Dev Teams: How To Prioritize And Foster Human-Centered Design

To create offerings that truly resonate with users, tech companies need to prioritize empathy and human-centered design. But when dev teams are focused on coding and accounting for all the minutiae that comes with building and maintaining a product or service, it’s easy to lose sight of the people their work is intended to serve.

Below, members of Forbes Technology Council explore practical strategies for embedding empathy and human-centered design into every stage of the development process. Whether you’re refining an existing product or launching something new, these approaches will help you build tech solutions that genuinely address your audience’s needs and preferences.

1. Leverage Data And Analytics To Discover Trends

It’s natural to think of data and analytics as strictly quantitative, but using AI to practice “emotional design” delivers qualitative insights at an unprecedented scale. It surfaces the genuine emotional experiences of core audiences by homing in on trends and insights you often didn’t even think to ask about, improving audience experiences, product satisfaction and business performance. - Chris Willis, Domo

2. Track Customer Feedback

Something simple that’s often overlooked is having a system for keeping track of customer feedback and then proactively communicating updates to that feedback (the requested feature was added, the price was adjusted and so on) can be massive, automated and relatively easy customer experience wins. “Hey, we added that product you asked about!” can turn customers into fans. - Trevor Hinesley, Soundstripe

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3. Observe Your Customers Using Your Product

Go watch your customers—literally. Ask for permission to “follow them home” to see them using your product at the office, at home or wherever they use it. Then just watch. Watch them go about their day. Watch them do things beyond and around your product. You will learn so much about what’s important to them. Complement this with listening to sales and customer service calls, reviewing surveys and so on. - Guy Yalif, Intellimize

4. Frame Decisions In Terms Of The Observed UX

When building features, it’s helpful to frame your approach with a statement like, “We are creating this because users said, felt or experienced X when they did Y.” The simpler this statement is, the more likely you’re on track and addressing core issues. Additionally, observe how users interact with the product—either directly, by asking them questions, or indirectly, by reviewing their session data and interactions. - Sidhant Bendre, Quizard AI, Inc.

5. Share Prototypes With A Diverse User Base

Generative AI has the promise of being able to make inferences and learn over time. Building prototypes and sharing them with a wide, diverse user base will help you collect feedback that you can use to improve human interactions and prioritize empathy. This type of iteration will improve design cycles and make products much more user-centric, with the appropriate soft-touch human interactions. - Todd Moore, Thales Group

6. Focus On Use Context

To prioritize empathy, constantly ask, “What job is the user trying to get done?” Instead of designing around your tech stack or sprint timeline, focus on their context: time, skills and pain points. Empathy starts with listening—sit with real users, observe and learn. Real creativity lies in delivering a seamless, high-quality version of what users truly need, not telling them what to want. - Avery Pennarun, Tailscale

7. Leverage Tools To Understand Actual User Behavior

In addition to conducting research by talking to users, use a tool like Pendo or Userpilot to ensure you are thoroughly learning users’ behavior. Sometimes actual user behavior differs from what users share during research or usability studies, and these tools can help you identify additional pain points and areas for improvement. - Ayesha Mahmood, Zscaler

8. Integrate Continuous User Feedback Loops

Tech companies can prioritize empathy and human-centered design by integrating continuous user feedback loops throughout product development. Regularly engage diverse users via interviews, usability testing and surveys to deeply understand their needs, pain points and goals. Use this insight to inform iterative design, ensuring the product truly aligns with human experiences and values. - Marius Ivanauskas

9. Embed Safeguards Into Your Product To Build Trust

A fundamental element is building reliable, secure tools that users can trust. It is critical to embed safeguards into a product’s core that protect users from the risks of manipulated content. By taking a proactive approach, developers can create a user experience rooted in trust, integrity and confidence, empowering users to focus on what matters most without the risk of misinformation. - Jason Crawforth, Swear

10. Conduct Surveys, Usability Testing And Co-Creation Workshops

Companies can focus on human-centered design and maintain empathy by implementing continuous user feedback loops. This involves engaging users early and often through surveys, usability testing and co-creation workshops to understand their needs, pain points and behaviors. By iteratively refining products based on real-world insights, companies can create solutions that truly resonate with users. - Hemanth Volikatla, SAP America Inc.

11. Have Product Teams Talk To Users And Buyers

Tech companies should absolutely get their product teams talking to their users and buyers on a regular basis—don’t just rely on sales reps or customer support or success staff to be the voice of the customer. Speaking directly to customers is the age-old way to surface blind spots and build products and services with empathy and human-centered design. - Nishit Asnani, Sybill.ai

12. Analyze All Touchpoints To Reveal Pain Points

Tech companies can prioritize empathy by integrating customer journey mapping with real-time feedback. Analyzing touchpoints—from onboarding to resolution—reveals pain points and informs design. Real-time feedback ensures decisions align with customer needs, keeping solutions human-centered. At my company, this approach ensures innovation stays focused on delivering an exceptional customer experience. - Liam Dunne, Klearcom

13. Start With Deep Market Research

Listen to those who will use your product—understand their challenges beyond the data. Market research is an essential first step; real breakthroughs come when you spend time directly with users. Schedule one-on-ones, run focus groups and spend a workday experiencing their reality. Deeply engage with their needs to design solutions that are intentional, impactful and built with empathy at their core. - Silvija Martincevic, Deputy

14. Pair Regular Feedback With Structured Play

Integrating user feedback loops throughout the design process is a critical strategy. By collecting iterative feedback early and often, companies ensure products resonate with real human needs. Pairing this with structured play—where teams creatively simulate user experiences—helps uncover latent user needs and pain points that traditional methods might miss. - Chris Hewish, Xsolla

15. Address Diverse Needs With Interactive Education Tools

In the healthcare technology industry, inclusive design goes beyond meeting technical standards—products must build trust, improve outcomes and empower patients. By addressing diverse needs across race, gender and abilities, interactive education tools can foster collaboration and transparency. This helps clinicians make informed decisions while ensuring patients feel acknowledged and valued. - Yaw Fellin, Wolters Kluwer Health

16. Ensure Leadership Is Authentically Committed

Although methods and frameworks are the easy part of human-centered design, they’re meaningless without authentic leadership commitment. Most companies claim user-centricity while prioritizing profits, resulting in performative empathy. True human-centered design demands leadership willing to invest time in research and iteration, making hard trade-offs between market pressures and user needs. - Andrea Prazakova

17. Leverage AI To Develop Emotion-Informed Language

Executing human-centered design is about far more than usability testing. AI is changing the game for delivering solutions that drive a superior, personalized CX. AI and machine learning enable enterprises to develop emotion-informed language that conveys empathy and motivates customers to act. The holy grail, however, is ensuring continuous learning that not only evolves, but also informs other systems. - Assaf Baciu, Persado

18. Incorporate Inclusive Design Practices

In addition to conducting regular user research and considering human-centered design, companies should also embed inclusive design practices throughout the product development cycle to ensure that the needs of diverse user groups, including those with varying abilities and cultural backgrounds, are considered from the start—especially in the era of data-driven AI products. - Ziva Hallaji, Wipro

19. Pay Attention To Your Carbon Footprint

The carbon footprint and environmental impact of your product or service are more important to your potential clients than you think. Paying attention to environmental impact is not only about showing care for the planet, but also about resonating with today’s customers, who value this aspect of products and technology more than ever. - Ken Feyder, Hermès of Paris

20. Show Trust In Your Users By Giving Them Control

It took us years to rework our system to put trust at the heart of the design. Trusting our users to make smart edits without complex versioning and rules has made a big difference, turning something that was possible but hard into something that’s easy and delightful. Provide an outstanding user experience in the first iteration by focusing on reporting and logging for restrictions and management, rather than building those controls into the core experience. - John Baker, D2L