Some of the best lessons about users don’t come from design frameworks.
They come from the quiet, everyday experiences people carry with them.
I was once chatting with an intern on our team. She casually mentioned how much she learned about people while working in a retail store. Not from books or user interviews — but from dealing with real customers, day after day.
Reading their moods.
Understanding what they weren’t saying.
Finding patience when someone was difficult.
It wasn’t a formal training in empathy.
But it probably taught her more than any design course could.
It stuck with me.
We spend so much time creating personas, writing user stories, running research calls — and those are all important. But sometimes we overlook the quiet, lived experiences that shape how designers actually see people.
It made me think:
We talk a lot about “teaching empathy” in design. But maybe some of the best designers are already carrying that with them — from past jobs, side gigs, volunteer work, even just paying attention to the people around them.
The real work isn’t always about inserting empathy.
Sometimes it’s about surfacing the empathy that’s already there.
Why This Mattered to me
As I reflect on this, I’m learning to look beyond portfolios and case studies.
When someone joins the team, I try to ask:
“What outside of design has shaped the way you see people?”
It’s not always an obvious question, but it leads to some of the most interesting answers — and it tells me something about how they’ll approach design decisions when the stakes get real.
Some of the most grounded designers I know didn’t learn empathy in a design sprint or process.
They picked it up when no one was watching.