The more diverse a group a brand hopes to appeal to, the harder it is to construct a compelling brand proposition.
Personas influence content/feature prioritization, brand positioning and clarify design problems by clarifying the users’ goals (what the product must and must not do) and finally filters for unfocused efforts driven by internal personal opinions.
The persona excerpts below illustrate the way consumers use products and defines their needs through story telling so they become memorable, real:
Persona projects completed:
eBay Motors and Express projects: With the eBay UX team,
Shutterfly: I initiated and completed the project with a cross-functional team,
Men’s Wearhouse: | initiated and completed the project, introducing the female target,
99designs: I initiated and completed the project with CEO, CMO and Brand Manager.
Shutterfly.com – Users differ in their approach to photography:
Personas at Shutterfly were founded in the target demographic’s approach to photography (casual or formal), what their motivation was for capturing the image (arc of a story, or a moment in time), the reward received for saving memory (social, personal) and subject matter. Ultimately the persona-set informed many of our marketing and creative strategies.
eBay Motors – Users differ in the what they need from the product:
Personas for eBay Motors informed entire user flows and finding. Defining each of the browsing and purchasing flows based on the target’s unique needs informed communication systems that supported their needs throughout the entire experience. For instance, if you were a repeat parts purchaser, you have less need for trust messaging through your flow than someone who is using the product for the first time.
99designs – Businesses have unique design needs.
The personas for 99designs.com were framed by the unique design needs of business owners. Working with the CMO, CS, sales and the brand director we developed stories of customers based on segmentation, census data and current customer data to inform communications that framed the use-case needs, seasonal content, and focus business opportunities.
