A comprehensive guide to develop your Customer Persona and zoom in on your market _ Spikelab.org - Mentoring social entrepreneurs for impact
22/12/2018 A comprehensive guide to develop your Customer Persona and zoom in on your market | Spikelab.org - Mentoring social entrepreneurs… Toggle navigation Home About Blog Book A Call Resources Social RSS Twitter Google+ A comprehensive guide to develop your Customer Persona and zoom in on your market Often times business people, and marketers even more, think about customers in terms of segments: young entrepreneurs, mums at home, single professionals, you name it This can be useful to think broadly about who you're hoping to serve in the long run, but offers little value to plan and execute on your next move The person that you're hoping to serve with your product is much more than a bunch of demographics: they are a human being with problems, needs, goals, habits, that live and work in certain environments It's only when you truly understand that that you can hope to be effective at serving them well, which goes from reaching out to them to creating a great experience for them This is universally true, even in a B2B setting you don't sell to corporations, it's a human being that cuts you a check and that person will have his own agenda http://www.spikelab.org/blog/persona-development.html 1/11 22/12/2018 A comprehensive guide to develop your Customer Persona and zoom in on your market | Spikelab.org - Mentoring social entrepreneurs… What is Persona development? Persona development is a process to represent in a usable format that information I mentioned above When I first spoke to FC she was targeting anybody with an internet line which is the equivalent of targeting nobody as your offering will be lost in the noise Going through a Persona development exercise helped her bring clarity to her marketing and product development and dramatically increased the odds of her startup There are various ways to put together a Persona archetype, but the one FC and I used is borrowed from Luxr But my product can really be used by anybody! I get it, FC told me the same, I told the same to my first startup mentor And it's true, I can see how years from now, if she's successful, her product could be used by all sorts of people But not today Today she needs her first customer because without that she is never gonna get to next month, let alone years And likely the person that will want her product today is different than the one that will buy the product when she's an established brand on the market This is the idea of early adopters that I've expanded upon in this other post and won't go into details here Persona sounds singular, you always have only one? Actually, most startups deal with more than one persona, often times at least two In the case of FC she's looking at a marketplace so at minimum she has a buyer and a seller Now those might be the same persona, but also not, think of Amazon Vs Ebay: on Ebay sellers can be buyers too, on Amazon most sellers aren't buyers and the way being a reseller on Amazon works is different than selling something on Ebay In the case of a B2B product, for example an IT management system like I used to build, the persons that's cutting the check is the CFO, but they have no clue about IT management so it will likely be the CTO to make the call The user however is the sysadmin, not the CTO, and he's gonna have a completely different outlook on your product Depending on the business, you can have as many as personas: decision maker - whoever decides to buy your product economic buyer - the one with the money that will cut you the check recommenders - which can be the decision maker herself or other peers influencers - generally known figures in the industry your customer is in end users - those that actually will use the product day in day out This is often easier to picture if you're working in B2B with larger corporations, but it's actually true for B2C as well, just think about your friends or husband/wife, especially in the case of a family product the decision maker can often not be the economic buyer Customers Vs users One special case of a multiple persona scenario that's worth highlighting is the one that's actually the cause of many startups' failure: they have users, not customers A customer is someone that pays you, a user just uses your product Any product hoping to make money from advertising falls in this bucket with the people using the product being the users and the marketers being the customers In a case like this you have at minimum two personas and failing to be clear about it will kill your business Furthermore once you have the two persons with stated needs & goals it should also be more obvious how the two are potentially in http://www.spikelab.org/blog/persona-development.html 2/11 22/12/2018 A comprehensive guide to develop your Customer Persona and zoom in on your market | Spikelab.org - Mentoring social entrepreneurs… conflict, a problem you'll have to deal with Your Persona is still a hypothesis to test As much as you want to use all available information and develop a Persona that you're likely to be able to meet somewhere (or possibly even know already), it still remains an hypothesis to test The most important thing you'll have to test for is obviously their needs and goals, which must be alined with your product offering, but you may also find that the demographics you put down were incorrect or that the person doesn't engage in the behaviors you thought they would Some of them you will have to specifically test for, others will just be side-effects of more important experiments, but it's crucial that you treat what you wrote as a living document that you need to update based on the outcomes of your experiments Luxr's Persona Development Framework There are several frameworks to develop a persona and while most are very similar we all have our preferences and I happen to favor Luxr's model This is what it'll look like in the end: As you can see there are four sections to it: Give it a face Demographics Behaviors Needs & Goals http://www.spikelab.org/blog/persona-development.html 3/11 22/12/2018 A comprehensive guide to develop your Customer Persona and zoom in on your market | Spikelab.org - Mentoring social entrepreneurs… The goal is to have a visual and contextual (to the problem you solve) representation of your customer, an idea of what that person may look like, what things they engage with and what they are looking for (again in the context of the market you're in) Lets an example on paper You can this in any way you want and later I will show you a couple of alternatives working on a wall or digitally with Google docs, but I find paper to be the best compromise to quickly iterate over some ideas Preparing for the exercise The base for the exercise is really simple, just copy from image below: As far as filling the quadrants goes, you can think about stuff in your head and write it down into the boxes, but experience suggests that it leads to poor results A much better method is to apply a technique called dump & sort This approach separates the creative phase from the analytic phase allowing you to go deeper and generate much richer insights Give it a face This box is all about visualizing your customer There are four components to this: a name a face a place a bubble speech http://www.spikelab.org/blog/persona-development.html 4/11 22/12/2018 A comprehensive guide to develop your Customer Persona and zoom in on your market | Spikelab.org - Mentoring social entrepreneurs… The face really means a face and a body, potentially clothing, accessories and gadgets The idea if that if your persona walks by you will instantly recognize her The name is another detail to render the persona more real and remind you that you are dealing with a human being and not a market segment The place helps you give the whole thing a context, generally it's the location/setting where your persona will be using your product The bubble speech is the finishing touch, externalizing the problem you're trying to solve By the time you're done your persona archetype should totally pop out, you should feel like you know this person and could find a way to meet her tomorrow if you wished so As we move to the next quadrants keep referring to this drawing as you fill them in Again, it's crucial that you keep in mind we're talking about this person you just drawn and named, not some faceless, nameless manikin Facts Think of facts as added information to identify your customer They often take the form of demographics, but feel free to add other relevant pieces of information Classic examples are age, yearly income, where they live, marital status etc This may be more important for some products than others For example if your service is very expensive, lower income individuals might not be customers, especially early adopters If you are targeting certain locations instead, where they live or work may be of particular relevance Behaviors As the name suggests, this box is all about behaviors your persona engages with These should be written starting with an active verb and should be actions that you can observe For example, she likes to read is not a valid behavior Rather write that as she reads a book while sitting at the park on sundays One very important thing to point out about behaviors is that they will often map to channels you can use to reach your customers For example in the case above it's obvious you should be able to find your persona in a park on sunday mornings holding a book and reading Needs & Goals In the context of your problem space, what does your persona want to accomplish? what does she need? It's important to avoid to be too generic and put things in here that anybody would want and a lot of products would provide like more money or more time Working on a wall When we started with the example above I said paper was the best compromise The actual best way to work in my experience, alone but especially with a team, is on a wall with post-its and sharpies The is the best approach because it gives you space to add, remove and move things around and fits perfectly with the dump & sort method we talked about You can either work on a wall by making the cross with duct tape or on a big whiteboard drawing the template like you did on paper It will look something like this: http://www.spikelab.org/blog/persona-development.html 5/11 22/12/2018 A comprehensive guide to develop your Customer Persona and zoom in on your market | Spikelab.org - Mentoring social entrepreneurs… An example on Google Docs If you happen to be in a remote team, or need to go digital, that's fine as well and you don't need more than Google docs Here's a template you can use, but otherwise it's just a cross with titles that you can quickly put together in Google draw to your liking Once you've gone digital you may as well, one thing you may here is to actually find an image rather than a drawing, this can make it even more real Free online workshop and Persona review Would you like a free online workshop and build your archetype together? I've done my best to explain the process I follow in my workshops, but I realize that sometimes written instructions aren't enough so I'm making myself available during the next two weeks for an online session if enough people sign up If you'd like to participate leave your name and email below and I'll get in touch when quorum is reached with a date and place for the hangout The Hangout event page is here You can watch the past events on my YouTube Channel If you would like a free 1:1 session to help you build your persona or get feedback on what you already have just book a call below It's as easy as picking a time that works for you and it won't cost you anything Spike is awesome! He got to the heart of our challenge quickly and provided our team with wonderful insight that helped put us on a clear, straight path to getting our product to market - in just one phone call! Even better, Spike is a generous man on an authentic mission to help people be successful in life and business http://www.spikelab.org/blog/persona-development.html 6/11 22/12/2018 A comprehensive guide to develop your Customer Persona and zoom in on your market | Spikelab.org - Mentoring social entrepreneurs… ― Michelle May, Shenami Spike was just great He gave me the helicopter view of the path we are on, what we could choose to now, and what lies ahead He was generous with suggesting practical steps for right now, and also things to work towards I hope to talk with him again ― Carrie N Ballard, Utrecht Area, Netherlands As soon as Spike started to speak - in a thoughtful, careful and considered way, I knew I was going to really benefit from listening to him Spike had some good answers to my questions around pricing and ways to look at it not only in terms of finding a sweet spot, but also using it as a way to assert our values And great follow up advice by email - thanks! ― Bridget Harris, YouCanBook.Me I approached Spike unsure of what my next steps should be He helped us to figure out just that and identify the key actions to build an experience that will wow our customers Spike also pointed out very interesting strategies for testing monetization and getting that engine of growth going Very useful Thanks! ― Anders Hasselstrøm, StartupTravels, Denmark Spike is incredibly insightful He has a way of asking the right questions that gets you to see problems from a new perspective and with greater clarity Every conversation with Spike, I walk away with an 'Aha!' moment that helps me move forward ― Steven Kim, San Francisco I am incredibly inspired by Spike's advice + expertise in regards to applying lean start-up to my business Spike is very knowledgeable, sharp and supportive He's just the mentor we need and I am excited to be part of his mentoring program! ― Nicole Kasal, Cleanse Culture, Chicago http://www.spikelab.org/blog/persona-development.html 7/11 22/12/2018 A comprehensive guide to develop your Customer Persona and zoom in on your market | Spikelab.org - Mentoring social entrepreneurs… Spike has a sharp mind and a well articulated analytic sense that cuts to the core of any question The help he provided on Startup Advice allowed me to clarify my goals and refine who I think my audience is I highly recommend talking to Spike! ― Paul V Weinstein, Deal maker and fundraiser, SF Spike asked hard questions and within the first few minutes of our conversation homed in on the core of most of my confusion I now have an actual plan of attack that will get me the information I need to make the right decisions to move forward ― Katrina Owen, exercism.io TIMES SHOWN IN YOUR TIMEZONE: GMT+0700 (Giờ Đông Dương) If it's not click here to change × You are booking a slot for * Your name * What is your email address? me@gmail.com How should we get in touch? What is your Skype address? What would you like to talk about? I'd like to talk about http://www.spikelab.org/blog/persona-development.html 8/11 22/12/2018 A comprehensive guide to develop your Customer Persona and zoom in on your market | Spikelab.org - Mentoring social entrepreneurs… Book your free call × My calendar changed while you were picking a slot Could you please try again? × × * Your name * What is your email address? me@gmail.com What would you like to talk about? I'd like to talk about Notify me when new slots are available Recommended readings: How to use the business model canvas correctly What's wrong with how startups approach the business model canvas and how to use it correctly? How to spot an early adopter and jumpstart your business Not all customers are equal and some will require others to have joined before buying Target the wrong ones and your business will never take off The most effective value proposition template Learn an effective framework to express your value proposition such that it clearly guides your product development and communication with your customers You're confusing problem and solution and it's killing your startup Here's the fix Like most people you probably started with a solution in mind, but did you take a step back and validated the problem first? Comments Spikelab, mentoring for impact Recommend t Tweet f Share Login Sort by Best Join the discussion… LOG IN WITH OR SIGN UP WITH DISQUS ? Name Shine Ferrer • years ago Just a little typo The most important thing you'll have to test for is obviously their needs and goals, which must http://www.spikelab.org/blog/persona-development.html 9/11 22/12/2018 A comprehensive guide to develop your Customer Persona and zoom in on your market | Spikelab.org - Mentoring social entrepreneurs… be alined (should be aligned) I love your insights and your site! :) △ ▽ • Reply • Share › John • years ago Hello Spike, the dump & sort link needs fixing △ ▽ • Reply • Share › Spike Morelli Mod > John • years ago John, thanks for letting me know, I've fixed it 1△ ▽ • Reply • Share › silverfoxf7 • years ago Excellent framework Ramli Solidum linked to you from our blog, and I'm revisiting this page because it's good to get a refresher from time to time △ ▽ • Reply • Share › Spike Morelli Mod > silverfoxf7 • years ago Thank you Jose, really happy this is useful If you have any question or would like the guide to be expanded to cover something you are currently battling with let me know, I'd love to make it better △ ▽ • Reply • Share › Alfred Lua • years ago Thanks for sharing such a great framework and explaining how to use it! I agree that developing a customer persona is very important for startups so knowing such a framework is very helpful △ ▽ • Reply • Share › Spike Morelli Mod > Alfred Lua • years ago Glad it was useful Alfred, that's all I care about Let me know if there's anything else that could help you on your startup journey △ ▽ • Reply • Share › Tristan Kromer • years ago Janice and Jason will love this! △ ▽ • Reply • Share › ALSO ON SPIKELAB, MENTORING FOR IMPACT AdventureLab, part 1: lessons on team building comments • years ago Spike Morelli — I see two different issues there.On one What a psychology experiment from 1948 can teach you about making better startup decisions comment • years ago Avatarhand there is the question about who to hire Needed skills for sure is one big factor, if you need a … 9u9 — In fact most of the commentary over the Avatardecades about the results of the Forer Experiment miss a truth about human nature that lies open to … The two simplest and most powerful tools for brainstorming and prioritization Adventure Lab, part 3: lessons learned on brainstorming comments • years ago comments • years ago Spike Morelli — Hi there,thanks for catching that typo Avatarand glad you liked the post.Were you suggesting further changes around labeling to make it clearer? … Spike Morelli — Manjula,thanks for letting me know, AvatarI'm updating that link right now.In the meantime you can grub the book at … http://www.spikelab.org/blog/persona-development.html 10/11 22/12/2018 A comprehensive guide to develop your Customer Persona and zoom in on your market | Spikelab.org - Mentoring social entrepreneurs… ✉ Subscribe d Add Disqus to your siteAdd DisqusAdd 🔒 Disqus' Privacy PolicyPrivacy PolicyPrivacy © spikelab.org 2006 - 2015 | Privacy | Design by @ale_prioni | Icons by Freepik | Patterns by Subtle Patterns http://www.spikelab.org/blog/persona-development.html 11/11 ... 22/12/2018 A comprehensive guide to develop your Customer Persona and zoom in on your market | Spikelab.org - Mentoring social entrepreneurs? ?? Spike has a sharp mind and a well articulated analytic... 22/12/2018 A comprehensive guide to develop your Customer Persona and zoom in on your market | Spikelab.org - Mentoring social entrepreneurs? ?? The face really means a face and a body, potentially clothing,...22/12/2018 A comprehensive guide to develop your Customer Persona and zoom in on your market | Spikelab.org - Mentoring social entrepreneurs? ?? What is Persona development? Persona development is a process