Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | | Linked by Isobar 1 Steve Mulder Making Personas Work for Your Site

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | www.molecular.com | Linked by Isobar 1

Steve Mulder

Making Personas Work for Your Site


Business results depend on satisfying users

You are not your user

Learning about users requires direct contact

Knowledge about users must be actionable

Decisions should be based on users




Personas bring focus


Personas build

empathy


Personas encourage consensus


Personas create efficiency


Personas lead to better decisions

Personas for DesignInformation architecture, interaction design, visual design, content development, user testing

Personas for MarketingFramework for marketing campaigns, branding, messaging, market research

Personas for StrategyFramework for business decisions,offerings, channel usage, features


Creating Personas


Content: Word Cloud


User Interviews

• Cross-section of online customers, offline customers, non-customers, other audiences

• 15 interviews is a good starting point – You will need to do 2 as a minimum.

• Informal, loosely structured conversations


User Interviews: Topics

• History with the company• Intro to company, usage/purchase history, early impressions

• Domain experience and knowledge• Domain expertise, competitors, share of wallet

• Goals and behaviors• Needs/triggers for usage, typical process, channel usage,

feature and content usage, gaps, wish list

• Attitudes and motivators• Description of experience, likes/dislikes, influencers,

psychological drivers

• Opportunities• Reaction to new ideas, features, content, improvements

• Observation of actual behavior (field studies, usability tests)


Segmentation

Goals

Behaviors

Attitudes


Segmentation by Goals

What are different people trying to do on the site?

Hierarchy of Goals

Other goals:• Buy commercial property• Find an apartment• Sell a house

Be happy

Be independent

Buy a house

Understand process

Learn about points

Motivator

Motivator

Goal

Need

Task

• Get a mortgage loan• Get insurance• Find a moving company


Segmentation by Behaviors and Attitudes

How do users differ based on what they do or how they think?

Behaviors:• Frequency of real

estate activity• Frequency of visits to

the site• Channel usage for

various needs• Use of competitors

Attitudes:• Knowledge about

real estate• Motivators affecting

users’ likelihood to buy or sell

• Perception of the company/brand

• Etc.


Segmentation by Behaviors and Attitudes

Explore different combinationsF

requ

enc

y o

f rea

l est

ate

act

ivity

Knowledge about real estate

The risk-taker who thinks he knows more than he actually does

The novice who needs a lot of guidance

The pro who wants to use site tools and doesn’t need help

The smart one who wants validation of what she already knows


Segmentation: The Tests

Your segments should…• Explain key differences you’ve

observed among users• Be different enough from

each other• Feel like real people• Be described quickly• Cover all users• Clearly affect decision making


Qualitative Personas with Quantitative Validation


Quantitative Nirvana: Complete User Portrait

• Survey data

What the user does

• Site traffic analysis• CRM data• Self-reported survey data

What the user says

What the user is worth

• CRM data• Self-reported

survey data


Quantitative Personas


Making Personas Real


Components of a Persona


Scenarios

Francis and Michael have agreed that she’ll take charge of learning more about the home-buying process. She goes online, does a Google search for “Atlanta real estate,” and follows a link to the site’s home page. She sees that she can search for houses from the home page, so just for fun, she does a quick Atlanta search to see what kinds of houses show up. There are lots of houses in many different neighborhoods, and she easily narrows her results down to the area where she and Michael live, using a map. There are still many results, and she’s not quite sure which search options to use to narrow the search further. Then she notices a link for first-time home buyers and follows, it hoping for basic how-to information.

The link takes Francis to a step-by-step tutorial that explains the whole process, and she immediately feels like she’s found the right site from which to begin her house search. She carefully reads some articles for first-time home buyers, taking notes as she reads. She bookmarks other articles she wants to go back and read later. She also comes across the site’s calculator and starts trying different combinations of numbers to find out what she and Michael can afford. She particularly likes the glossary of terms so that she can finally figure out what “points” are and learn more about different types of mortgages. After an hour and a half of reading, her brain is full, and she shuts her computer down for the day, feeling like she got an excellent start.

The next day, she comes back to the site to look up information specific to Atlanta neighborhoods and finds lots of information on each. She’s able to focus on five neighborhoods that look particularly good. The fun begins that night, when she takes Michael through all that she has learned, and they set up a regular schedule for looking at online house listings.


Using Personas


Persona Document


Persona Cards


Features and Functionality


Features and Functionality: Brainstorming

Francis’ Goals

Learn about the home-buying process

Find out what she can afford

Discover what areas of Atlanta are desirable

Find a house that matches her criteria

Business Objectives

Visit the site often

Register for email alerts and newsletters

Subscribe to premium services

Recommend the site to others

Possible Features and Content

Introductory how-to articles

Glossary of jargon

Videos and podcasts

Success stories

Q&A with experts

Message board

Blogs

Rent vs. own calculator

Local experts to call/meet

Checklists to print

Interactive quizzes

Common mistakes

Animated cartoons

Book recommendations


Features and Functionality: Prioritizing


Steve [email protected]

PracticalPersonas.com

Thanks!

Documents

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | | Linked by Isobar 1 Steve Mulder Making Personas Work for Your Site