The document discusses the importance of using customer personas in product development. It argues personas counter skepticism by being based on both quantitative and qualitative customer data, and help teams empathize with customers through humanizing representations of them. The author advocates bringing personas to life through tools like profiles, relationship maps, experience cycles and journey maps to guide the development process. Ultimately, the author believes personas can help companies create more meaningful customer experiences and value by understanding customers as people rather than just market segments.

1. Why customer personas
still matter
Innovate & create meaning through empathy
Presented by Marco Gervasio
Copyright © 2015 Marco Gervasio for SEQUENTIAL. All rights reserved.

2. preamble
2

3. Countering scepticism
3
I have been using and promoting the use of personas for many years now,
not only because I believed in them from the very first time I heard of the
methodology, but also because I have seen the true impact it has during the
definition of more meaningful customer experiences.
Sill today, I face clients or even co-workers with doubtful eyes when
suggested to use personas throughout the development process.
That’s usually because they share the misconception that personas are just
fictional characters and cannot possibly represent the majority of an
audience (and therefore are a waste of time and money).

4. Focusing on real people
4
That’s of course far from the truth.
What skeptical minds do not realize is that personas are actually created out
of data.
In fact, they not only come from quantitative data (which most marketers are
accustomed too) but also combine important qualitative data that inform us
on deep human needs and habits

5. 5
That’s why
personas are a key
component of
human-centered
design.

6. What Are Personas?
6

7. Humanization
7
Persona artifacts are meant to provide a portrait of the people analyzed
during the research phase.
Each persona is in fact the representation of many individuals sharing similar
behavioral patterns, synthesizing all common and significant attributes
contributing to a distinct conduct.
Unlike a marketing segmentation, personas provide more insights regarding
the overall context, recurring challenges, common perceptions, social trends,
goal-driven expectations, shared emotional needs, etc.

8. 8
More importantly,
personas humanize
the target audience
and make us care
more for them.

9. Empathy Is Everything
9

10. Be there for them
10
In a previous article I was exposing the truth about how consumers have
evolved in the last century, particularly in the last couple decades.
Nowadays, people expect so much more from brands. They want companies
to be honest, to be there for them, to be proactive and be a true partner. It all
comes down to injecting your service or product with responsiveness and
compassion.
In other words: empathy.

11. In search of meaning
11
Financial success or stability is important for any organization, but money
should not be the only thing driving leaders and employees.
Because people seek more and more meaning in their lives and want brands
to provide some of it, companies need to really care about making a
difference.
Using your heart and your brain at the same time is a good way to start
building impactful customer experiences.

12. 12
And personas are
fundamental to the
creation of
meaning and value.

13. Analyzing The Right Data
13

14. Quantitative vs. qualitative
14
As mentioned earlier, great archetypes come from insightful data that
inform on both rational and emotional needs of our target audience.
In the process of creating personas, the first steps is to gather as much data as
possible, starting with existing assets, such as: demographics, sales reports,
customer service feedback, website analytics, market trends, etc.
Secondly, you will need to acquire further qualitative data in order to better
understand the behavioral traits of your audience.

15. behavioral patterns
15
This can be achieved through interviews, contextual inquiry or observation,
surveys and focus groups.
The sample is of course much smaller than a quantitative research but it can
still uncover key emotional triggers that often influence task performance
and decision-making.
Once you organize all the data, cross-analysis will help you identify
behavioral patterns and even uncover new opportunities to further answer
the needs of your audience (and perhaps identify new revenue streams).

16. 16
That’s how
you begin
understanding
the humans behind
the market
segments.

17. Identifying Candidates
17

18. The Ying . . .
18
I have once conducted a deep dive analysis for an e-commerce project (a well
known technical clothing company for various sports).
Cross-analyzing data allowed me to identify two primary archetypes that
would represent the majority of the audience. I ended up suggesting two
polar-opposite individuals based on knowledge of the industry, experience
with outdoor activities, and recurring challenges.
On one side of the scale, the newbies (those new to the product category and
related sport) can be insecure or get lost when shopping around for such
clothing and needed to be supported during the purchasing cycle.

19. . . . and the Yang
19
On the other hand the experts (knowledgeable fans of the brand and product
category) were feeling less certain about their favorite clothing company
(seeing so many new ones with similar options) and needed to be reassured
that they were still making the right choice.
How did we respond to that?
The final platform included contextualized education and strong evidence
communication.

20. 20
Putting yourself in
the mind of your
personas allows
you to create more
significant value.

21. Bringing Them To Life
21

22. Staying alive
22
Another misconception is that personas are just sheets of paper or
PowerPoint slides that you refer to from time to time.
They can only be called “personas” if they are actually brought to life during
the development process. How do you know if you have achieved that level
of effectiveness?
When your team and client regularly talk about the archetypes as if they are
real people, doing role-playing during design validations and prototype
walkthroughs.

23. evolution
23
Keeping them alive also means having a personas owner who will make sure
they are utilized but also continuously updated.
Persona artifacts should evolve as you acquire new data, for instance when
you monitor your new platform activities or when you conduct usability
testing (for which personas can help define recruitment requirements).
People and society evolve so keep an eye on social trends, consumer habits,
market transformations, and changing cultural values.

24. 24
Share updated
artifacts and
discuss new
insights with the
team.

25. Persona Artifacts
25

26. Essential tools
26
There are many things you can do to help bring your archetypes to life and
keep your team connected to them. Here are some of the tools to consider:
• Base profile
• Relationship map
• Experiential cycle
• Journey map
• Other tools
Let’s see what they are…

27. Base profile
27
This is pretty much your foundation. Prior to developing full profiles, go
through a “skeleton” phase during which you focus on the core data defining
unique behaviors as well as essential goals and needs. When fully developed,
a base profile will become a one- or two-pager document that provide key
character attributes, context of use, life situation, etc. This typically includes:
• Primary needs
• Key sentiments
• Influencers (friends, co-workers, etc.)
• Technographics
• Media consumption
• Etc.
• Name
• Title (or role)
• Photos
• Background story
• Quote (state of mind)
• Key challenges or hurdles
• Main goals and aspirations

28. Relationship map
28
This connectivity exercise allows you to see how various actors relate to one
another. This becomes particularly useful when dealing with several
archetypes. For instance in B2B situations there are often many individuals
involved in the experiential ecosystem. While you may not develop personas
for all of them, defining how they relate helps understand key factors like
influences, dependencies, etc. A relationship map exercise will produce the
following items:
• Actor roles: key responsibilities and tasks
• Connectivity chart: primary and secondary connections, influence toward service or product,
levels of engagement, etc.
• Relationship characteristics (for each pair of actors): when they connect, service/product
selection or recommendation process, general expectations towards each other.

29. Experiential cycle
29
Putting our archetypes in action is an important part of bringing them to life.
An experiential cycle is typically divided in the primary phases that lead to
goal-achievement. You can define these phases based on the nature of your
project. I often combine a few, for instance:
• Purchasing cycle (classic)
• Learning cycle (when personas need to acquire knowledge or skills)
• Seasonal cycle (when a period of the year trigger needs)
• Calendar cycle (for important dates like events of holidays)
• Emotional cycle (when dealing with sensitive issues like cancer diagnosis)
• Etc.

30. Experiential cycle
30
Each phase of the cycle should present what our personas are going through
and how we can help:
• Background story: current situation, challenges, expectations, goals, and needs.
• Primary tasks
• Tactical ideas and channels

31. Journey map
31
This is closely related to the experiential cycle but focuses on telling a story. It
illustrates how one of the archetypes will reach specific goals through various
actions within the platform. A journey is sequential with many milestones. I
have even drafted maps with several journey lines intersecting, each
representing primary archetypes (this links back to the relationship map too).
Things to consider when making journey maps:
• Have a strong narrative: make sure you can tell “Jane’s story” in a continuous stream
• Focus on important tasks or moments, but demonstrate with specifics
• Display what data can be collected at specific interactions
• Make the map visually appealing with illustrations or graphics
• If possible, print a very large version of the map and gather your audience
• Use the mapping exercise to define a product roadmap

32. Other tools
32
Bringing the personas to life can be achieved in many ways. The artifacts
presented above are some of the essentials but you may want to consider the
following too:
• Persona booth: set up a table or kiosk somewhere (in your war room ideally) with real objects
that relate to the character
• Poster: create a collage of photos, illustrations, and words or quotes that reflect the world in
which the persona evolves in
• Deck of cards: create a synthesized version of the profiles, cycles, and maps and distribute them
to the team so they can do quick references
• Persona website: you could create an online destination to access all of the persona artifacts,
using a simple design that represent the industry or topic (I once worked on a travel website
redesign and made the persona website look like an Expedia or Travelocity)
• Mini movie: if you have time or budget, you could create a short montage using actors (or
amateurs that can make the characters feel real) and present a day in the life of.

33. conclusion
33

34. At the core
34
Being able to integrate and successfully use human-centered methodologies
must come from the desire to make a difference in people’s lives, focusing on
who they are and what they aspire to (whether you sell products or lead a
non-profit organization).
This must fundamentally be rooted in a company’s culture and values. If it
is not the case, they are ways to get there, a step at the time.

35. Creating meaning matters
35
Even if at first you cannot develop advanced persona artifacts and if you have
limited interest from your team, any small gesture can have an impact and
over time you can transform your current development process.
But what’s even more important is to demonstrate how being centered on
humans (not just consumers and numbers) can actually help you become
more innovative and create experiences around your products or services
that bring real value and impact people in more significant ways.

36. 36
It’s about wanting
to create meaning.

37. Thank you
Copyright © 2015 Marco Gervasio for SEQUENTIAL. All rights reserved.
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