The Empathy Overhaul Workshop

Last week at Finalsite University Taipei, I had the opportunity to present my newest bespoke workshop designed to help schools develop deeper audience empathy. Every school’s marketing can benefit from this approach—while it takes an investment of time, the clarity it brings to your communications is well worth it. To read more about empathy in school marketing, check out our post: Clarity for Community: Stronger School Connections Through Empathy.

If you have any questions, want a customized version for your school, or would like School ID to facilitate the workshop, let us know!

This workshop is designed to help your team develop a deeper understanding of your audience. Ithrough a two-phase process:

• Phase 1: Internal Hypothesis–Your team maps out assumptions about key audiences.
• Phase 2: Listen and Validate–You test those assumptions through real conversations and refine your findings.

This process encourages you to think critically about your audience’s motivations and then validate those insights through direct engagement. The interviews will also strengthen listening skills, making you more attuned to audience needs.

While every audience is unique, patterns will emerge. These insights will help shape your marketing, communications, and branding strategies in ways that truly resonates. Most importantly, keep listening. Pay attention to conversations at events, questions from parents, and informal feedback. Your personas and empathy maps should be living documents, evolving as you gain new insights.

Estimated Time: 3 hours
Goal: Create a working hypothesis about your audience’s motivations, emotions, and decision-making process.

1. Print the worksheets in A3 format or larger to allow for easy collaboration.
2. Bring together your communications team and other staff involved in marketing and messaging.
3. Choose two or three key audience segments and use the Persona Worksheet to create a profile for each.
4. Collaborate to make informed assumptions about their motivations, challenges, and decision-making process.
5. After completing the personas, use the Empathy Map to explore how their perspectives, emotions, and behaviors change at each stage of their journey.

Review your findings as a group and refine them into interview questions to test in Phase 2. These questions will help confirm or challenge your assumptions in Phase 2. Ask about how their perspectives shift over time to track key changes in their journey.

Estimated Time: Varies, but expect multiple interviews or discussions.
Goal: Gain real insights to refine your personas and empathy maps.

1. Conduct Interviews – Use your Phase 1 questions as a guide, but remain flexible. Listen for key themes, emotions, and unexpected insights. Ask open-ended questions, and take notes on both what is said and how it is said.
2. Analyze and Adjust – Compare findings to your initial assumptions. Identify patterns, then update personas and empathy maps accordingly.
3. Turn Insights into Action – Summarize findings into visual reminders such as posters, internal guides, or reference sheets to keep audience insights visible. Use these to align marketing, admissions, and leadership around a clearer, shared understanding of your audiences.

Review your findings as a group and refine them into interview questions to test in Phase 2. These questions will help confirm or challenge your assumptions in Phase 2. Ask about how their perspectives shift over time to track key changes in their journey.