The guys are kicking off a new series with this episode called "YouX Freestyle." These conversations will be free-flowing and agenda-less, focusing on topics that are currently on the minds of Chris and Mustafa. For today’s episode, the guys tackle the well-known concept of empathy. Chris gets things started by slightly denouncing the term and questioning whether it is causing confusion within the feild and diulding UX Research. Mustafa likes the word and thinks it is a simple way of explaining that the designer is not the user.

The conversation shifts into a discussion about empathy and its role within design thinking frameworks. The guys talk about how design thinking should permeate the entire business, helping to set high level vision and direction. Chris raises the question: Should the whole business understand the product design process? They conclude that baking design thinking into the company's DNA can help organizations truly become "experience-led."

The discussion then returns to the topic of empathy and highlights the fact that numerous stakeholders and/or organizations fail to effectively implement empathy throughout the entirety of the development lifecycle. Chris suggests a terminology adjustment and thinks a re-branding of empathy as "user understanding" or "user study" might be useful and help slove issues. The guys conclude the conversation with the very likely hope that Christopher Nolan will one day produce a blockbuster about UX Research.