APIA 2018 Shenzhen

1. www.kameelvohra.com
Client Persona
Creating, Validating & Interviewing

2. www.kameelvohra.com
About Me
LinkedIN: linkedin.com/in/Kameel
Website: kameelvohra.com
Kameel Vohra
Global Product Marketing Manager
Large Format Monitors & Projectors
Dell

3. www.kameelvohra.com
A little about you…
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/9V6NGZN
http://bit.ly/kameelsurvey

4. www.kameelvohra.com

5. www.kameelvohra.com
How important is knowing your customer?
Attention spans are short
The only thing that matters is seeing those few
things that you really want
Audience wins because they get what they
want, provider wins because they get more
purchases
1999 - Recommendation was essential to reduce new release
demand from 80% of all orders to 10%
2006 - Paid a $1m prize to get a better recommender
2014 - $150m investment in Recommendation
Today they have 300 people working on long tail
recommendation & discovery

6. www.kameelvohra.com
How to Create a Client Persona
?
The objective of building a client persona is to understand your target
client. It’s much easier to market to someone when you understand them
& their environment.
Most people in similar roles have similar problems, but don’t base your
persona on just one individual. Try to speak to as many people as you can
and understand their commonalities.
It’s important to SPEAK to them. Don’t hypothesize in a closed room.
The best marketing is intensely personal because it connects so well with
the audience. Even when using automation, act as if you were helping a
real person.
?
?

7. www.kameelvohra.com
What data do you need to achieve that?
Age
Gender
Marital Status
Children
Education
Job Title
Goals
Aspirations
Interests & Hobbies
Influencers
News & blogs sites they
Device(s)
Screen size / Resolution
Referrers
Payment method(s)
Purchase history
Click paths
Email address
Telephone
Shoe size?

8. www.kameelvohra.com
“We like to collect last page visited, return visitor, desktop or mobile and which
type, operating system, location if available and any previous session info.
We ask them to choose their own adventure and give us more info about why
they are there and their role in their company.
The reason is that if we can better ‘speak’ to these people through targeted
content, our clients are more likely to get a sale or conversion event.”
Mark Fidelman
Author, Forbes Columnist, Speaker, CEO – Fanatics Media
@markfidelman
What’s the single most important piece of data?

9. www.kameelvohra.com
What’s the single most important piece of data?
Robert Rose
Author, Speaker, & Investor - Content Marketing Institute
@Robert_Rose
“Behavioral data… content consumption, click paths, referring sites,
previous purchases, social participation, etc (in no particular order)”
Chris Brogan
Author, Speaker, & Consultant – Owner Media Group
@ChrisBrogan
“a first name. :)”

10. www.kameelvohra.com
Who
That bottom left blue bubble is not JUST a cursory
glance at WHO your client is. Consider how you will
quickly identify this set of people, demographically,
by title/function, etc.
Your client can rarely be solely defined by one
criteria. People are three dimensional, all these
bubbles put together define who your client is.
This is my job title, industry
& who I report to
This is my demographic
(age, gender, family
profile, interests)

11. www.kameelvohra.com
What
Understand what your clients are currently doing.
Understand their current purchasing habits, will
allow you to understand how to change them.
This is what my current process is
at the moment (e.g. I buy Gillette
razors)
Nobody likes change. You can’t beat a competitor
you don’t know or understand.

12. www.kameelvohra.com
Where
Answering these questions will give you clues as to
where you need to be marketing to reach your
client.
I’m a member of these
societies & clubs, read
these magazines, and my
go-to websites are…
This could just as well read: “We shop online at
amazon/lazada” or “I buy my toiletries at Tesco”
Get data that’s relevant to your business.

13. www.kameelvohra.com
WhyThis is why your customer is going to buy your
solution. This is NOT because of some feature, but
instead because of something that’s going on in
their organization or a problem that they currently
have.
This is the solution that I need &
how it’s going to help me
This is why I like speaking to
you instead of all the other
sales people that bug me
It’s very rarely price, but if it is “how much”
cheaper do you need to be? $1 or $100 ? Don’t
be wishy washy.

14. www.kameelvohra.com
How
Understand what they need in order to buy your
solution, then give it to them. Make it easy for them
to build their case, create justifications, and buy
from you.
These are the people &
obstacles I need to work around
to buy your solution
Children (Influencer)
Mother (Authority)
Father (Purchaser)
Netflix
logo

15. www.kameelvohra.com
This is my demographic
(age, gender, family
profile, interests)
This is my job title, industry
& who I report to
This is what my current process is
at the moment
This is the solution that I need &
how it’s going to help me
This is why I like speaking to
you instead of all the other
sales people that bug me
Client PersonaI’m a member of these
societies & clubs, read
these magazines, and my
go-to websites are…
These are the people &
obstacles I need to work around
to buy your solution
Segment Name
Hint: This slide is the template
3-5 of these should do

16. www.kameelvohra.com

17. www.kameelvohra.com
“Be prepared with some specific goals for the conversations so you have key
learnings. Be flexible and allow the conversation to just flow in whatever
direction it needs to go. Ask lots and lots of follow up questions.”
Eli Schwartz
Director, Survey Monkey
@5le
elischwartz.co
What’re some interview best practices?

18. www.kameelvohra.com
Hush….
Image credit: Kristina Flour (Unsplash)

19. www.kameelvohra.com
Good: “Where do you buy vegetables?”
Bad: “Where do you buy vegetables? From Tesco? Sainsburys? Or a
website?”
Terrible: “You order your groceries online from Amazon, don’t you?”

20. www.kameelvohra.com
Opinions, facts & quantitative data
Image credit: Indeed UX Research Manager Dave Yeats using cmx.io

21. www.kameelvohra.com
Why, why, why…
• The 5 Whys (1930). Sakichi Toyoda.
Founder of Toyota Industries.
• A 6 Six Sigma technique
• It’s a rule of thumb,
know when to stop.

22. www.kameelvohra.com
“The most common mistake leaders can make is not asking a question
because they think they already know the answer, but it’s important to first
get behind the assumptions you’re making about individuals.”
Krista Brookman
VP, Catalyst
@kristabrookman
Assume nothing

23. www.kameelvohra.com
Summary: Find your inner interrogator reporter
• Your guest is the expert
• Be prepared. Script an outline
• Let the conversation flow
• Silence is your friend. Don’t ramble. Make
notes. Cut in when necessary
• Observe & record facts. Not opinions
• Don’t assume anything

24. www.kameelvohra.com
Summary: What not to do
Do not make people defensive
Do not sell
Do not ask leading questions
Do not offer ice creams

25. www.kameelvohra.com
Great! Are you ready to sell?

26. www.kameelvohra.com
Validating your Customer Persona
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
- Henry Ford (There’s no proof he actually said this)
“Ford’s failure was one of not listening to his customers, but of his refusal to continuously
test his vision against reality, which led to the Ford Motor Company’s failure of continuous
innovation, resulting in a catastrophic loss of market share from which it never recovered.”
- Patrick Vlaskovits, HBR, https://hbr.org/2011/08/henry-ford-never-said-the-fast

27. www.kameelvohra.com
Virtuous Cycles
Brainstorm
InterviewSurvey
Customer
Profile

28. www.kameelvohra.com
It’s cheaper to
survey than to fail

29. www.kameelvohra.com
Starting with surveys
• Use an online survey tool
• Start with social media
• Pay to target your audience as
necessary
• It’s cheaper to survey than fail

30. www.kameelvohra.com
Size matters
• The right sample size
• The right people (not your
mum)
• If you can’t find enough people
to survey – how will you sell to
them?
Image credit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/sample-size/

31. www.kameelvohra.com

32. www.kameelvohra.com
Asking relevant questions
1. Do you know who they are, their title, gender, approximate age, etc.?
2. Who orders staplers?
a. Me!
b. Someone else.
c. No idea. They just magically appear on my desk
Who

33. www.kameelvohra.com
3. How many staplers do you have in the office?
a. We don’t use staplers
b. < 100
c. More than 100
d. I have no idea
4. What brand of staplers are you currently buying?
a. Stapilo-X
b. Staple-matick
c. Other (Please specify)
Asking relevant questions
What

34. www.kameelvohra.com
5. What issues do you face with your current brand?
a. Multiple selection
6. What headaches do you face when ordering?
a. Multiple selection
Asking relevant questions
Why

35. www.kameelvohra.com
7. Where do you usually purchase from?
a. Amazon
b. Tesco
c. Sainsbury
d. The convenience store near my home
e. No preferred vendor, anywhere really
8. Which country/state do you live in?
a. Dropdown list
Asking relevant questions
Where

36. www.kameelvohra.com
9. How do you select the brand? Are there any criteria?
a. Multiple selection or open question
10. Does the stapler need to be listed on a particular purchasing system?
a. Multiple selections or open question
11. Who selects the brand of stapler?
a. Me!
b. Someone else.
c. It’s selected based on a vote by the procurement committee
Asking relevant questions
How

37. www.kameelvohra.com
12. How often do you purchase staplers?
a. Whenever we need a new one
b. At the end of every month
c. Quarterly
d. Once a year
Asking relevant questions
When

38. www.kameelvohra.com
“A survey should have as many questions as possible without being redundant
and fatiguing the survey taker.”
Eli Schwartz
Director, Survey Monkey
@5le
elischwartz.co
What’re some survey best practices?
The survey we just did had 12 questions,
did we get what we needed?

39. www.kameelvohra.com
Innovation by numbers?
“It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people
don't know what they want until you show it to them.”
Steve Jobs
Apple
“Wow looks like I stirred up some controversy with my set Friday night at
UMF. Seeing a lot of people who don't understand. My full set wasn’t being
streamed, only the last 40ish minutes with all new material from my album.“
– Talking about “Hey Brother” / ”Wake Me Up” at UMF 2013
Avicii (Tim Bergling)
EDM Superstar

40. www.kameelvohra.com
Thank You
Thanks for listening, I hope you found this helpful.
Please share.
You can find the complete blog article and an editable persona template here:
http://kameelvohra.com/what-is-a-customer-profile/