At Bam, we know how essential active listening is for understand the emotions of our users. These emotional signals offer us valuable insights into the reality of their experiences and us. allow us to make informed decisions to improve our products.

To progress in this practice, we have followed the training ofAntoine Pezé, an expert in the field. Here is my feedback on this afternoon that fascinated me!

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What is active listening ?

It is a communication skill that involves being fully attentive to what our interlocutor is saying. This requires close attention to what is being said, but also to nonverbal and emotional signals. The objective of this exercise is to create a relationship of trust with your interlocutor in order to reveal the needs associated with his emotions.

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Active listening in 4 key steps:

In order to better understand how to practice this communication technique, here are the different steps that I have retained:

1. Identifying emotion:It's about identifying an emotional sign, such as a silence, a gesture, or a particular voice intonation. The aim is to identify a moment that deserves to be explored further:“I feel like you were stressed out just now, am I wrong?”
2. Understanding emotion:Once you've identified an emotion, it's crucial to understand why it's happening. Ask questions to get a concrete example related to this emotion: “Can you give me a specific example of where you experienced this stress?”
3. Relating emotion to a need:Each emotion reveals a need. Once you've successfully established trust, it's time to discover the need behind what the person you're talking to is feeling. :“What would reassure you?”
4. Reformulate the need:This step allows the person to confirm if you understood correctly or to provide additional details: “So, if I understood correctly, to reassure you, you would need to...”

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From theory to practice

At the end of the afternoon, Antoine offered us to launch ourselves in the streets of the 17th arrondissement in order to practice in real conditions! In teams of two, we visited various businesses (pharmacists, bartenders, florists, security guards). Our objective was to describe the typical day of our interlocutor and to identify the emotions perceived at each stage.

For my part, I worked with Rizki, another designer, on the florists market. After a bit hesitant at first, we decided to go into a store. The first meeting was quite complicated: the person seemed quite busy with customers and was not receptive to our questions. Trust did not set in right away... Of the 3 shops visited, it was finally when we were interested in people from In a more personal way that we have finally learned that were worth digging!

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From field practice to the emotional user journey

When we returned from our expedition, Antoine asked us to transcribe our learning through a User Journey, focusing on the emotions we observed. This exercise made us realize the importance of connect the user journey to everything they might be feeling. This allows us to focus our thoughts on the most significant moments of emotional intensity, in order to identify opportunities and generate relevant questions about our product.

Example of a template for an emotional User journey shared during training. The “Feel” takes a significant place in this file, by associating emotions with concrete adjectives (vs. emojis on classic user journeys).

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Conclusion

I am delighted to have taken this course on active listening. I was able to develop my skills and became aware of the importance of listening in the design process. I've learned to really focus on the needs and emotions of users. This training also offers skills that can benefit everyone, whether in his professional or personal life, by improving his communication. There's nothing like extending your learning to other areas when possible!

And you, do you practice active listening in your jobs? You can Contact me to discuss it. And to find out more about the training, go see what does Antoine Pezé !

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