8-hour Workshop · On-site · In-person
Designing for Empathy
Overview
In this live full-day, in-person workshop, you'll learn how to understand your users well and turn that understanding into better design decisions. We'll practice methods that go further than surface-level personas, so you can see the emotions, motivations, and challenges behind how people experience your product.
You'll leave with practical techniques for empathic research and for building empathy maps your team will actually use, plus ways to keep users at the center of your design process. It works whether you're improving an existing product or starting fresh.
Live, in-person workshop
On-site, wherever you are
One full day, or two half days
4 to 12 participants
Certificate of completion
What changes after this workshop
- Your team bases design decisions on real user insight.
- You know what to do with the research insights you gather.
- Tradeoffs get easier when you have a clearer picture of what matters to your users.
- Your products feel more personal and intuitive to the people using them.
- Cross-functional teams set priorities around user needs instead of internal preferences.
What you leave with
- An empathy map template customized to your team's product and context
- An interview guide for conducting empathic user research
- A synthesis framework for turning raw research into design direction
- An insight-to-action checklist for translating findings into features
- A set of empathy prompts to use in design critiques and reviews
- A certificate of completion for each participant
Workshop alumni include designers and design leaders from a long list of great companies.
Choose this workshop if...
- Your designs are functional but feel distant or generic to users
- You have user research but struggle to turn it into design decisions
- Your team relies too heavily on assumptions or outdated personas
- You want to build a culture where user understanding drives every decision
Not a fit if...
- You're looking for quantitative research methods. This workshop is about qualitative depth.
- You need help defining design principles. Check out our Design Principles workshop instead.
- Your team has no access to users. You'll need at least some user contact to apply the methods.
Presentation
Split Up
Full Group
Sharing Sessions
Kick-off
Introduction to Empathic Design
Kick-off
The Empathy Spectrum
Session 1
Understanding User Emotions
Session 1
Cognitive vs. Emotional Empathy
Session 1
Empathy Mapping Deep-Dive
Session 1
Sharing Insights
Break or continue next day
Session 2
Recapping Session 1
Session 2
From Insight to Action
Session 2
Designing Inclusive Experiences
Session 2
Validating with Users
Session 2
Your Empathy Toolkit
Wrap-Up
Q&A
Facilitator
For more than a decade, we've argued for design that cares about the people who use it.
We've worked with companies like Unity, GetYourGuide, Shopify, Coinbase, and many others. What we learned there shapes our own design work and what we teach designers at every level about making things that mean something to their users.
Incomparable
Designer · Teacher · Public Speaker
We had years of user interviews sitting in docs no one read. After this workshop, we finally knew what to do with them. Our next feature shipped with half the iteration cycles.
Maya Chen
VP of Product Design, Consumer Fintech
After the intro call
Tailored agenda
We send you a customized agenda based on what we discussed, along with a quote.
Review and confirm
You review, request any adjustments, and confirm the dates that work for your team.
Workshop day
We show up ready to go. You just need a room and your people.
Straightforward, transparent pricing
Before you pay a dime for the workshop, we schedule a 30-minute intro call to learn what your team needs and tailor the content to it. That way the day is spent on the problems your team actually has.
Travel costs
Based on the distance between your location and your facilitator.
Up to 10 participants
Workshop cost
$6,000 USD
Travel
Variable
Total
Starting from $6,699 USD
11 to 20 participants
Workshop cost
$6,000 USD
Travel
Variable
Larger group
+ $1,000 USD
Total
Starting from $7,699 USD
Written follow-up
After the day, we send a document of what your team agreed on, applied to a few screens from your own product. It's part of the fee.
Credited toward a partnership
Start a design partnership within 60 days and we take the workshop fee, minus travel, off your first invoices.
Any questions in the room?
You probably have a few questions by now. The common ones are below, and we can go through anything else on the intro call.
We spend 30 minutes learning about your team's challenges, goals, and context. We'll recommend the right workshop, answer your questions, and explain how we tailor the content. We won't pitch you, and if it's not a fit, we'll tell you.
After the intro call, we adjust the case studies, exercises, and examples to match your product, team size, and specific challenges. You'll receive a customized agenda before we lock in dates.
Very little. We'll send a short pre-workshop questionnaire to gather context. On the day, you just need a room, a whiteboard or sticky notes, and your team. We bring everything else.
Most workshops work best with a mix of designers, product managers, and design leadership. Some teams also include engineers, researchers, or key stakeholders. We'll help you figure out the right group during the intro call.
Yes, but the format changes. For groups larger than 20, we split into parallel tracks with multiple facilitators or run consecutive sessions. Pricing changes with the format, and we can work it out on the intro call.
We strongly recommend in-person workshops. The hands-on exercises and group dynamics work best when everyone's in the same room. That said, we've run hybrid sessions for distributed teams. Reach out if you'd like to explore options.
The travel fee covers flights, accommodation, and local transport for the facilitator. It's one flat fee based on your region, so there are no extra expenses or receipts to review.
We invoice after you confirm the workshop date. Payment is due before the workshop takes place. We accept wire transfers and can accommodate most payment terms. If you need a PO or have procurement requirements, just let us know.
We don't allow full recordings, since much of the value comes from open discussion and participation. After the day, you get a written document of what your team agreed on, applied to a few screens from your own product, along with the templates and frameworks we used.
Yes. If your company requires an NDA before the intro call or workshop, send it over. We're happy to sign reasonable confidentiality agreements.
Cancellations more than 14 days before the workshop receive a full refund. Between 7 and 14 days, we offer a 50% refund or full credit toward a future date. Less than 7 days, we don't offer refunds, but we'll work with you to reschedule if possible.
Yes. Each workshop participant receives a digital Incomparable certificate. For a small additional fee, we provide sealed, card stock physical certificates.
Full-day, in-person workshop
Anytime · Wherever you are
Facilitated by Incomparable
On this page
Book a 30-minute intro callNo commitment. We'll tailor the agenda to your team.
Not the workshop you were looking for?
We also run these workshops on rotation.
8-hour workshop
From $6,000 + travel