It might be easy to describe who is our audience. We know our service and can guess who might benefit from working with us. However, understanding our audience can be more complicated than just the demographics. It takes experiences, domain expertise and empathy to articulate their pains as we stand in their shoes. It's a working process. Immersing and experiencing what they experience is only one part of the work. Internalizing and surfacing their narratives, challenges, and pain are the other part of work that brings us to connect.
There is a difference between listening to audiences describe their pains versus being insightful about their needs. Often we find that surveying people for what they want doesn't always lead us to the answer. Our insight comes from our own experiences when being with people feeling their pains, understanding their needs even when they are not able to tell us in their own words.
Leaning into people we choose to serve and the experiences to truly see the social and cultural dynamics help us understand the tension and pressure from their family, peers and interactions.
This work is also called "truth to the audience".
