Why personas must be authentic

​

Creating authentic customer personas is a game-changer. When done correctly, it’s the most impactful way to build a true connection between the people working at your company and the customers they are trying to help.

Today, I'll guide you through the art of crafting real personas that bring your customers into your office every day (figuratively) and create laser-sharp focus from your product, design, and engineering teams.

As Product Managers, we know staying intimately connected to target customers is the linchpin of success. However, it is challenging to keep partners as focused on customers as we are.

Let’s be honest. Most companies make people’s jobs harder than they need to be. An engineer who needs to clear 37 hurdles to release code doesn’t have the bandwidth to obsess over customers every day. The same can be said for practically every other group you partner with.

But, if you can bring that obsession TO them, everything changes.

Customer personas serve as the bridge between data and empathy, ensuring that your product doesn't just meet market needs but resonates with the real people using it.

Sounds easy enough. So why do so many people fail?

The pitfall many stumble into is creating personas detached from their target customer definition. Or, they create fictional personas, based on high level demographics.

“Jim is a 23-49-year-old customer from Pennsylvania, he uses the internet. He has no cable subscription and has a household income of $100-$250K…..”

Sound familiar? That’s a series of demographics. Not a persona. How can you create a connection to that?

Without an authentic connection, personas are mere caricatures. They fail to capture not only the essence of your users but the attention of pretty much everyone in your company.

To succeed, you must weave personas from the fabric of REAL customers, ensuring an authentic representation that guides your product journey. They should include not just demographic information, but their motivations, fears, challenges they face, and strengths they possess.

Customer personas are not just demographic profiles; they should represent the heartbeat of your customers. They serve as a window looking into the lives of your users

Let me walk you through building better ones.

​

Step 1: You have to set the table before you eat

The clearer your target customer definition, the more valuable your personas are. Generic target customers lead to generic personas. Generic personas lead to generic products.

Define your target customer meticulously, and let those details breathe life into your personas.

Let’s use my business as an example.

My Product Management course and newsletter are targeted at people who look like this:

• They have 0-5 years experience in Product.
• They’ve never been given real product training.
• They’re motivated to advance their career.
• Recently graduated from college, or they’re transitioning careers.
• Product leader at their company, but have no previous background in Product
• Don’t have or want to spend $5-10K on “certifications” offered by universities or other large product academies.

Frankly, there’s more, but we’ll stop here. You get the idea. People matching these descriptions have very specific, nuanced problems and needs.

I can now take these target customer characteristics and begin to look for people who fit that description to interview.

But I need to go find real people to turn into personas. If I start making up personas with this information alone, it will look like this:

​

​

Do they help me organize my thoughts? Sure. But are they really insightful? Are they inspirational? Do you FEEL like their problems are important? Can you relate to them?

Me either. After all, I made them up. They aren't real.

Tip 2: Realism Roots

The secret sauce is in the authenticity of your personas. Conduct interviews, gather extensive data, and let the nuances of real users shape your personas.

In other words, your customer personas shouldn’t be “based on” real people. They should ACTUALLY BE real people.

You shouldn’t be making up any of the information that goes into the persona. The data/characteristics about them you choose to emphasize should be real.

There’s only one way to get this information; going out and talking to customers.

I’ve been a part of product teams where that was not regular practice. In that situation, the product team had no choice but to create theoretical personas. But there's a problem with that. Inevitably, you will build confirmation bias into them.

Without fail, all the problems you add to your personas will perfectly align to the product you were already considering building. You’ll just be creating personas that are a reflection of you and your stakeholders’ assumptions. I can guarantee you from experience, they will miss the mark with customers.

They only create insights you already have. They identify problems you know about already. But what about the ones you don’t know about? What makeshift solutions have they created to solve these problems? In what ways are they using your product already to work around its shortcomings? Why do they even use your product in the first place?

Without answering those questions and incorporating them into your personas, you have defeated the purpose of creating them in the first place.

Here are some examples of real customers I have spoken to and real information that helps me understand them. I’ve changed their personal information, but these are real challenges they face in their career and concerns they have.

“Jim” is a year into his Product career, but has never been trained. He’s planning a wedding and paying sky-high rent to live in “x” city, how much should he spend to learn about product management right now? Should he get a CSPO certification? Will his experience at this company help him land a higher-paying role at the next company? What the hell is a roadmap? How is it different from a project plan?

“Erica” is a new product leader at a large company and has no product background. What artifacts should she be expecting her product team to create? How does she know if they’re good? What questions should she have for them? What questions should she be ready to answer for them? Which parts of the strategy should she create and what should she look for her team to create?

These are very specific questions for very specific problems and they are 100% authentic. It allows me to make decisions on what products I should focus on creating to add value for them.

And now, I can sink my teeth into something. Let's look at personas we can create now:

​

​

Now this, I can relate to. Ever wake up and realize you don't make enough money for the things you want in life? So have Jim and I. Have you ever been put in a job you found out you weren't ready for and been desperate to find a way to succeed? So have Erica and I.

Now I feel the urgency for these people. They need help and it affects their livelihood. But now, I can begin to figure out some products I can create to help them with their specific needs.

If Jim is confused by his role and nobody will even explain what a roadmap should have on it, maybe I need to add a "Roadmap 101" webinar and templates to a list of opportunities.

If Erica doesn't know what a Product strategy is or where to begin trying to create one, maybe I should create a Product Discovery course.

Add as much detail to these as you can. These are just quick excerpts to give you an idea. They can be among the most valuable things you create as a Product Manager

Tip 3: Pictures on the Wall, Insights in the Product

Personas shouldn't be confined to digital documents; bring them to life in your workspace. Hang pictures of your personas on the office wall, accompanied by the details of their profile. Use the examples from Tip 2 as a template to get started, Make them a daily presence.

Before making key decisions, look at their pictures and ask:

Can Jim afford this training for x price?

Is there enough detail in this course to help Erica get started on a Product strategy?

The visual reminder keeps your users at the forefront of every decision. If you struggle to get partner groups to focus less on their “deliverable” work and more on the customers, this is the golden ticket.

I have worked with engineering teams in the past who really struggled to get out of technical problem-solving mode and into customer problem-solving mode.

I have never found a better method to break those habits and create focus than asking them questions from the persona's point of view. Spam them with it relentlessly. Eventually, the day will come when they cut you off and ask themselves the question from the customer's point of view before you get the chance to.

It’s really simple and pays off exponentially.

Remember: Personas are not just statistics; they are stories waiting to be understood. Dive into their narratives, let your personas be the storytellers, and watch as your product becomes the hero in their story.

Thanks for reading