Hello learners!
Welcome to the 12th lesson in the series 30 Days of PM by Crework! Yesterday, we talked about user segmentation and how it helps us in understanding how different types of users interact with our product or the different problems they face. Today, we will talk about user persona, another topic closely related and very important to user research.
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What is a User Persona?
Once you are done with user research and are trying to make sense of whatever you have learnt about the user, you figure out the user segments that will be interacting with your product and then create user personas.
You can think of user personas as a representative of the segments that you have identified from your research.
A user persona is basically a fictional representation of your ideal customer. It’s fictional because you are imagining a person with various characteristics and that person is not real, but the characteristics that they have are a representation of the insights you got from your user research.
A persona incorporates the needs, goals, and observed behavior patterns of the target audience.
An example of a user persona:
Here’s another example, but a less fancy one:
Why do we need a User Persona?
Understanding the needs of your users is vital to developing a successful product. Well-defined personas will enable you to efficiently identify and communicate user needs. Personas will also help you describe the individuals who use your product, which is essential to your overall value proposition.
Knowing your audience will help influence the features you choose, thus making your product more useful. A persona clarifies who is in your target audience by answering the following questions:
Who is my ideal customer?
What are the current behavior patterns of my users?
What are the needs and goals of my users?
What issues and pain points do they currently face within the given context?
How can we make a User Persona?
A well-defined user persona contains these pieces of information:
Who is the user? You can mention the user’s demographic profile here.
End goals and aspirations of the users
Pain points and challenges to achieving the goals
Activities and experiences of the users
Okay, to give you an example, let’s make a user persona of ideal user for this 30 Days of PM challenge.
Sakshi, 23 years old Software Engineer working full time
Lives in Bengaluru, India
Wants to break into Product Management role
Don’t know how and where to start learning
Spends her time on LinkedIn and Twitter interacting with people in tech
This could be a user persona for 30 Days of PM right? And I am sure a lot of you relate to this as well. And if you do, I have something for you.
Crework also has a free WhatsApp community for product aspirants where we discuss topics related to product management and do sessions and workshops to help people learn. If you are interested and want to connect with more people who are on the same learning journey as you, feel free to join it. Click this button.
Day 12 - Completed ✅
Congratulations on completing the twelfth lesson of the series. 🥳
Now, you know what to do. Share your learnings with the world and be accountable.
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