At companies I’ve worked at, I’ve been tasked with crafting user personas for the company’s products. In both cases we used the value proposition design framework which is where we would map out the jobs, pains and gains of the customers. In other words, what was the customer trying to accomplish by using the software. What were the pain points that they were trying to overcome in using the product and what would be some extra gains that they would achieve on top of the pains that were resolved.

Doing this helped us accomplish multiple objectives within the organization.

1. The user mapping enabled us to speak more directly to the pain points of the customer
2. Our marketing strategies achieved better results as a result of being able to write copy that more accurately target why the consumer was using the software in the first place
3. This information was useful to the sales team in speaking to partners and clients and communicating how our services most accurately solved the problems they were having

This also helped us to segment the website into buyer’s journeys helped us tailor the website to the specific needs of each persona and the individual needs and desires of that persona.

The creation of user personas also proved invaluable for the product development process at both companies. With a clear picture of who the target users were, their core needs, and frustrations, the product teams could make much more informed decisions during planning and design phases. Features and workflows were shaped around solving the key jobs and alleviating critical pains surfaced through the persona research. This user-centric approach led to products that delighted customers because they solved real problems people cared about.

Beyond shaping product direction, the personas served as constant reminders in daily standups and retrospectives to stay focused on user needs. Asking “what would Patricia think of this?” when discussing a UI change encouraged empathy. The personas made users’ challenges feel tangible even for those not directly interacting with customers. They created a unifying vision of who we were building for across departments.

Below is a walkthrough of the process for user mapping that I would setup and have the team go through together:

Value Proposition Design Process – Watch Video

And that’s how I’ve create detailed user personas that provide tremendous insight into your target customers. The process always starts by collaborating to determine the right questions to uncover goals, demographics, and barriers of the end user. Once we have sufficient user data, we can then analyze it to identify the key user segments and draft initial persona outlines. The result is both a product-market fit and a more effective marketing strategy as a result.