Customer Personas

Customer personas are archetypal descriptions of who you're selling to — a named, concrete profile (e.g. "Marketing Mary," "IT Ian") that captures goals, pain points, context, and behavior. Done well, they align product, marketing, and sales around a shared picture of the customer; done poorly, they're generic fiction that doesn't change decisions. In building and scaling, personas are useful when they're grounded in research and tied to segments and journey stages, and when they drive what you build and how you message. The test is simple: does "would Marketing Mary care?" or "is this for the economic buyer or the end user?" change a real decision? If not, the persona is wallpaper. Keep the set small (2–4) and refresh from interviews and data so they don't drift into fantasy.

Build personas from real data: interviews, usage, win/loss. Keep the set small (2–4); add detail that affects decisions (goals, objections, where they are in the journey), not demographics for their own sake. Use personas in planning: "Would Marketing Mary care?" "Is this for the economic buyer or the end user?" Refresh when the market or product shifts.

Customer personas are archetypal, research-based profiles of who you're selling to. Use 2–4 personas to align product, marketing, and sales; tie them to segments and journey; and refresh from data. When they drive decisions, they're useful; when they're generic fiction, they're not.