The Power of Personas

So much shade has been thrown at personas over the past couple of years that writing a couple of hundred words in their favor is like waving the red brega in front of a bull: people are going to get mad, and I’ll be lucky to emerge unscathed.

I’ll acknowledge upfront that companies using personas as unwavering pillars for understanding their audiences and customers are likely shortsighted. Personas are intellectual constructs meant to bring audiences into clearer focus so they can be addressed more authentically. They’re based on a mix of aggregated data, insights, and best guesses that provide a basis for a shared understanding of the people organizations want to reach.

When you start to drift 

But our work with clients invariably tells us that companies tend to drift away from their audiences over time. As they grow, they begin to focus more on the tactics of selling than on the warm-blooded connections that initially drew customers to them.

“Our work with clients tells us that companies
tend to drift away from their audiences over time.”

Part of our discovery process with new clients involves a deep dive into their audiences and customers. We like to meet with several people, individually and in groups, internal and external stakeholders, to get as clear an understanding as possible about the people they’re trying to reach. You’d be surprised what we hear.

Healing fractured information

Every organization knows quite a bit about its audiences and customers, but we’ve found that knowledge is fractured. Sales, marketing, customer service, and executive leadership all have valid perspectives on the people they’re trying to reach. Too rarely, however, are these perspectives aligned consistently across the organization to provide a shared understanding of audiences and customers.

This is where the exercise of creating personas is a powerful tool for most companies. We typically start by listening to each group as they discuss their audiences/customers, then begin to organize their insights into four or five buckets of shared characteristics. We do this quickly, because the interesting discussions start once the buckets start to take shape and group participants jump in to add more specifics.

It’s in these conversations that the dissonance often appears, even among groups who share the same function. It’s a great thing to watch: people are passionate about their audiences and customers, and they describe them in personal terms. Shoving them into “personas” feels to some like they’re losing touch with a friend.

Getting aligned

In the end, though, these specific conversations add richness and granularity to the personas. And when they’re combined with personas developed by other groups, both similarities and gaps become obvious.

For us, this is where the real value of creating personas comes in. We serve as facilitators as the combined groups hash out the final version of a mutually-developed set of personas. Again, the conversations are passionate, but they’re held within a format everyone can see has value. We see the organization come together in a deeper understanding of the people they’re trying to reach.

Here’s two important follow-ups: First, once the personas are nailed down, we encourage the marketing and HR teams to work together to promote them internally. Personas serve as easy-to-remember representations of the customers and audiences everyone in the organization should know. Second, personas should be revisited and tweaked at least annually to reflect market changes.

Finally, we often find that our persona work leads directly into conversations about messaging and branding. You can read more about that here.