Hey, everyone, and welcome to Developer Team. My name is Jonathan Cottrell, and in today's episode, we are talking about empathy. Before we jump into today's episode, I want to take a moment and celebrate with you a huge milestone. As I already mentioned on Wednesday, we passed a huge milestone for this show. We passed 5 million unique listens, 5 million unique listens over the life cycle of this podcast. The stats are somewhat off, but by this time, that little bit of margin of error that the stats give us is certainly surpassed. And I just want to thank you all for listening to this show on such a regular basis. Coming back week after week, the same people, most likely the same people, are coming to listen to this show. Each and every episode. So thank you so much for subscribing. I want to ask you to share this with someone that you think will appreciate it. You know, there's 5 million listens, but there are certainly more people who could get value out of Developer Team, and the way that they're going to find out about this show is you. This show is in your hands in some ways more than it is in my hands. So take a few minutes. Think about who you think may appreciate it. If you think you're going to appreciate the values, the messages, even the sponsors that we have on this show, maybe think about a specific episode that impacted you and share that with someone else. And that's how you can help this show continue and go to the next 5 million unique listens. Thank you so much for listening to this show and getting us past that 5 million listen landmark. Today's episode is going to be no different than the other episodes this show exists once again. Because I want to start conversations. I want to build discussions through a short format podcast. The podcast is usually between 10 and 20 minutes long at this point. Sometimes we have longer episodes, particularly the interview episodes. If this is your first episode, this is a more typical length for an episode today. And really, we're focusing on one topic today. That topic is empathy. I want to take a second and describe. To you what some people think empathy is empathy for most people is feeling the pain of another person so much so that you almost experience that pain for yourself. A lot of times people use empathy as a word to describe someone who is easily affected by another person or is otherwise highly emotionally intuitive and a lot of times empathy is a word to describe a person who is easily affected by another person or is otherwise highly intuitive and a lot of times empathy is a is seen only in the positive light when it comes to, for example, friendships. And another amazing thing about this incredible thing, we're going to discuss why it's so important, why it's so powerful after the sponsor break. But another interesting aspect of empathy is that it is so often limited or otherwise capped when it comes to having empathy in a business scenario. In other words, the idea of empathy. Empathy is a word that is often used to describe a person's life. Empathy is limited when you're in a business scenario. There's only so much that you can care. There's only so much feeling that you can provide for another person's situation. And what I want to do today, I want to flip that concept, that perception on its head. I want to tell you that empathy is one of the most important things that you can bring into the workplace. And we're going to talk about why right after this quick sponsor break. Today's episode is sponsored by. When you think of user experience or customer experience, what is the first thing that pops to your mind? Probably the interface, the visual elements, right? Amazingly, one of the most important things in your application is one of the things that we so often take for granted your audio. If you ignore the quality of your audio in your application, your application is going to suffer. Today's users want better audio. In fact, if you ignore the quality of your audio in your application, your application is going to suffer. In fact, 90% of digital device users rank sound quality as important across the digital entertainment ecosystem. Improving your app or your services audio doesn't necessarily mean that you need better audio assets. You probably need a better audio codec to be sure your users hear everything. Dolby Digital Plus will give you better dialogue, better clarity, and it'll allow you to deliver a multi-channel experience to your projects. That means that you're not just. Doing simple stereo audio anymore. The new iPhone 7 series and pretty much the entire Apple lineup right now supports the playback of Dolby Digital Plus audio in video and audio only assets. You can check out more about this at spec.fm slash Dolby. With the amazing capabilities of the devices that we have constantly on us, the devices in our pockets or in our laptop bags or sitting on our desktops, these amazing devices deserve more attention when it comes to audio. So go and check it out. Spec.fm slash Dolby. Thank you again to Dolby for sponsoring today's episode of Developer Tea. So we're talking about empathy in today's episode, and it's such an amazing, almost a superpower for you to adopt this concept of empathy into your life. Not only at a personal level will it make you probably a better person, but the idea of empathy being a weakness in business. Is totally backwards. It's completely wrong. And we're going to talk about exactly why in the next couple of minutes. I'm going to unpack this idea of what empathy can function as. You know, we mentioned previously that empathy is about feeling other people's pain. Really what empathy is actually about. It's not just about feeling other people's pain. It's about understanding another person's experience. And you can start to see how this is going to help you in business. But understand another. Understand another person's experience. Being able to stand in their shoes. Not only when they are experiencing pain, but also when they are experiencing joy. When they are excited. When they're frustrated. When they are happy. When they are content. When they feel a sense of urgency. All of these things that people go through. These experiences that people have. Practicing empathy puts you in that person's shoes. And so if you can start to practice. Empathy. For example, for your customers. You can start to understand their experience. Now this is where it all comes into real day-to-day business decisions. If you can practice empathy for your customer base. Let's say, even if you're practicing empathy for a client. But let's say you're practicing empathy for the users that are going to be using an application that you are building. As a developer, you may have certain values. That are different from your user base's values. And you may have a tendency to build naturally based on your personal values. Rather than on your user base's values. Now how do you understand what your user base's values are? Well certainly there are objective and quantifiable ways of doing this. You can go and do user research. You can go and do user surveys. All of these things are fantastic ideas. And they are things that you should be doing. And they are things that you should be doing. And they are things that you should be doing. On the flip side, aside from quantifiable metrics. For example, let's say you don't have a user base yet. But you have some level of research. Or some kind of target demographic that you know you are going after. One of the ways that you can understand what that target demographic is going to care about. Is to practice empathy. Now it's not just a magical term. You really have to get to know what that person is experiencing. You have to understand their struggles. But not only their struggles. You also have to understand the things that get them excited. The things that make them happy. If you can practice empathy at this level. You start making value based decisions. Not on your own values. But on your user base's values. And we need to make a delineation here. We've talked about Maslow's hierarchy of needs on the show before. It's important that we keep this in the front of our mind. There are some values that should never be taken for granted. There are some values that should never be abandoned. For example, it is very unlikely that any user really wants the type to be difficult to read. There are some user factors that can define some of the values that you use in your design decisions. And in your software design decisions. Some of these things are obvious. Some of these things are very clear to us. But some things may not necessarily be as obvious. We've talked about how, for example, a difficult login is a difficult login. A difficult login system may communicate a sense of safety to a user who is logging into that system. So some of the things that you may already take for granted as base level values or non-negotiable values. These things that we consider may be related to human factors. They can be put up for scrutiny. They can be evaluated through this lens of empathy. If I want the system to feel secure. Then maybe an easy login process. Is not the right way. And like most things in life. Empathy is a skill that must be practiced. This is something that you have to start employing in your day-to-day life. This doesn't just apply to when you're thinking about other users. But also when you're thinking about your co-workers. If you use this concept of empathy to understand how and why they feel about certain things. You're going to start making better decisions on behalf of other people. And remember. Empathy. Was mentioned in step nine of the developer career roadmap. When we talked about replacing yourself. One of the habits that a great leader always practices. Is empathy for those that they lead. So instead of viewing empathy. Or maybe you use the word sympathy for a similar concept. Instead of viewing these things as weakness. Instead of viewing the idea that caring about another person's feelings. Or understanding another person. Or listening to them talk. Or listening to them complain. Or celebrating things with them. Getting excited with another person. If those things are currently in your mind. Labeled as weaknesses. Or if they come across as weak in a business scenario. To your perception. Then I want you to take some time and think about the value. That empathy can provide to you. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. Thank you again to today's sponsor. Dolby. Remember. Your user's experience is not just about the interface. It's also about the audio space that you create. Go and check out more that Dolby has to offer to you. At spec.fm. Slash Dolby. Thank you once again for passing over the five million listen mark. With me in the show. The past couple of months by the way. Have been the highest listener count. For those months that we've ever had on this show. So thank you so much for continuing to share. For continuing to share. For continuing to share. For continuing to share. For continuing to share. For continuing to share. For continuing to share. For continuing to propagate great discussions. And for continuing to work every day to level up in your career. Thank you so much for listening. And until next time. Enjoy your tea.