This document outlines the steps taken to empathize with and define a problem statement for a student who works part-time. It describes conducting an interview with a student friend to understand how he manages his time between studies and work. An empathy map is then created to understand this person's perspective. Finally, a problem statement is crafted that the student needs a better way to manage his limited time between college and work so he can focus on the most important and valuable activities aligned with his overall career goals.

1. DESIGN THINKING
ACTION LAB
Week 2 Assignment- Empathize and Define
Submitted By:
Shubham Singhal
Hyderabad, India

2. Steps
1. Prepare for the empathy work
2. Go out and Talk to the people
3. Empathy Map
4. Craft a problem Statement

3. Step 1. Prepare for the empathy work
• Who is getting interviewed?
Student who is also doing part time work
Number of people being interviewed: 2
Final analysis done on 1 interview, based on the quality of inputs from
2 interviews
• Who have you interviewed?
 A friend (classmate)
• Areas of conversation:
Time management
 Vision, mission and passion
 Driving force
Switching between job and studies
 Past working experience
 Working as per deadlines on deliverables

4. Step 1. Prepare for the empathy work
(Contd.) - Questionnaire
• How much time do you devote for studies and your work
daily?
• What is more important to you- money you are getting
from the work or the knowledge you get in the college?
• How do you manage between the two things?
• Do you loose out on the studies or in your work?
• How do you choose that the job you want to do(the
parameters)?
• How do you relate the theoretical knowledge you get in
college with the work done in office?
• How is your relationship with your manager and team
members?

5. Step 2: Go out and Talk to the people
• Interview was taken of a friend who is studying in my
class as well as working in a multi national company
• The questions (in the previous slide)were used along with
the common topics and his areas of interest to have a
discussion and get some insights from him
• During the discussion and interview, the focus was to find
what are the problems that he is facing and what are his
objectives

6. Step 3: Empathy Map
Say Think Do Feel
I attend my college lectures in the morning
Man, I am actually doing a
good job managing between
the two!
He talks very fast, in order to save
time
I feel so confident and strong
about my career
I go to office after my college lectures
I think and calculate the
opportunity cost of a task
He does multitasking, in order to
make most of the time
I am happy and proud of myself
of what I am doing
I do need to maintain the minimum attendance in
the college
I analyze what will I loose if I do
not do a particular thing
He uses a high end smartphone, so
that he can quickly respond to all his
calls, messages and emails and keep
himself udated about general affairs,
news and what all is happening
around him
I am moving too fast as
compared to some and too
slow as comared to other set of
people
I must complete all my deliverables at the office as
well
I do want a great career ahead
for myself
He is very particular about what to
do and what not to do.
I feel if I continue like this and if
I have an attitude of continous
learning and updating myself, I
will make something good out
of my career
I must keep my boss happy and also my team mates
should not feel that I do not devote much time in
office
I do think why is it that my
peers are not doing such things
I feel I can soon be driving my
favourite car and live in my
dream house
I focus on giving quality work in the office project
Am I abnormal or its just that I
am above normal?
I try to apply the concepts learnt in the classroom
into the professional and practical environment
I think I should be able to
achieve all that I aspire of and
live a happy life
It is difficult to swtich and manage between the 2
things
Sometimes I am not able to prioritize or decide
which is more important
Sometimes I feel like bunking both and go for a
movie instead! ;)

7. Step 4: Craft a problem Statement
• Components:
Stakeholder: Sudhakar (Name of the interviewee)
Adjectives to describe him: Curious, Keen learner, Visionary, Career
oriented, Extrovert
 Problem/Need: He needs a better mechanism to manage his time
well between the college studies and work
 Insight: He needs to prioritize on more important things based on
the value received from it or the objective achieved from it aligning
it with the ultimate objective as required (a good respectable job)
• Problem Statement:
‘Sudhakar needs a way to better manage his time
between the college studies and his work Because he
needs to focus on more important and valuable things
aligned with his overall goals and objectives.’