[Sigia-l] Personas vs. Audience Analysis

[Lada Gorlenko]

DS> I'm starting to be of the mind that empathy is less important in
DS> personas than is understanding. I can empathize with your situation,  
DS> but unless I understand it, perhaps more fully than you do yourself  
DS> (seeing the latent needs and the bigger picture perhaps), I might not  
DS> be able to design a solution. Empathy can only go so far and it leads  
DS> down the path of personas with fictionalized bios.

Interesting observation. That's very much the way a mind of a
counselling psychologist works [it was my original training, so I 
speak from some experience]. You analyse -> synthesise -> build a
solution; empathy should stay close to average for a normally
functioning human being towards another human being, but nothing
particularly empathic. Too much feeling muddles thinking, and as long
as we are in the business of creating viable solutions, thinking is
more important than feeling.

Lada