Marketers often use personas to help focus product development and design in a user-focused way. A persona is a very specific profile of a person that explains habits, likes/dislikes, personality and other important concepts that flesh out the character. Not all persona information will be directly linked to the product being designed, but each piece of information helps create a bigger picture that allows a designer or company to better empathize with this person even if the persona is very different from them.
Here is my first stab at creating a persona around someone I know that I created with the help of “The Empathy Map” from a very user-friendly book called Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur.
Alan is a 42-year-old professional. He works in the city and lives in the suburbs with his wife and two daughters (ages 13 and 15). He is the director of IT for a large office, having earned that position when he joined the company seven years ago. He used to be the Chief Technology Officer at a food and beverage start-up, but when that venture failed to take off after years of dedication, he left that position for his current company in order to find more stability and a better work-life balance for his family.
During the workday, Alan spends most of his time in his office or around the IT department. He primarily oversees his own department and ensures they have the necessary resources but he will occasionally take on a particularly difficult IT issue himself. A few times a month, he meets with his bosses and other executives within his company. Alan’s bosses often comment that his management skills seem to carry over well to his home life – any man living with three ladies needs to know how to empathize and negotiate. The company is a supportive place to work, and Alan’s bosses and colleagues frequently ask him how his weekend was or how his daughters’ latest swim meet went. Alan is similar to his coworkers and doesn’t go a day without asking “how’s it going?” at least 12 times and genuinely listening to the answers. Alan is well-liked at his company, and projects a professional but laid-back vibe when he walks around the office. He is a manager who treats his employees with respect and gives them plenty of autonomy. His employees consider Alan a guru of both IT and dealing with difficult people. Alan likes to hire self-starters who can run with tasks once assigned as his management style leans toward empowering his employees and removing obstacles for them.
Alan’s office is small and functional, but his desk and bookshelves show his personality, intellectual curiosity, and love for pop culture, especially Spider-Man and Stanley Kubrick movies. He surrounds himself with photos of family and unique gifts from friends or colleagues (like the didgeridoo an old friend brought him from Australia), making his office a great place to learn more about his life outside work if one is observant and asks questions. Alan finds his office a great place for reflection, and considers his ability to have some quiet time during the day to think a good measure of how far he has come in his career. Alan hopes that he might move up another step or two on the career ladder before retiring, but is frustrated that his promotion has been on a slower track than he’d like. He was hoping to have made a senior director after 7 years with his company, and worries that his time at the start-up may have slowed his current career trajectory as his company seems to value traditional experience more than his more unusual background.
As he is a parent of two teens, most of Alan’s friends are other parents in the suburbs where he lives. He is also close with some of his colleagues, although he mostly socializes outside work with colleagues from previous positions he has held throughout his career. He spends the weekends playing basketball, attending his kids’ swim meets, and chatting with friends at potlucks or barbeques. Alan’s friends like to remind him that he is lucky to have a job he likes that allows him time with his family, especially his friends from his time with the start-up. His less-sporty friends like to joke with him about his love for playing basketball despite the increased strain on his knees, saying he’ll eventually be “the oldest guy on the court!” Alan hopes to be able to continue playing for at least ten to fifteen more years, so he is also health-and-fitness conscious. He fears that maintaining this lifestyle will get more difficult as he gets older.
Alan values the time he gets in the evenings and on weekends to relax with his family. These are the times when he reflects that trading the start-up lifestyle for a better work-life balance was a great decision and the time he weighs the most when measuring his success. His wife, Elena, is his most trusted confidante and he values her opinion highly. She is a key influence on his decision-making. She will offer her input whenever Alan discusses a decision with her, and also whenever she can tell he’s grappling with a choice internally (after years of experience, she’s good at spotting this!). Elena is good at helping Alan discuss why he is feeling conflicted, helping to tease out the answer. As Alan and Elena have been married for 17 years, they have gotten into a groove when it comes to making purchasing decisions and they know how to make Alan’s low-six-figure salary cover their family’s needs and wants well. Alan’s teen daughters frequently ask him for the latest trendy clothing or gadgets, and Alan does his best to accommodate some, but not all, of these requests. Alan worries that if he gives the girls everything they want, they will become spoiled and not know how to get by with less than the maximum available, not to mention the fact Alan is not one of the few fathers who could afford everything a teenager might want!
Speaking of what teenagers want, Alan rarely watches television for himself. Other than during basketball season, most of the shows he watches are chosen by his wife or daughters. Unless an ad is televised during a game or on a rare occasion the show the ladies have chosen is not prerecorded on the DVR, Alan sees ads mainly online, either at home or at the office. As is typical of someone who works with computers and technology, he is nearly immune to the pop-up ads and banners that crowd his browser window when he surfs the web. The market tends to offer him upgrades for all his gadgets so he can be cutting edge, products that appeal to his love for pop culture such as statues or DVD box sets, and elaborate vacations to create “quality family moments” by spending large amounts of money to maximize his limited time off. Alan focuses on getting product recommendations from his friends and colleagues rather than from ads. His purchases are mainly influenced through targeted emails from his favorite sites, and also from product reviews online. Alan has learned from experience that reliable reviews save him time and frustration. As a technology-oriented person, Alan is easily frustrated by cheap shortcuts on products, especially gadgets. He doesn’t want to spend his free time finding a workaround for a faulty purchase.
Alan’s dream is to be promoted to a more senior position, which would allow him an even more flexible work schedule. He’d love to be able to work from home one or two days a week so he could see his daughters off to school and when they first come home. Since Elena runs a web-design business from the house, Alan would also see her more if he could work from home some. Alan’s dream life also includes more ways for him to enjoy his time with family and friends. Alan is already looking ahead to when his girls will go off to college, and hopes he can spend enough time with them before they leave.
Persona creation is definitely something I want to work on. In my career as a consultant, this will be a valuable tool to help my clients better understand subsegments of their customer base. Also I think this would a good exercise for me to do in order to better empathize with people when I have conflicts with them. Putting myself in the persona’s shoes will help me better understand others and prevent me from getting overly self-centered especially in a situation where there is conflict.
