Reference table
Empathy map vs user persona
A five-row comparison of empathy maps and user personas: what each focuses on, what goes in, what comes out, when to use it and how the two relate. It helps teams that mix them up, or jump straight to personas with no maps underneath. The usual order is interviews, then a map for each interview, then personas drawn across the maps.
Where this appears
What's in this reference table
| Empathy map | User persona | |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Emotional and behavioral depth | Representative user profile |
| Input | Qualitative observations from research | Synthesized patterns across user segments |
| Output | Shared understanding of a specific experience | Reusable reference character |
| Best used for | Synthesizing research sessions | Communicating user segments to stakeholders |
| Relationship | Feeds into persona creation | Informed by empathy maps |
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<a href="https://www.koji.so/visuals/empathy-map-vs-user-persona-table"><img src="https://www.koji.so/visuals/empathy-map-vs-user-persona-table/empathy-map-vs-user-persona-table.png" alt="Table comparing empathy maps and user personas by focus, input, output, best use and how the two feed each other." width="1200" height="695" /></a>
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.koji.so/visuals/empathy-map-vs-user-persona-table">Empathy map vs user persona</a>, Koji</p>
