The document discusses the use of personas in product management. It describes personas as archetypical customers that bridge the gap between target market groups and real customers. The benefits of personas include helping product managers think of users and distilling large markets into single relatable profiles. Personas should be developed during planning to inform requirements. The document outlines how to create personas through research and segmentation and cautions that assumptions should be avoided.

1. Characters at work
The use of personas in product management
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White paper | presentation July 2010

2. Overview
Adrienne Tan, co-founder of brainmates has published a white paper
on a topic that is highly relevant to product managers.
 The origin of the persona tool
 Use of personas and their benefits
 Types of persona including
primary and secondary buyers,
negative personas and family
personas
 Tips and guidelines on good
persona development
 Ways to avoid pitfalls and
challenges related to personas
To get your free copy of the white paper please email info@brainmates.com.au

3. Product managers love to solve problems
Effective product management requires practitioners to solve
lucrative customer problems that drive significant value for
businesses over a period of time.
The brainmates Product Delivery
Cycle provides a structure that
defines tools and activities that
help companies deliver
profitable products and services
Personas can be used to help to
define, develop and deploy
products that solve customer
problems.

4. What are personas?

5. A key tool for product managers
User personas are “archetypical” customers of a product or service
User personas bridge the gap between an abstract target market group and
real customers.
Developing a persona helps product managers focus on the goals,
motivations and behaviours of their target customer and provides a
meaningful way of focussing on the whole target market group.

6. Benefits of creating personas

7. Benefits of creating personas
 Encourage product managers to think of the buyer and/or user of
their product
 Distil large target markets into a single person that stakeholders can
relate to and understand
 Provide a focal point for planning and help solve disagreements
over product decisions
 Provide product managers with solid evidence against other interest
groups who are making uninformed or snap decisions

8. It’s easier to satisfy your customer
when you know your customer

9. Developing a persona helps keep product definition and development
focused on the customer which in turn leads to revenue generation and
achievement of business goals and objectives
Knowing the customer helps businesses to make the right product
decisions and deliver optimal value to the customer
If the customer’s needs and wants are met then customers are
more likely to be satisfied.
This will help the business to differentiate and stand-out from the
competition

10. A brief history of personas
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11. A brief history of personas
 The term user persona was coined by Alan Cooper in 1998 in his
book ‘The inmates are running the asylum’
 User personas were borne to prevent software from being
developed in an ad hoc, random or accidental manner
 User personas helped teams ensure products were user driven,
not feature driven
 Personas are now a heavily researched area of product
management, development and related disciplines

12. Use of personas today
Product managers, user experience designers and developers use
personas to:
 Fuel ideation and development processes
 Create products and services including physical goods, retail
experiences, software applications and more
 Test, refine and improve the experiences involved in using
products and services
 Anticipate future opportunities
 Identify factors of value on which to differentiate from
competitors

13. Types of personas
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14. Types of personas
Several personas can be created and each provides different insights
that help in product design, development and deployment
 Primary persona
 Secondary persona
 Negative persona
 Group or family persona
Learn more about the definition,
development of, and uses of each of these
person types in the full white paper.
Freely available by contacting
info@brainmates.com.au

15. When to create personas
Personas should be developed during the Product Planning stage
The Market Requirements
articulate customer
requirements which may include
buyers and users.
It’s best to ensure a solid
understanding of the ‘customer’
before preparing requirements
that feed into later stages of
product requirements

16. How to create personas
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17. How to create personas
Creating personas requires a combination of quantitative and
qualitative analysis. The steps below explain the subsequent process
and these are defined in full detail in the white paper.
1. Market segmentation
2. Customer research – primary
and secondary
3. Complete persona – using the
brainmates persona template
To get your free copy of the white paper please email info@brainmates.com.au

18. Persona beware!
There are some common pitfalls and risks associated with
creating personas:
 Be focused – where appropriate, it’s better to create multiple
personas than to try to wrap different customers into one
 Don’t act on assumptions or hunches – base persona details on
real, accurate and validated information
 Ensure you review personas with all stakeholders – customer
service, operations, sales, research, marketing and other staff
 Where possible, gather direct input from real customers

19. Ultimately, it’s about
understanding your customers
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20. Conclusions
The use of personas in product management and related disciplines
can help internal and external stakeholders to better understand the
target market and customers.
These ‘Characters’ help bring life to otherwise dry and complex
statistics and profiles.
Personas transform data and details into true and meaningful insight.
Personas are a useful tool for product managers in the definition,
development and deployment of products and services

21. Request the white paper
email info@brainmates.com.au
to request your free copy

22. Product innovation and design.
brainmates leads companies to define, develop and
deploy customer-centric products and services.
Phone: +61 (2) 9232 8147
Email: info@brainmates.com.au
Web: www.brainmates.com.au
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