Clear target users: Steps to create a user portrait

Article Description: in the process of product development, it is critical to identify clear target users. Different types of users tend to have different and even conflicting needs, we can not make a product to meet all users.

In the process of product development, it is critical to identify clear target users. Different types of users tend to have different and even conflicting needs, we can not make a product to meet all users.

In order for team members to be able to put aside a personal preference in the development process and focus on the motives and behavior of the target user, Alan Cooper puts forward the concept of persona. The book "win over users" translates it into "personas", and in Tencent we are accustomed to using the term "user portrait". The meaning of the expression, is the virtual representative of the real user, is a deep understanding of the real data based on a virtual user. Through research to understand the user, according to their goals, behavior and views of the differences, divided their areas into different types, and then extract the typical characteristics of each type, give a name, a photo, some demographic elements, scenes and other descriptions, forming a user portrait.

Cooper also pointed out that it is not possible to design products for more than 3 user portraits, otherwise conflicting demands can be difficult to decide. When we have more than one user portrait, we need to consider the priority of the user portrait, in the design of the product, first consider the need to meet the primary user portrait, and then, without conflict, try to meet the needs of the minor user portrait. Of course, when a product is very complex, we may need to target different modules to consider the priority of their user portrait, for example, a comprehensive shopping site, a female role in the women's section is the primary user portrait, but in the men's section has become a minor user portrait.

The best practice is to conduct detailed research and create a user portrait of the product in the early stages of product development, however, in practice, many times you may feel that a product can be done, and after the product is launched, the actual user is found to have a large deviation from the previously conceived user. A product architecture designed by a user based on previous assumptions is difficult to host the needs of the actual user. The primary task at this point is still the target user who defines the product.

How do I create a user portrait? Below, I am responsible for an enterprise product for example, to tell the user portrait creation process, I hope to share with you the experience. In this project we created a portrait of the user through qualitative research. Of course, if necessary, we can also later through quantitative study of the resulting user portrait to verify. However, even if a quantitative user portrait is to be created, it is important to have a thorough qualitative investigation in the early stages, and a full understanding of the user can help us create a meaningful portrait of the user in the interpretation of the results of clustering analysis or the adjustment of parameters.

The creation of a user portrait can be divided into the following steps:

Research preparation and data collection

As with all studies, we first identify the types of users interviewed, design research programs, and research outlines.

The first question arises: who are we looking for research? Since the purpose of the research is to create user portraits, we should try to investigate the widest range of users as much as possible. By working with colleagues in different departments to find possible types of users, we might get a list of conditions, or a user matrix like the following, and then we can go to the user based on these conditions, each type of research 3. But users should be flexible, if we find out that some type of user has been omitted in the research process, or if we have found no new information after researching 20 companies, then we can cancel the rest of the research.

In addition, when choosing research objects, we should not forget about other stakeholders in addition to the actual users of the product. For example, it is the wife who buys the home freshener, but the husband and the child's taste for the scent also affects the wife's buying decision; the owner may not use or use a product, but he is one of the key players in the final purchase decision. So these people should be included in the scope of our research. For enterprise products, distributors are also our very important research object.

What kind of research method, mainly based on research purposes, project time and funding, and other comprehensive considerations. For example, our team is not familiar with business models and usage scenarios of business users, so we do our best to make on-the-spot visits to collect firsthand information, and because of the limitation of project time, we use the form of telephone research to replace the enterprises outside Shanghai.

The key to distinguishing different user types is the target and motivation of the user's use of the product, past/present/future behavior, not gender, age, and geographical demographic characteristics. The research outline is based on the actual situation of different products to design, in our project, mainly includes the following four aspects of content:

Data collection is a highly technical work, the host's skills and experience will affect the amount and quality of information collected, there are many articles and books on research skills, here will not repeat.

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