Going Lean with Persona-Building

at Moz

A case study on how to we’re making our persona set informative,

believable, empathetic and usable

Why should you listen to this?

Hear a about Moz’s in-flight lean persona-building process –we’re in the middle of it

Get a feel for how leaner methods might work for you

Because I really value your insights

Let’s learn from each other!

First, a bit about Moz…

Who we are: Subscription-based

inbound marketing analytics tools

Mission: Help people do better marketing

2008: SEOmoz founded (previously SEO consultancy)

2010: V1 product launched – SEO-focused tools

2012: funding + growth + local and Twitter analysis tool acquisitions

2013: rebrand + major updates to target broader customer set

Today:

~22k customers~300K community~145 employees

Next, a quick review of personas…

What a persona is (and isn’t):

An archetype description of an imaginary but very plausible user that personifies these

traits – especially their behaviors, attributes, and goals.

What it’s not: a real user or a generic user

Source: Inspired: How to Create Products Customers Love, pg. 106

Sources: Enough funds: http://uxmag.com/articles/personas-the-foundation-of-a-great-user-experienceDan: http://blog.green-gecko.net/personas-not-as-scary-as-you-think/; Saab: http://www.atlargeinc.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/persona1.jpg

Some examples

Why personas are important

Personas can and should help us:

• Deepen empathy for and design effectively for the different types of users that make up our customer base

• Describe to the company who the product is for, how they will use it, and why they will care

• Rally teams around a common vision

• Understand both markets that we are and are not targeting

• Agree on prioritization!

How personas can be useful

Engineering: – Technical requirements to support the best customer experience outcomes– Feature priority, design and depth

Marketing: – Merge with demographics, cohort, distribution channels, etc. to inform marketing user types/personas– Deepen understanding of customer segments and needs for acquisition and retention efforts

Product:– Product roadmap planning and prioritization– User scenario definition and validation– Customer segmentation and customer retention strategies

Business planning: – Market positioning and strategy

Help and Operations: – Inform support and account management efforts based on users’ needs

All Mozzers: On-boarding and general customer empathy

How Moz went lean (or, thank you, Lean UX)

The process and timeline

1. Build prototype personas: 30 days– Build proto sketches using Lean UX principles– Identify overlaps across products– Update metrics and background data – Consistent format: names, faces, and brief stories– Outcome: Draft, usable personas

2. Validate, iterate, and construct final: 45 days– Outcome: Personas validated, revised

3. Share and foster adoption: Ongoing– Outcome: Richer knowledge of our customers by all Mozzers!

1. Inner-circle product + planning allies/experts2. Team – some classic feature team techniques:

Core team: • Product/UX-dense• All areas represented• Engineering critical • Knowledgeable about customers• Interested!• Work groups by product/site: 4-5Involved as needed:• Experts• Data Science

Reviewers: Core team + execs + managers

The team: inclusion, not exhaustion

Including your people is

including your customers

15

Informative for details, but not particularly useful as foundation

A note about your legacy personas

Phase 1: Build (Usable) Prototype Personas

17 Sources: http://custdevday.com/pages/content/lean-ux/ and http://coschedule.com/blog/lean-ux-user-personas/

Goal outcome: Lean UX proto-persona sketches

• Smaller, team that included Product vet

• Process-savvy

• Open!

• Clear ideas on customer segments documented on paper

Testing the processin flight

First thoughts on paper

The hidden talents of a biz-dev guy!

Tweak the process: more collaboration, up front

This is where things got FUN:

“Oh, man, I know that guy!”

“We see this all the time in our phone conversations with buyers”

“These people really are looking for a secret sauce”

Don’t get too clinical!

Rich, FUN, frank discussions, but couldn’t help dissect and stereotype

Lots of review and feedback brought inadvertent biases to light

5+ editorial scans for language alone

A side note about empathy and redemption

Source: Christina Wodtke’s essay in The Essential Persona Lifecycle: Your Guide to Building and Using Personas

Love them all!

CxO: Steve (Local)

PAIN POINTS / NEEDS BEHAVIORS

Tools need to support employees’ workflow

Business is always cash-flow positive, and he’s laser-focused on keeping it that way

Needs:Prospecting/RFP tool for large clients (to pick up Macy’s, REI, Home Depot)Automate repetitive, unskilled work

DEMOGRAPHICS

Founder/entrepreneur Age: 35-45White male? (Female examples?) Probably in tech in some form ~15 years Bachelor’s degreeExtremely comfortable with technologyDetails:

BuyerThis is API persona founder/visionary Steve Could be at: large agencyExamples:

Cross-over: API founder-visionary Steve, Moz Analytics Steve

Tweak the process more: we have a template!

Leader Steve (Analytics)Agency founder

PAIN POINTS / NEEDS BEHAVIORS

DEMOGRAPHICS

Needs: -- A single tool-- Justify inbound effort-- Good reporting-- Educate in all inbound channels-- Participate in all channels-- Actual value right away-- Pain points: too many tools, diff vendors

Values: -- Dreamer/creator-- Independence-- Empowering others

Details: More buyer (Notes – can’t read??)Could be in: Agency3-20: trenches; 21-XX: More buy decision-- entry point or decision, but not both-- something about delegated decision

25-34 (older: male; younger: balance)Education: all-- High-school prodigy-- College drop-out-- College/network

Connects/forwardsAgile: try everythingFigures out value prop/niche/clientsSavvy > ongoingLess savvy > projects are seasonalExpert in one channelAnswers email at 2 a.m.Bootstrapped Takes risks, fixes thingsEmpowers others

Defined similar personas separately for each site/product

~12 sessions with notes/feedback ongoing

Merging and identifying cross-over

SME Evangelist SteveAgency founder“quote”

GoalsMotivations and values: Innovation + new ideas, and moving the industry forward; knowledge sharing; efficiency; spreading the word; staying connected; disruptive technologies/insightsNeeds: Automation, more time to dig deep and think creatively; reports that allow him to analyze quickly; high-quality results and effective tools for teammates who are also creative and self-motivated

Abilities, skills, and knowledge Marketing domain knowledge: Expert Technical knowledge: Advanced to expertBehaviors:. Steve is a respected thought leader and SME in his industry, is highly collaborative, and shares information via his blog and networking. He speaks at conferences to generate leads for the agency and to build his own network. Steve’s passionate about his work, and digs deep into analyses whenever he can (but not as much as he’d like). He’s a hacker at heart, a tool-a-holic, and a risk taker, and loves playing with new and novel approaches to crunching data and metrics. For his team, he’s focused on empowering, finding efficient processes, and figuring out the value prop or niche for a service/tool/solution.

Personal detailsDefining characteristics are charisma and deep domain knowledgeEducation could be any level

Overview• Analytics + OSE: secondary• Local: secondary• Data: NA

Job/role: SEO turned founder of a medium-sized agencyCould also be found in mid-size to large agency, perhaps mid-size to large in-house brandPurchase influence: user, influencer, buyer

Activities: 3-5, chiefly work-related; TBD from customer interviews and/or industry surveye.g., researches new directions and solutions for getting unique data for clients

More roles like this: strategic senior leader of many stripes (VP/director of XYZ); senior architect; senior consultant; visionary/thought leader

Data sources and sources for assumptions:

A consistent format for sketch documents

Source for attributes: The Essential Persona Lifecycle: Your Guide to Building and Using Personas

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Moz Analytics

Moz Local

Moz Data

All-Business JoeBiz dev

Engineer OliverDeveloper

Technical Sage SabineSr. technical architect

Grey-Hat FrankSEO

Data-Driven DimitriInbound marketer/SEO

Storyteller SusanInbound mktr/SEO

Leader SteveAgency founder

Social-Inbound Connector MelissaMarketing manager

Get-Things-Done Kayleigh

Marketing generalist

Indie IanIndependent consultant

Jack-of-All-TradesEduardo

Office manager

Would-be apprenticeElizabethJunior SEO

Accidental consultantMackenzieWeb designer

Savvy NalaSmall-biz owner

Tech-averse ThomasSmall-biz owner

Decision-maker DanSenior executive

Black-hat IvanSEO

Reseller BobSalesperson

SME/Evangelist BenSenior consultant

Visualizing with a persona map

28

Moz Local

Moz Data

Moz Analytics

All-Business JoeBiz dev

Engineer OliverDeveloper

Technical Sage SabineSr. technical architect

Grey-Hat FrankSEO

Data-Driven DimitriInbound marketer/SEO

Storyteller SusanInbound mktr/SEO

Leader SteveAgency founder

Social-Inbound Connector MelissaMarketing manager

Get-Things-Done Kayleigh

Marketing generalist

Indie IanIndependent consultant

Jack-of-All-TradesEduardo

Office manager

Would-be apprenticeElizabethJunior SEO

Accidental consultantMackenzieWeb designer

Savvy NalaSmall-biz owner

Tech-averse ThomasSmall-biz owner

Decision-maker DanSenior executive

Black-hat IvanSEO

Reseller BobSalesperson

SME/Evangelist BenSenior consultant

Another view: product-specific

1. Validate, iterate, and construct final: 30-ish days, then ongoing

– Validate: Structured interviews, Industry survey 2013, customer segmentation research, targeted product usage analysis

– Iterate: Revise and add to proto-personas, solidify identities/details– Construct: Usable, organized persona set; Design work to make sharable, build persona wall– Outcome: Personas validated, revised

2. Share and foster adoption: Ongoing

– Make them available! Persona wall, wiki– Incorporate into team workflow: user stories/epics, marketing strategy/campaigns, retention programs– Encourage active feedback and collect in a “parking lot”– Revisit quarterly– Outcome: Richer knowledge of our customers by all Mozzers!

What’s next?

Takeaways so far…

Get clear on your goals

Ours:

A shared language and framework… for prioritizing across teams and empathizing with our customers.

A current picture of current and potential new customers...to account for our growing customer base, evolving business strategy, new markets, and expanding product line.

A learning experience… so that Mozzers can learn, share buy-in, and feel connected to the same goals and outcomes.

Get clear on requirements for your process

Ours:• Lean!• Collaborative • Believable :/• Usable <3• Current #• Fun

Process points to consider

• What’s the cost/benefit story – Time– Data and methods available/needed– Resources $ – Who should be involved

• How do we get buy-in? Adoption?• How do we keep these things current?

What will they look like?

Not this…

Not this… (but Mailchimp, you are amazing)

What would YOU do?

Source: http://blog.mailchimp.com/new-mailchimp-user-persona-research/

Thank you, and please discuss!

References

Books:The Inmates are Running the AsylumLean UXThe User Is Always Right: A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas for the WebThe Essential Persona Lifecycle: Your Guide to Building and Using Personas

Contact info:Karen Semyan, karen@moz.comw: moz.comt: @Moz f: www.facebook.com/moz