1. Empathy Map
What It Is: A simple visual tool that captures what a person thinks, feels, sees, hears, says, and does to reveal their needs, emotions, and hidden barriers.
LXD Application: Perfect for kicking off a project and aligning everyone around the real human behind the learning need. It helps teams move past assumptions (“they’re unmotivated”) and uncover actual needs and blockers.
How-To:
- Pick one audience segment.
- Use the XPLANE structure.
- Fill it together with stakeholders.
- Discuss the insights gained.
What I Like: It shifts conversations fast. Really. People suddenly stop thinking in “content” and start thinking in “context.” And, they become aware about their assumptions. 😉
2. AEIOU Framework
What It Is: An observational method from ethnography that organizes what you see in the field into five categories: Activities, Environments, Interactions, Objects, and Users.
LXD Application: Useful for understanding how people actually work, not how stakeholders imagine they work. Helps you map workflow friction points and design learning that fits into real environments.
How-To:
- Observe or interview a practitioner.
- Note everything under AEIOU
- Cluster patterns.
- Use them to challenge assumptions in your kickoff or concept phase.
What I Like: It makes reality very visible and cuts through “we’ve always done it this way”. And, you realize, everybody has their own way. So it’s time to bring some structure 😄.
3. Journey Map
- Pick a scenario (I once used it to improve the UX of a very old, clunky LMS).
- Map steps chronologically.
- Add emotions, needs, questions, frustration points.
- Identify moments where support truly matters
What I Like: It creates a shared picture of reality and stops teams from designing isolated learning “events.”
4. 5 Whys
LXD Application: The 5 Whys help you guide the conversation to get to the underlying performance issue, choose the right intervention and avoid creating unnecessary content.
This is where the 5 Whys get tricky. You don’t want to sound inquisitive or confrontational. “Why?” can make people defensive. In practice, you’ll substitute “why” with “what” most of the time to ask questions that feel curious rather than critical.
- Why is this training needed?
- Why are people making mistakes?
- Why are they skipping steps?
- Why does this take so long?
- Why isn’t this working?
- What makes this necessary right now?
- What’s leading to these mistakes?
- What makes them skip steps in practice?
- What slows people down?
- What happens right before things go wrong?
5. User Stories
What It Is: A simple, user-centered requirement format that expresses who the person is, what they need to do, and why the outcome matters. User Stories are the smallest building blocks of larger agile development frameworks, but for our purpose they’re are a very handy template.
LXD Application: Great when SMEs can’t quite articulate what people need. It translates vague ideas into actionable design criteria.
- How-To:
Use the classic template: “As a [role], I want to [task], so that I can [outcome].” - Validate the story: Is it real? Is it relevant? Is it behavior-changing?
Example: As a customer service agent, I want to de-escalate difficult calls effectively using a clear process, so I can resolve issues without escalating to a supervisor.
What I Like: It cuts through complexity and exposes unclear goals immediately.
These five methods won’t magically solve every project challenge, but they will help you design with more clarity and empathy. Even using just one of them can shift stakeholder conversations, challenge assumptions and surface real needs, leading to learning experiences that actually support people.
Try one in your next project, you’ll see how the conversation changes!
design thinking can level-up your next projecT!
Reach out. I love helping L&D teams design learning that feels human, grounded, and actually useful.
