Empathy-Curiosity-Courage Marketing Model
Go beneath the surface, import outside inspiration, and act beyond convention.
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 99%
The Empathy-Curiosity-Courage Marketing Model combines the three traits Hoffman would make dominant in a large marketing team. Empathy means seeing the common surface observation and then going deeper to find the human experience, insight, or problem others have missed. Curiosity means getting outside yourself and your sector to find inspiration that can be transferred into the work. Courage means refusing complacency, pursuing what is next, and creating a culture where people do not need permission simply to use their imagination. The traits operate as a sequence rather than three slogans: understand a deeper problem, widen the range of possible mechanisms, and then take a considered swing beyond the conventional response. Hoffman also reports that Nike marketing leaders consistently valued curiosity and collaboration when hiring, reinforcing the importance of learning and working well with others.
Origin
When asked for three guiding principles for 100,000 marketers, Hoffman chose empathy, curiosity, and courage or risk-taking, then explained the mechanism of each.
Core principles
- 01Empathy looks beneath visible behaviour for a deeper human truth.
- 02Curiosity brings inspiration from outside the team's sector and assumptions.
- 03Innovation often transfers an idea from one domain into another.
- 04Courage rejects complacency and gives people room to use their imagination.
How to run it
- 1
See the surface
Record the behaviour, market pattern, or audience observation that is already visible. Treat it as the starting point rather than the final insight.
Pro tip Separate direct observation from your explanation of why it happens.
- 2
Find what others miss
Spend time with the people or community involved and investigate how they actually experience the problem. Look for the deeper truth beneath assumptions.
Pro tip Ask questions that reveal feelings and constraints, not only stated preferences.
Watch out Do not turn a surface behaviour into a confident hypothesis without deeper investigation.
- 3
Bring the outside in
Search beyond the category for technologies, art, entertainment, practices, or mechanisms that illuminate the problem. Identify what can transfer rather than copying the surface form.
Pro tip Explain the mechanism in its original domain before adapting it.
Watch out Outside inspiration still needs to fit the identified audience need.
- 4
Translate the mechanism
Adapt the useful principle to the brand's product, service, or story. Preserve what makes it work while changing what belongs only to the source context.
Pro tip State what is being transferred and what must change.
- 5
Take the considered swing
Develop and test an option that moves beyond the category's default response. Give people enough autonomy to imagine before asking for formal approval.
Pro tip Use a rapid prototype to make the unconventional option discussable.
Watch out Courage is not a substitute for the empathetic problem definition.
- 6
Return to the human problem
Review whether the adapted idea meaningfully addresses the deeper need found at the start. Reject novelty that cannot complete that loop.
Pro tip Have the original audience respond to the prototype before declaring it innovative.
In the wild
Hoffman says Nike Air originated when an engineer who had worked on an innovation for astronaut helmets brought air cushioning to Nike. He uses the story to illustrate looking outside a sector and transferring an idea into a new category.
→ An outside technical inspiration contributed to a major sneaker innovation.
A bank observes that customers abandon a complex application. Interviews reveal fear of making an irreversible mistake. The team studies reversible editing in creative software and prototypes a save-and-review flow rather than copying another bank's form.
→ Empathy defines the real concern, curiosity supplies a mechanism, and courage produces a category-atypical test.
Common mistakes
Stopping at the visible behaviour
Hoffman's empathy principle requires going beneath what everyone sees to find the deeper experience or truth.
Searching only inside the category
The curiosity step deliberately looks outside the sector because innovation can come from transference.
Requiring permission to imagine
Hoffman argues that a culture where people need approval simply to think is unlikely to lead innovation.
Is it for you?
Best for
Marketing and innovation teams developing products or stories in categories crowded with similar observations and conventional responses.
Not ideal for
Teams using bold execution to bypass evidence about the audience's actual problem.
From the transcript
“see what others see find what others don't”
“find inspiration outside of your sector”
“so much of innovation is about transference”
From the episode
The Marketing Genius Behind Nike: Greg Hoffman