I Couldn't Find a Useful Framework for Persona Management, So I Created My Own
The Ultimate Guide to Creating, Managing, and Refreshing Your User and Product Personas
I recently consulted a client about their user persona strategy and realized that there is very little information available on how to manage personas over time. While there are some resources on what user and product personas should include, there's little guidance on how to create them, store them, update them, and syndicate them to relevant teams.
In this comprehensive guide, we'll provide you with everything you need to know about creating, managing, and refreshing your user and product personas.
Why do you need to manage user personas?
User and product personas help teams stay on track with the product strategy and vision, empathize with the target user, align sales and marketing campaigns and messaging, discover buying insights through user research, and remove bias from product decisions. Furthermore, creating user personas is not a one and done event, as the market and your products evolve so do your users and their usage, behavior and buying motions change. Which is why a framework that provides a refresh cadence to these assets is needed.
Who creates user and product personas?
User and product personas are typically created by product management and product marketing teams, as they are responsible for aligning product strategy to the persona’s problems as well as creating targeted messaging and campaigns. However, other teams such as sales, sales enablement and customer success may also be involved in creating and updating personas. These assets are company assets and should be treated as such, since so many downstream decisions are founded on what they hold.
What do user and product personas include?
User personas are typically used in B2C markets and product personas are typically used in B2B markets, but in practice they serve similar purposes with slightly different emphasis points. User personas are focused on understanding the characteristics, needs, goals, and behaviors of your target audience. They are designed to help you create messaging and campaigns that resonate with your target audience and address their pain points. Product personas, on the other hand, are focused on understanding the specific problems these users have that your product can solve and the relevant use cases for each user type. They are designed to help you position your product in the market and develop features and functionality that meet the needs of your target audience. In practice I have seen both used interchangeably for both marketing and product development use cases. Which is how they will be treated from this point forward.
Some examples of the types of information that might be included in user and product personas include:
Demographic information such as age, gender, and job title.
Psychographic information such as values, interests, and pain points.
Jobs to be done: The specific tasks, activities, or goals that the persona is trying to achieve.
Goals: The broader business or personal goals that the persona is working towards.
Challenges: The obstacles or pain points that the persona is facing in achieving their goals.
Other tools they use: The tools, software, or other resources that the persona uses in their day-to-day work or personal life.
Outcomes they are looking to achieve: The specific outcomes or benefits that the persona is hoping to achieve by using your product.
A useful template for user personas would look like this:
In complex enterprise B2B sales, the persona research extends to additional buyer personas along the approval chain, for example:
an important by product of collecting this data is establishing internal situational fluency that ensures your messaging and campaigns resonate with your target audience and that sales conversations hit the mark with your prospects. Make sure to regularly update your persona template based on feedback and insights from your internal customer facing teams, so that it remains relevant and effective over time
Where are user and product personas stored?
User and product personas should be stored in a message house document or similar repository that can be accessed by relevant teams. This document should include all of your user and product personas, as well as any relevant data or insights that have been gathered over time. It should be regularly updated based on feedback and insights from customers and internal teams.
What triggers an update to user personas?
User and product personas should be regularly updated to ensure that they remain relevant and effective over time. At a minimum for enterprise B2B markets I would suggest an annual refresh, typically in the months leading to the annual business or sales kickoff. But there are ad-hoc triggers that warrant a real time update. Some triggers that may indicate it's time to update your personas include changes in your target audience, changes in your product or services, changes in your marketing or sales strategy, feedback from customers , changes in the market or industry, or additional new products added as a result of mergers and acquisitions.
Which feedback loops feed into user personas?
To keep user and product personas relevant and effective, it's important to establish a feedback loop with your sales, customer success, support, and developer/community relations teams. These teams are on the front lines of interacting with customers and can provide valuable insights into their pain points, needs, and behaviors. User feedback tools such as Userpilot can also be used to gather data on user behavior and preferences.
Which tools help manage user personas?
There are several vendors that offer tools and services to help you manage user and product personas. These tools can vary in terms of features, pricing, and complexity, so do your own research. Some popular persona management tools include:
HubSpot: HubSpot is a marketing automation platform that offers tools for creating and managing user personas, including persona templates, data gathering tools, and persona management features.
UXPressia: UXPressia is a platform for creating and managing user personas and customer journey maps. It offers a range of templates and tools for persona creation, as well as collaboration and sharing features.
Miro: Miro is a collaborative whiteboard platform that can be used for persona management. It offers templates and tools for persona creation, as well as collaboration and sharing features.
Xtensio: Xtensio is a platform for creating and managing user personas, as well as other types of marketing and sales materials. It offers a range of templates and tools for persona creation, as well as collaboration and sharing features.
Personas.net: Personas.net is a web-based tool for creating and managing user personas. It offers a range of persona templates and customization options, as well as collaboration and sharing features.
There are also several tools that can be used to gather data from users, such as:
SurveyMonkey: SurveyMonkey is a popular survey tool that can be used to gather data from users. It offers a range of templates and customization options for creating surveys, as well as tools for analyzing and interpreting survey data.
Qualtrics: Qualtrics is a survey and feedback management platform that can be used to gather data from users. It offers a range of survey templates and customization options, as well as tools for analyzing and visualizing survey data.
Hotjar: Hotjar is a website optimization tool that includes features for gathering user feedback and insights. It offers tools for creating surveys and feedback forms, as well as heatmapping and session recording features to help you understand how users interact with your website.
UserTesting: UserTesting is a user research platform that includes tools for gathering feedback and insights from users. It offers a range of testing and research options, including user interviews, usability testing, and survey tools.
Google Analytics: Google Analytics is a web analytics tool that can be used to gather data on user behavior and demographics. It offers a range of data visualization and reporting features, as well as integration with other Google tools such as Google Ads and Google Search Console.
Userpilot is a customer success platform that includes features for onboarding, engagement, and user feedback. One of the key features of Userpilot is its user feedback tools. Userpilot offers in-app surveys and feedback forms that can be used to gather qualitative and quantitative data from users. The platform also includes tools for analyzing and visualizing feedback data, so you can quickly identify trends and insights and keep your user personas up to date.
By following these best practices and regularly updating your user and product personas, you can ensure that your messaging remains relevant and impactful, and that your product, marketing and sales efforts are targeted to the right audience. With the right feedback loops and tools in place, you can stay ahead of changes in your target audience and keep your messaging on point.
Need help with creating/managing user and product personas? reach out, the experts at Excelling Growth would love to help.
Keep growing…