Skip to content

Describing Your Market with Personas

Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Prospects and Customers are Individuals

As a writer, I’m always interested in my audience. Business people also need a clear understanding of their prospects and customers. Marketing pros often focus on demographic statistics, but those might not provide an integrated picture of prospects and customers as individuals.

One tool from the software development field that may be helpful is the written persona. Software developers want to understand the typical user, so that they can design an appropriate user interface and program functionality. Developers who use the Agile methodology often write personas about typical users.

Prospects and Customers as Fictional Characters

A persona is a brief, but detailed, description of a software user or, more generally, a typical prospect or customer. Think of the persona as a description of a fictional character. The persona doesn’t describe an actual person, but may incorporate the characteristics of many real people. Some of the characteristics that a persona might include are:

  • What’s her name, which could indicate generation or ethnicity?
  • What kind of work does she do, which could indicate income, education, and social status?
  • What concerns, needs, and desires might she have, that could be satisfied by or complementary to the products you offer?
  • Do you have a photo of an ideal prospect or typical satisfied customer? (Remember, we’re talking about a person, not a data set.)
  • Does your prospect or customer have any specific skills or knowledge that help her use or appreciate your product?
  • Does this persona use your product regularly or rarely?
  • Does this person consume your product or resell/provide it to a consumer?

Write Personas for Your Marketing Plan

Here’s an exercise for you; write three personas for prospects or customers of your business. Remember to keep them brief: 250 words or one double-spaced page should be enough.

Filed in Business | | Comments (0)

Accepting Our Insecurity

Saturday, January 1, 2011

“Let Us Have Faith” by Helen Keller, 1940

Security is mostly a superstition.
It does not exist in nature,
nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
To keep our faces toward change and
behave like free spirits
in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.

In the past few years most of us have experienced insecurity, particularly during this recession. You may not have been disposed of by an employer or had to close down a business, but you probably know someone who has gone through that experience. You may think your turn may come soon.

Taking action reduces the anxiety from insecurity

Based on my experience, you can reduce your stress and anxiety by taking positive action to change your situation. The world will change around you. You must adapt to that change and take action, however small, to improve your situation.

After I was disposed of by an employer, I suggested to my wife that we move halfway across the country to be closer to her family. I was ready for a change of scene; she was ready for a less work-oriented lifestyle. Moving your home is one of the top ten stressful life events (along with not having a job), but we were moving toward a new and hopefully better life.

Your employer isn’t secure, neither are you.

So far, our move to a new home in Des Moines, Iowa has been successful. I don’t wake up at 2 am gnawing on my insecurity anymore.

I’m working, but don’t have a job. Some people may cling to the false sense of security that a job gives them, but they should understand that all jobs are temporary. The world around them continues to change. They can become victims of that change or they can change with it. Working for a big employer may provide some buffer from the negative (and positive) changes in the world, but eventually even big corporations have to change or fail.

Filed in Inspiration, Work | | Comments (0)

You Must Bicycle to Work This Fall

Monday, October 25, 2010

“Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all. “

–Stanley Horowitz

Be part of the scenery, don't just look out the window.

Now that it’s fall, too many people put their bicycles into the garage until spring. You may not want to bike in the snow (I have to check to see if my studded tires arrived at the store yet.), but don’t your bike away too soon. Put on a sweater and pedal out. This morning I rode my bike to work through the woods along the Raccoon River and realized how much I enjoy biking in the fall.

Why should you bike to work this fall? It’s–

Fresh

Leave your stinkbox at home. You know how bad your car smells. Which do you dislike more, the smell of burned gasoline or the toxic ‘new car smell’ of plastic and adhesives? And, don’t get me started on ‘air fresheners.’

Fun

WTF? A detour! Where should I go? Oh, I have to find my way? But, then I would see something…different. I crossed over a different bridge, but found my way. Hey, I got to explore. For a few minutes, I got lost, then found my way. Doesn’t that sound like more fun than the same ol’ boring rouitine to work? No? You need to get out more.

Sunny

Or at least overcast. Either way you need the sun more than you need to spend more time inside your home, office, or car. We don’t get enough sun during the winter. Not enough sun, not enough vitamin D. What does that mean…less sun, less vitamin D, more depression.

Beautiful

This year, after 20-plus years of California’s un-fall, I’m enjoying the changes. I had forgotten fall’s messiness, the sound of leaves, and the crispness in the air. Sometimes I meet deer in the woods. I enjoy the scenery much more than staring at the car ahead of me.

Healthy

My bike ride today took less time than my usual morning run. Do NOT go to the gym! That smells as bad as your car. No, you’re not too obese to ride a bike. Waddle down to WalMart or your local bike shop. Buy something cheap so that you can give it away in a few months after you’ve lost a chunk of weight.

Did you enjoy your drive to work today? Tomorrow, ride your bike.

Filed in Uncategorized | | Comments (0)

Disrupting Routine

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Yesterday The Weather Channel forecast that the afternoon temperature in Des Moines would “Feel Like” 113 degrees. That’s why I didn’t bicycle to the office. Last week my excuse was that the Raccoon River flooded the bicycle/pedistrian trails.

Heat indexes? Bike/ped trails? Flooded river? Back in Cupertino, California, we rarely dealt with such things. Some summer days would reach the 90s, but we would console ourselves that it was “a dry heat.” Here, in Des Moines, with humidity about 70%, my eyeglasses fog over when I step out of an air conditioned building. This is a wet heat. As a NorCal bicycle commuter I was used to painted bike lanes or cycling in the right lane with traffic. Here, riding on paved, wide trails seems…wrong. Bikes shouldn’t be on sidewalks, even if they’re called trails. And, yes the Guadalupe River has gotten high a few times and flooded a freeway underpass. Here, cities build flood gates that can be lowered to complete a flood wall (and block a major boulevard).

So, I haven’t yet re-established a bicycle commuting routine. When the weather cools, I’ll start doing sprint intervals near Grey Lake park. When the summer turns dry, I;ll establish my new commute routines. For now, I’m coping with the disruption of old routines and establishing new ones. Yes, disrupting routines can be disconcerting, but I like watching thunderstorms, biking without cars, and walking along the river.

Disruption has both cost and value.

Filed in Uncategorized | | Comments (0)

Signature Incentive

Friday, July 9, 2010

Now that I’ve added my blog’s URL to my Gmail signature, I’m going to have to update my blog more frequently.

Filed in Uncategorized | | Comments (0)

Focusing on Strength

Monday, May 24, 2010

Recently I’ve picked up a series of books based on surveys about personal strengths conducted by Gallup, the pollsters and market researchers. My brother-in-law, who used to work at Gallup, gave me a copy of Soar with Your Strengths. In it the authors argue that each person has a primary strength and that you should focus on developing and utilizing that strength, rather than trying to correct your weaknesses. A later book in the series, Strengths Finder 2.0, provides access to an online assessment that readers can use to determine their top five strengths.

My primary strength is Communication. Since I’ve been a technical writer for over ten years and a public speaker for a couple of years, that’s not a surprising result. I suspect that my sister, a lieutenant colonel in logistics, might find that her strength is Discipline. The results of the Strengths Finder may seem obvious, but should be helpful if you need to refocus your work.

In the past few months I’ve taken several interests / values / aptitude assessments and explored work alternatives. Although the result of my Strengths Finder assessment may seem obvious, it feels like a validation that I’ve been on the right track for the past several years. The Strengths Finder helped me refocus on my primary strength. It provides a rationale to develop and use my specialized knowledge and skills. The Strengths Finder also identified four less-obvious strengths as complements to my primary strength. Working on these won’t be a priority, but understanding and integrating them with my primary strength should be valuable.

Recommended Reading
Soar with Your Strengths, read Chapter 3-Find Out What You Do Well and Do More of It. Donald Clifton and Paula Nelson

Strengths Finder 2.0, provides access code to strengths assessment. Tom Rath

Filed in Uncategorized | | Comments (0)

An Employee Becomes a Self Allocating Resource

Sunday, April 4, 2010

“After we finalize the work plan, I’ll allocate a resource to work on this project.” my manager said to her counterpart. I realized that she was referring to me, while I sat next to her. At that moment I had become an unspecified human resource.

Initially, I felt surprised to be so easily dehumanized. However, in that corporation’s culture that was how managers routinely referred to lower-rank employees. It’s possible that at the time she considered hiring my replacement or offshoring the project to India. However, a few days later I was “allocated” to the project as I had expected.

This experience led me to do a bit of research and thinking about my role as an economic resource.

One of the primary responsibilities of managers is the efficient allocation of labor and capital, the basic economic resources. In a knowledge-based business first- and second-level managers have limited opportunity to allocate capital. A newly-acquired human resource only requires a cubicle and a PC. The only capital allocation involved in integrating a new employee may be a squabble with another manager over an open cube. The PC is often a hand-me-down from a former employee.

As I thought about the manager as resource allocator, I began to consider myself as a self-allocating resource. Beyond a basic level of compensation, cash or tiny bits of equity may be insufficient compensation for a dysfunctional work environment. At that point I should act as a self-allocating resource and find another job, for my sake and for the success of my current and future managers.

Filed in Uncategorized | | Comments (0)

Starting a Period of Creative Pursuit

Thursday, April 1, 2010

“Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.” — Albert Einstein

Today begins a period of creative pursuit.

Although Einstein specifies reading as the diversion that may lead to lazy thinking, he does not prescribe writing as the cure. However, writing provides me the most likely avenue of creativity. I sing, but don’t carry a tune. I draw, but rarely and only out of curiosity. I dance, but only to the amusement of my family.

At the moment, each day I plan to work in four genres in an attempt to keep my interest and drive:
  • Writing Practice – 1000 words. Using a topic from Natalie Goldman’s book “Writing Down the Bones” as a starting point, I will write uncritically, creatively.
  • Blog – 250 words. For the time being this will be experimental. The “pros” suggest that a blog should have a focused niche market. For now my blogging will use the old style of journal or workbook. Not a log of activities, merely a commentary on what seems important to me.
  • Fiction – 750 words. This may be only a bit less free-form than the Writing Practice. If I write 750 words per day, the result may be three short-story length pieces.
  • Non-fiction – 500 words per day. No topic yet.
Big challenge: ten pages per day. What would it take to jam this out for a month?
Filed in Uncategorized | | Comments (0)

Balanced Information Diet

Thursday, March 18, 2010
Timothy Ferriss, in “The 4-Hour Workweek,” introduced me to the concept of a low-information diet. A few months ago I tried it and liked it.
However, I’ve fallen back into information gluttony, particularly at the news buffet. My browser displays a menu of bad habits: Google News, the Des Moines(IA) Register, the San Jose(CA) Mercury News, Weather Underground, Bloomberg, Slashdot, and Pro Publica. This morning I  gorged on topics, trends, and trash. Nothing that I read helped me make today productive, fulfilling, or happy. All I got was a news hangover.
While looking for remedies for my hangover, I found a quote from Einstein, which Ferriss also quotes:
“Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.”
While Ferriss proposes a one-week diet, I’m considering a lifestyle change. Diets too often focus on a limited-time period; “Lose ten pounds in two weeks!” The diet may succeed in the short term, but after the diet period old habits return. To capture long-term benefits, you must make a permanent lifestyle change.
I plan to begin a reading lifestyle change on April 1. I’m considering balancing the mix of my reading, possibly adapting some of Ferriss’s info diet suggestions. My primary objective is to increase my output. Rather than avoid consumption, I want to approach creativity.
Filed in Uncategorized | | Comments (0)

Hello world!

Sunday, January 17, 2010

This is the first post. Many more to come.

What are you grateful for?

Charlie

Filed in Uncategorized | | Comments (1)
Blog WebMastered by All in One Webmaster.