In my last post, I discussed the tension that exists between personas and segmentation and concluded that perhaps both personas and segmentation could use some rethinking. So we begain to blend the qualitative techniques of persona development and the quantitative rigor of segmentation. Here's the approach:
1. Start with qualitative research. The ideal approach would be observational/ethnographic, but I’m not a research snob and understand the realities of budget and scheduling constraints plus we’ve had successes with a well-designed and executed facility-based research approach. Something that falls in between the two in terms of effort and results are in-depth in-home interviews. Regardless of methodology, the key is to ensure your research guide goes deep into probing about respondents' needs and emotions.
2. Identify the key emotional needs. Bring everyone together after the research and dive into what you saw and heard. What are all the different emotional themes that emerged and in turn can be the foundation of your needs based segments.
3. Create segments through quantitative research. Design a psychographic segmentation survey, using the absolutely best trained talent you can afford. We’ve all written surveys but trust me, a survey about emotional needs is a completely different animal and one few of us are qualified to tame. As with the qualitative research, your answers will only be as good as the questions you ask.
4. Overlay segments with personas. Rely on the expertise of user experience professionals to bring these segments to life through detailed personas. Well-designed personas will include rich narratives and actionable scenarios that provide the design team with an intimate understanding of the audience.
The result? Better segments and better personas -- the detailed understanding of audiences' needs enriched by quantifiable attributes which:
- Help prioritize audiences based on business value, including size and value of groups
- Are associable back to targetable attributes (I didn't delve into this but assigning demographics back to emotional needs, behavioral trait or other targeting criteria can be easily done as part of the quantitative analysis)
- Provide greater credibility to personas by validating needs and emotional insights on a larger scale
Effective? Absolutely. Easy? Definitely not. But when you consider the amount of time, resources and budget that are invested into a persona definition or a segmentation project, why not do it right the first time by making the effort to bring the best of both together.
