Lead the Investment in Personas

As a product manager/product marketing manager, we all know that the development of Personas goes a loooong way in making our lives easier. In product management, if you have a persona representing your target market as you are developing features, it is an easy thought to ponder “What would John say about this? Would this solve Mike’s problem How much would Bill pay for this?” In product marketing, having a persona developed as you are building out positioning and sales tools makes it easy and simple to help explain your product’s story “This is how Jane feels about the problem, and this is how we solved it. When you talk with Sue, point out how this helps her. Carol will love this feature because it does that.” High-level examples I know, but the gist of the message is, persona development makes our lives – and jobs – easier

So, why do so few companies invest in developing personas?

If product management/product marketing can so easily make the case for persona creation, why don’t they? Do that many of us not know how to do it? Are we afraid if we don’t get it just right that there won’t be value? Do we not trust in our own abilities to sell the value of the creation and use to our execs that we don’t take on that effort?

From the outside looking in, I feel that if our jobs are to solve the market problems, and not simply stamp the feature plan developed by development, than we need to act in a way that shows our leadership. And, the proper development of personas is just one way.

There are some really good resources out there for help if you aren’t sure what to do. But, no matter what you read or who you listen to, everything starts the same way – get out from behind your desk and talk to your market. Then, and only then, can you find out who your personas are, why, and what they need.

 

(And, if you still need help, drop me a line – I’ll be happy to talk with you.)