We spoke to Michael Ventura about why AI can be helpful in initial research, but cannot replace physical presence and the experience of life of another to understand their life and needs.
What makes an experience meaningful? Questions & Empathy cards break down the seven archetypes of empathy.
We first heard about Michael Ventura, when his method of »Applied Empathy« was introduced to a wider German design audience at the – so I suppose – SEE Conference in Wiesbaden about a decade ago. I forgot about the conference’s details, but his New York based studio Sub Rosa launched a speaker series about empathy in design 2016 and published a method card set called »Questions & Empathy« a bit later, which was followed by a whole bestselling book on »Applied Empathy« in 2018.
Sub Rosa was acquired in 2017 and Michael finished his time as CEO during Covid-19-pandemia in 2020. The new owners closed the studio in 2022. Michael still works as an author, designer & inventor for clients in all branches. In times of »AI & Innovation«, we are inspired by his critical, yet open mind towards AI combined with his many years of experience as an interaction designer.
Mehr über die 7 Archetypen und die Methode von Michael Ventura erfahrt ihr in der neuen PAGE.
PAGE: Why is empathy so important to be innovative?
Michael Ventura: There is no leader at a company or a brand who doesn’t want to understand their consumers better. There’s always something to learn about their needs (met or unmet), their perceptions about the company, or its products/services. And the best way to understand consumers is to connect with them empathically. Truly seeking to understand them and what makes them tick is the holy grail of unlocking meaningful insights that can drive more successful innovation.
Why can’t AI be?
AI is a facsimile. A pastiche of humanity. But AI isn’t truly human. It can guess, and it will often guess correctly, about what a human might feel. But AI has heretofore never experienced true loss. It hasn’t grieved.
AI will always be cosplaying empathy
It hasn’t felt the surge of adrenaline from a first kiss. It doesn’t know the sensation you get in the back of your mouth when you eat something sour or what a hot shower on a cold day feels like. Until it does (and perhaps one day it will), AI will always be cosplaying empathy.
Can you please explain your method called Applied Empathy?
Applied Empathy helps us to practice empathy more effectively. There is a misconception that empathy cannot be trained. It can. And I’ve done it everywhere from academia, to corporations, to the military, to local communities. It takes work, and it isn’t always easy or comfortable, but it is something we can all do with the right tools.
Think of Applied Empathy as a toolkit, not a process.
Think of Applied Empathy as a toolkit, not a process. It’s a specific set of mindsets, behaviors, practices, and ways of being that help you step outside of yourself and truly endeavor to see someone else’s worldview.
What obligations do designers have in terms of empathy & in terms of AI?
Designers don’t have the luxury to self-indulge in their own taste the way fine artists are permitted. A fine artist makes their art (often) for the sheer creative act of doing it. For the idea. But designers, commercial artists if you will, must consider their audience more intently if they are to truly be effective. To design in a vacuum, devoid of other people’s insights or perspectives, will invariably lead to more narrow, less thoughtful work.
To design in a vacuum, devoid of other people’s insights or perspectives, will invariably lead to more narrow, less thoughtful work.
As for AI, it’s important to remember it’s a tool, not a solution. Don’t farm out your creativity. Don’t forestall inspiration seeking the best prompt. Get what you need from AI, then get back to doing the work yourself. It can be an accelerant to making work but it cannot be the antidote to all your needs.
HOW – to apply empathy in everyday design practice?
To steal from the late, great Alan Watts, »everyone wants to be interesting, but no one wants to be interested.« One of the most effective ways to bring empathy into your work is to forget about being the most interesting person in the room and instead, focus on being the most interested. Ask better questions. Listen intently. Ask follow up questions! Remember that most of the insights you’re seeking won’t come from you talking but from you paying attention.
Ask follow up questions! Remember that most of the insights you’re seeking won’t come from you talking but from you paying attention.
Many of the frameworks are also designed to not only use with others, but to use with yourself. Seeking self-knowledge and greater understanding of your interior world invariably helps to increase your capacity for empathy with others. To know how complex and Byzantine your inner self feels helps you realize that everyone, EVERYONE, that you see walking around is carrying a world equally as complex and ornate as yours. And if that’s not enough to motivate you to understand yourself and those around you better, I don’t know what is.
Can we merge AI in a meaningful way into this?
AI is helpful for initial research. For asking questions that might help spark your own thinking on a topic. For instance, if I was doing a project where I needed to understand the life of a Shinto priest, I might ask AI to tell me what a day in the life of a Shinto priest entails. What do they do when they rise? What sort of foods do they eat? How do they dress? These are all relatively objective questions that will give me objective answers. It’ll form the baseline of my understanding.
AI is helpful for initial research … But to truly understand the life of a Shinto priest, I must go to the temple.
But to truly understand the life of a Shinto priest, I must go to the temple. I must observe them. I must ask questions and fumble around like the clumsy human we all are when out of our comfort zones and see what life is really like. Then and only then will I be able to begin to understand the life of another.
What are the hurdles and how to overcome them?
Stop assuming you already know the answer. So many of us sit in a room, far away from others, and imagine or guess at the answers instead of getting away from our machines and our preconceived biases and actually going out into the big wide world and finding the answers we are seeking.
Stop assuming you already know the answer.
What are the results of Applied Empathy?
I always tell clients you don’t want to measure empathy, you want to measure the impact of applying empathy. For example, you can look at how practicing empathy improves your ability to recruit and retain better talent. Or how customer satisfaction or product/market fit improves when you apply these methods to your work. These are the metrics that truly matter, not if you’re activating the empathic centers of your brains.
You don’t want to measure empathy, you want to measure the impact of applying empathy.
