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/design-thinking-getting-started-with-empathy
MAGGIE PRUITT 