Designing with Empathy at the Core

Here, I’m chronicling a professional journey (from grad school to my time at Hargrove Inc and Storycraft Lab), gaining expertise in crafting tools and frameworks for empathy-driven design. Understanding human preferences and behaviors—beyond traditional demographic approaches—is essential for creating experiences that truly resonate, foster connection, and inspire action. By dedicating energy to this work, I aim to bridge the gap between data and design, ensuring that human-centered solutions honor individuality while enabling deeper engagement and belonging.

In 2019 I helped develop the "Mindsets" framework. This tool was designed to encapsulate varying styles of engagement that attendees might bring to an event. Instead of relying on traditional demographic data, we identified and illustrated ten profiles, each representing unique learning and interaction preferences.

This framework allowed us to shift the design narrative toward preferences and behaviors. It wasn’t just about identifying traits but about empowering attendees to actively engage with their "Mindset." We created an activation that included:

Interactive displays, badge buttons, and reflection prompts to foster self-discovery.
Custom graphics and materials, such as the Mindset card decks, to serve as tools for planners and attendees alike.

The activation became a touchpoint for human-centered design, showcased at events like the Marriott Trend Rooms in Denver and PCMA Convening Leaders in San Francisco. Attendees could explore their Mindset, engage with case studies that matched their style, and reflect on their experiences in real-time.

Advancing Empathy-Centered Methodologies

2020 marked a turning point in this work. The pause on in-person events instilled an opportunity to delve deeper into human preferences. Building on the principles of the "Mindsets" framework, we developed the first iteration of the Experience Profiles™ (which initially started with names like Empathy Profiles and Mindframes).

These profiles were grounded in established academic models and organized into four quadrants of preferences. Each quadrant represented a mix of:

Social engagement styles – how individuals interact and communicate.
Interpretive lenses – how they process and connect to information.
Learning preferences – what inspires and motivates them to act.
Leadership tendencies – how they thrive in team dynamics.

Our first virtual workshops tested these profiles, refining them through focus groups with industry professionals. Feedback from these sessions emphasized the profiles' potential as a strategic tool for planners, event designers, and teams to map experiences to their audiences' diverse needs.

Scaling and Customizing for Belonging

After expanding the Experience Profiles™ to six distinct profiles based on data from virtual and real-world activations, our collaboration with Google Xi provided a critical opportunity to test and refine the methodology in meaningful ways. Through this partnership, we were able to:

Develop a customized onboarding platform to introduce attendees to their profiles and preferences pre-event.
Create physical assets, such as Trail Guides and badge stickers, to encourage active engagement during the event.
Establish a process for assessing experience gaps, using the profiles to ensure that all attendees’ needs were thoughtfully considered.

These advancements reinforced the versatility and impact of the Experience Profiles™ while establishing a repeatable methodology for audience advocacy and belonging-centered design. The tools and insights gained through this partnership have since been carried forward, shaping future applications and fostering inclusive environments where attendees feel recognized and supported.