Hopes & Fears Exercise 😨 Prompts

Purpose: The Hopes & Fears exercise helps teams surface user expectations and anxieties during ideation, grounding design direction in authentic emotional context.

Design Thinking Phase: Ideate

Time: 45–60 min session + 1–2 hours analysis

Difficulty: ⭐⭐

When to use:When kicking off a feature concept or redesignTo bridge stakeholder assumptions and user realitiesDuring early ideation sprints to frame problem spaces emotionally

What it is

The Hopes & Fears exercise is a collaborative ideation method used in early design thinking work. It invites participants—users, team members, or stakeholders—to articulate what they hope to gain and what they worry might go wrong in a given experience, product, or initiative. The goal is to map emotional drivers that inform design priorities.

📺 Video by FreshTilledSoil. Embedded for educational reference.

Why it matters

Unlike standard ideation tools, the Hopes & Fears method makes space for vulnerability and aspiration. It captures not just feedback, but emotional intent. By designing with hopes and fears pinned to the wall, teams stay closely aligned with the underlying values users bring into an experience. It also aligns internal stakeholders by exposing shared concerns early—often defusing later conflict.

When to use

• At the beginning of a new experience design project
• When exploring high-risk features or sensitive domains (e.g., health, finance, data transparency)
• To complement personas or journey mapping with emotional depth

Benefits

• Rich Insights: Helps uncover user needs that aren’t visible in metrics.
• Flexibility: Works across various project types and timelines.
• User Empathy: Deepens understanding of behaviours and motivations.

How to use it

Set up a workshop with relevant participants—this may include product team members, mixed-level stakeholders, real users (if moderated), or a cross-functional design group. Use a visual space (e.g. Miro, FigJam, or physical wall).

1. Introduce the concept: Ask participants to imagine the ideal outcomes (hopes) and potential worst-case outcomes (fears) of the product or feature under discussion.
2. Individually or in small groups, participants brainstorm 2–3 hopes and 2–3 fears. Encourage emotional honesty. Stickies or virtual cards work well.
3. Group and label similar hopes and fears using affinity clustering. Observe emerging patterns—such as unmet expectations or repeated anxieties.
4. Facilitate a discussion to unpack what each item tells you about desired experiences, broken trust, or unresolved tension.
5. Use these themes later in ideation, prioritisation, or experience mapping. Hopes often hint at success criteria; fears can inform edge cases and error-proofing.

Example Output

Fictional example from a fintech app redesign:

• Hopes:
  • “I’ll finally feel on top of my budget”
  • “This app could help me start saving consistently”
  • “It’ll be easier to understand my recurring payments”
• Fears:
  • “This will expose just how bad my spending habits are”
  • “They’ll sell my data to insurers or banks”
  • “I’ll feel ashamed each time I open the app”

Common Pitfalls

• Skipping analysis: The activity output is only as useful as the insights derived from clustering and reflection. Take time to unpack patterns.
• Biasing responses: Participants may self-censor based on the presence of leadership or ambiguity in the brief. Create psychological safety with neutrality and invitations to speculate.
• Jumping to solutions early: It’s tempting to ideate fixes prematurely. Let hopes and fears linger before mapping to features—this ensures better emotional alignment later in the process.

10 Design-Ready AI Prompts for Hopes & Fears Exercise – UX/UI Edition

How These Prompts Work (C.S.I.R. Framework)

Each of the templates below follows the C.S.I.R. method — a proven structure for writing clear, effective prompts that get better results from ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or any other LLM.

C.S.I.R. stands for:

• Context: Who you are and the UX situation you're working in
• Specific Info: Key design inputs, tasks, or constraints the AI should consider
• Intent: What you want the AI to help you achieve
• Response Format: The structure or format you want the AI to return (e.g. checklist, table, journey map)

Level up your career with smarter AI prompts.Get templates used by UX leaders — no guesswork, just results.Design faster, research smarter, and ship with confidence.First one’s free. Unlock all 10 by becoming a member.

Prompt Template 1: “Generate Hopes & Fears Based on User Personas”

Generate Hopes & Fears Based on User Personas

Context: You are a UX designer preparing for an ideation workshop related to a [new mobile product].
Specific Info: You have access to [3 detailed personas] that represent different [financial literacy levels and digital behaviours].
Intent: Identify key emotional hopes and fears each persona might bring into the product experience.
Response Format: List 3 hope statements and 3 fear statements per persona, expressed in first-person voice. Include one sentence explaining the emotional driver behind each.

If any persona info is vague, prompt me for clarification.
Then, suggest a use case or feature exploration driven by a common fear across personas.

Prompt Template 2: “Convert Hopes & Fears Themes into Design Opportunities”

Convert Hopes & Fears Themes into Design Opportunities

Context: You’re a design lead reviewing themes from a Hopes & Fears session for a [B2B onboarding redesign].
Specific Info: Themes include trust (fears: “will this impact my reporting?”), time (hopes: “I want this to be quick”), and cognitive load (fear: “how much do I have to remember?”).
Intent: Translate these emotional insights into actionable experience goals.
Response Format: Provide a themed list with 1–2 experience principles or design prompts per theme.

If output seems too generic, ask me to prioritise which themes are most critical.
Then suggest a follow-up UX method to validate these opportunities.

Prompt Template 3: “Craft Facilitation Questions for a Hopes & Fears Workshop”

Craft Facilitation Questions for a Hopes & Fears Workshop

Context: You're a product designer leading a cross-functional workshop on [visioning for a new customer support portal].
Specific Info: Participants include PMs, designers, CX leads, and one sales rep — some have never joined a UX session before.
Intent: Create psychologically safe, curiosity-driven prompts to elicit honest hopes and fears.
Response Format: Provide 5 facilitation questions with empathy-forward framing and inclusive language.

If the team composition is unclear, ask me to list the roles involved.
Also suggest an icebreaker to warm people up before the session.

Prompt Template 4: “Synthesise Emotional Themes Across Stakeholder Roles”

Synthesise Emotional Themes Across Stakeholder Roles

Context: You’re a lead UX researcher analysing a workshop where marketing, engineering, CX, and legal each listed hopes and fears.
Specific Info: Raw input includes sticky notes, Zoom chat logs, and FigJam clusters.
Intent: Find patterns that reveal shared hopes or tensions between departments.
Response Format: Table format with Role / Hope / Fear / Interpretation / Design Tension flag.

Ask which source I want prioritised (if data fidelity varies).
Then suggest a cross-functional alignment discussion topic based on observed tensions.

Prompt Template 5: “Create Pre-Workshop Surveys for Emotional Insight Gathering”

Create Pre-Workshop Surveys for Emotional Insight Gathering

Context: You’re working remotely and can’t run a synchronous Hopes & Fears session.
Specific Info: You’re targeting internal stakeholders and past users of the legacy product.
Intent: Draft short, high-signal survey questions to gather hopes and fears asynchronously.
Response Format: 6 ready-to-send survey items with sample answer formats (scale, open text).

Ask what survey tool will be used if relevant.
Include one optional demographic or metadata question to enrich analysis.

Prompt Template 6: “Frame Hopes & Fears Into Experience Principles”

Frame Hopes & Fears Into Experience Principles

Context: Your team has completed a Hopes & Fears workshop with end-users of a [mental health tracking app].
Specific Info: Key themes include vulnerability (fear: data misuse) and hope (autonomy, daily progress).
Intent: Turn these emotional drivers into 3–5 “experience principles” to guide product decisions.
Response Format: List each principle with a name, short phrase, and one-sentence rationale tied to emotional insight.

Ask how these principles will be used (e.g. PRD, design sprint).
Suggest where to display them for team visibility.

Prompt Template 7: “Identify Contradictory Fears Between Teams and Users”

Identify Contradictory Fears Between Teams and Users

Context: You’re reviewing two sets of hopes and fears—one from internal stakeholders, one from users of a payments platform.
Specific Info: Internal fears include security breaches and data reconciliation; user fears focus on hidden fees and confusing UX.
Intent: Locate contradiction zones that reveal misaligned priorities.
Response Format: Comparative list format – Stakeholder Fear / User Fear / Conflict Summary / Suggested Mediating Concept.

Ask whether suggestions should favour business or user value as framing.
Then offer one way to test assumptions collaboratively.

Prompt Template 8: “Use Fears to Proactively Identify Usability Risks”

Use Fears to Proactively Identify Usability Risks

Context: You're documenting risks before launching a beta for a [freelance invoicing tool].
Specific Info: Participants fear “not getting paid,” “sending wrong info,” or “clients ghosting invoices.”
Intent: Map fears to likely friction zones in the UI.
Response Format: Risk table – Fear / Related Feature / Potential UX Issue / Proposed Safeguard.

Ask for top 3 workflows in the product if unclear.
Then recommend a usability test scenario for validation.

Prompt Template 9: “Turn Hope Statements Into North Star Metrics”

Turn Hope Statements Into North Star Metrics

Context: You’re refining your outcome tracking framework using user hopes from onboarding research.
Specific Info: Users consistently hoped to “spend less time managing admin” and “feel confident about tax deadlines.”
Intent: Create strategic metrics that align with these hopes.
Response Format: Table – User Hope / Emotional Goal / Potential Metric / Measurement Method.

Ask how often metrics are reviewed or reported.
Suggest a complementary qualitative method for triangulation.

Prompt Template 10: “Design Hopes & Fears Variants for Multi-Cultural Teams”

Design Hopes & Fears Variants for Multi-Cultural Teams

Context: You're facilitating a global workshop with team members from APAC, EMEA, and LATAM.
Specific Info: Cultural norms around emotion expression and confrontation vary.
Intent: Adapt Hopes & Fears phrasing for inclusivity and participation.
Response Format: Provide 3–4 reworded versions of each prompt (Hope, Fear), tailored for cultural nuance and psychological safety.

Ask which regions or languages will be used during facilitation.
Suggest a way to debrief insights without bias.

Recommended Tools

• Miro or FigJam for collaborative clustering
• Typeform or Google Forms for pre-session surveys
• Notion or Confluence for analysis and documentation tracking
• ChatGPT, Claude or Notion AI for pattern synthesis and reflection prompts

Learn More

• NNGroup: UX Research & Design Articles
• Interaction Design Foundation – Topics
• Google Design Sprint Kit