That’s the first step. The phase where you talk to users, experts and collaborators. The part where it all gets laid out on the table before you start designing.
It doesn’t work without that part. The rest of the process relies on good intel from the empathy work. But empathy isn’t easy. There’s a reason it’s rare.
Shadowing, interviewing, observing. They’re all activities that take coordination and most importantly, risk. The risk that someone might think it’s weird. The risk that your preconceived notions were wrong.
Fortunately now is the best time to be wrong because you still have tomorrow. Better to be wrong today than a year from today.