Product Personas

2010: Great Superbowl; Lame Ads; Funny Post-Commentary

Congratulations to New Orleans for the superb Superbowl success!  Pity all of us who had to sit through those terrible, insulting ads.  (Except the Doritos ad with the dog collar.) 

Best post-game ad commentary: Oliver Miller at thefastertimes.com, Superbowl Advertisers Would like to Remind You That Women Suck.

He writes:

"Being a man is tough.  And the reason that being a man is tough is that we’re forced to hang out with women. This sucks, because no one can stand women.  And the only reason that guys even hang out with girls in the first place is that we’re biologically forced to — because our strong hunter-gatherer instincts force us to “spread our seed,” preferably by sleeping with skanks that we never have to call again, amirite? …But still, women.  Man, I hate hanging out with women, because girls drag you to the mall and then they’re all like “Blah blah shoes blah blah shoes shoes blah shoes blah shoes.”  And meanwhile, I’m all like, “Yo, babe, I was supposed to go Xtreme Base-Jumping with Ashton and Brody an hour ago! Shut your yap-hole, capicse?”  …And then I’ll slap whatever woman who is talking on the ass, and she’ll glare at me, ’cause women so don’t get it...."  continue at thefastertimes.com

Work/Life During the Dot Bomb

Have you read “And Then We Came to the End” by Joshua Ferris? 
It’s (significantly) the book I tried to write during that era, but far far far better than I could have done. It’s amazingly well done. Despite being a book about work, “And Then We Came to the End” is a riot. And it’s uplifting.

Its about people in the marketing department a marketing firm getting crushed by the recession.  It seems that the work life of a ad agency creative is quite similar to a programmer’s work life:
All that work just to get to the work; the work of making work interesting; the work that goes no where; the changes that make the previous work irrelevant; the work to prime the pump, plus work relationships, biases, prejudices, jealousies, strati and perspectives that change in less than the blink of an eye.

Getting people to want to read about the workplace is a tough nut to crack. Joshua Ferris has made a creamy butter of it.  (He even added a character who is trying to write an interesting workplace novel.)  We all spend too much time at work. This book helped me appreciate why we do it.

A Moment of Horror

I met a friend for drinks to casually brainstorm on her company’s brand image. I sat down, ordered a beer, some appetizers. We chatted.  Eventually we got to the subject of the brand. 

She handed me a typewritten paper with notes written over the text in places and in the margins. Her hypothesis is that her new brand should be created like a persona.  This is akin to my conceit that product should almost be it’s own persona.  (Hence the name of this blog.) I respect my friend a lot.  She has of integrity and professional follow-though on her idea.  She’s currently working for a B2B consulting firm.

So finally, feeling the drink just a bit, I looked down at her page. 

To:
·    Men, aged 30-59, who are ambitious/resourceful/efficient/punctual
·    Who presently spend a lot of their time in their car, generally enjoy driving, and often find themselves in unfamiliar territory or unforeseen situations, and ..

The page swam beneath my eyes.  I felt myself flush.  Ugh.  Wrong. Horrible.  Wrong.. Ugh.

I said, “Um..”  Then, I looked back down at the page, there was something about those handwritten notes….

Ohh. I exhaled.  The notes were good.  The notes concerned buyers concerns and needs. Ohhhhhh.  My friend was using an old B2C brand statement as a template. Whew.

Corporate Grief: Could This Be Your Company?

I recently had lunch with a consultant friend recently to share ideas and experiences.  I talked about some of the unexpected (to me) elements of blogging, my recent work and a couple of good prospects.  She told me about her her current client. 

Despite the intelligence and friendliness of each individual, as a group, the client employees were so defensive, ineffective, and frustrating that my friend and her staff began identifying them by their stage of grief.  Apparently, her last meeting was with Anger, Denial and Depression.

My friend said she was conflicted, but essentially eager for her current job to finish up.  She, at least, had reached Acceptance.

What’s Good for the Gander Might Eventually Be Available to the Goose

A friend of mine recently had his first baby.  He’s a middle manager at a good-sized technology company.  My friend made an arrangement with his management to work 4 day weeks for an extended period of time so he could spend more time at home with his child.  This post isn’t about kudos for my friend who wants to take on bigger than usual burden of childcare, this is about the deal he negotiated at work.  My friend is continuing to receive his full salary for 4 day weeks. 

As is obvious from my use of pronouns, my friend is male.  But even if I had found a way to hide the pronoun, has anyone heard of a woman getting such a sweet deal?

Yes, his boss, (probably sternly) said the familiar, “Make sure you get all your work done!”  But he’s getting paid.  Everyone I know, including me, got the pleasure of getting all of our work done for considerably less pay and often no benefits. Just to be clear, my friend isn’t using vacation time here.  His deal to “work longer days”, though like most people working in technology his day pre-baby were essentially endless already.

Am I upset that a man is getting a deal that women never seem to get?  Yes and no.  No, I’m not upset or jealous about my friend’s arrangement.  I’m very very happy for him.  His excitement about his child is wonderful. And I think the arrangement is a wonderful opportunity for the entire family.  But, I’m very sorry for us women who have to continue to doing more for less. 

On the bright side, my friend’s great deal is surely good news because – just a Sandra Day O’Connor made a practice of fighting for equal rights for men to get those laws and traditions “on the books” – this deal, should eventually lead to equal opportunities for women. At least for women within that company and department.  (Of which my friend said there were “maybe 2”. Sigh.)

Should We Re-Develop Our Entire Application?

Apple'€™s Christmas ads to "Give up on Vista"€ once again got me thinking about whether a company with a mature commercial product has a greater chance of success by:

• Re-developing its entire product

        or

• Re-developing components of the product in a piecemeal fashion

The opportunity to re-build an application under new, modern, technology conditions is seductive.  It'€™s the chance to build the best application everyone can imagine.  The technical staff will make better architectural decisions, eliminating those too-expensive-to-fix bugs and making future enhancements easier.  The UI will be modern and useful.  The code will be clean and supportable.  The product will be better product able to reach further in the market because it can integrate and interact with other programs and technologies built on the newer platforms.  Marketing will love the new product. They can put "€œNew & Improved"€ on all the packaging; they can show off the new interface in pictures.  The entire company will be proud to have a product far better than the competitors'€™ have. 

Meanwhile, modular re-development is limiting.  Developers can'€™t necessarily choose the latest and greatest technologies.  They have to work within the existing architectures and existing limitations of the product.  Most of the current bugs will remain bugs.  Users will be pleased with the improvements but still be frustrated with the overall product.  Marketing will want to know why more couldn'€™t be accomplished.  Everyone in the company will want the technical staff to "€œdo more".

In my experience, wholesale re-development is often a dream that turns into a nightmare as the re-development gets bogged down under the sheer weight of (and the mention inherent in) implementing all of the infrastructure, features, and enhancements of the mature product.  The project gets off schedule and eventually the company is forced to release something that isn'€™t nearly as good as the previous product. 

The reality of modular re-development is accepting incremental updates over time, eventually replacing the entire product so that little of it is brand new and little of it is incredibly old.  (Similar to the maintenance of an aircraft.)  Developers may feel frustrated and disappointed at the start of the project (rather than mid-way through). But, the company's risk is significantly limited.  With a piecemeal approach to re-writes there are fewer dependencies on unknown, un-built parts of the application and fewer moving parts.  The new code will be written.  It will be fine-tuned.  It will be integrated or sometimes grafted into places. (The Bionic Man vs. Frankenstein.)  Even if the worst-case happens and the module gets off schedule and the company forces the release, at least only a part of the application is imperfect rather than the entire product.

Neither of these options seems too encouraging. To be fair, technical development is always a challenge.  That'€™s why we make the big bucks. Good development is about making smart, sometimes daring and sometimes unpopular decisions. Don't let a a re-development effort provide your competitor with the perfect opportunity to steal your market. 

I suspect Apple is feeling pretty good about itself right now.  Certainly all its shareholders are.

A Highly Gratuitous Posting

I’m in the middle of a big project and haven’t had time to write the posting that is on my mind, so I thought I’d post a pretty funny video of me playing with my young daughter.

Then I got to thinking about how this video could be related to building products people love and I realized that YouTube may be the next great resource for discovering and sharing persona related information. Think about it. You can find revealing information about your target user and buyers from their own videos and you can easily compile and share video excerpts.

My video was taken by Joe Shapiro, a member of the Vermeer development team (which went on to become FrontPage) and now a professional film editor and actor (while continuing to work in technology). I don’t recommend this to anyone without children. But if you do watch it, stay until the end because you might be surprised to see who outsmarts whom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULQX7Gf7Bv0

'The Power of The Persona' is here!

Read the hard copy of my 'The Power of the Persona', a case study of persona investigation and application, in your current issue of Pragmatic Marketing's 'Pragmatic Marketer' (not yet available online) or download the pdf from here.

I look forward to your comments!

Is Stella a Famous Persona?

I was out with friends recently and found myself recounting a phone call I’d gotten many years ago.  Here’s the text as I recorded it shortly after the call.  I used it as the first scene of my 2nd , unpublished, novel. My friend Amy suggested I rework it as a short, New Yorker-type story and I just may do that.

Stella was sitting on the front porch watching the afternoon traffic pass by when I got the call on my business line.  It was the call I always knew would come.

“Hello.  May I speak with Stella, please?” she said.

“Sure. May I say who’s calling?”

“I’m looking for Stella Woronoff.  W-O-R-O-N-O-F-F,” she said.

“I’m Bonnie Woronoff,” I said. “May I ask who’s calling please?”

“Dunn and Bradstreet has business with Stella,” she said.  I thought her reply a bit haughty. 

“You have business with Stella?  May I ask what kind of business?”

That caused a slight chink in her armor.  “I’m not sure,” she said.  “It doesn’t say here.”

“But you're sure you have business with her?” I said.

“Yes,” she replied, “it says something here about Stella Bear.”

“Stellabear.com,” I said.  “It’s a website.  You have business with Stella regarding stellabear.com?”

“Yes.”

“And you've done business with Stella of stellabear.com in the past?”

“Yes.”

“Well, that's very interesting,” I said.  “I didn't know she was working with Dunn and Bradstreet.  Hang on.  I'll get her.” 

I paused a moment, debating…. 

“There is one thing I think you should know,” I said.  “Stella’s a dog.  She’s a big beautiful Newfoundland dog.”

“Oh,” the woman said, though she was dumbstruck only momentarily.  “Is she famous?”

I was impressed by the nimbleness of her response.  Then I realized the woman was entirely serious. 

“Famous?” I said, “What do you mean?  She's pretty popular in the neighborhood, but I wouldn't say famous.”

“Is she famous like Morris-the-Cat or Lassie?”

“No, she’s not famous,” I said.  Then a thought occurred to me.  “Why?  Do you have connections?  I think she should be famous.”

“Uh, no,” the woman replied sounding neverous.  As if I were stalking her. 

“Let me just update her file,” the woman said. 

Damn, I thought. I’d frightened her.

“Is there an option in the file for ‘dog’?” I asked.  As a developer of business systems, I was curious.

The woman then cited my address in Lexington, MA.  “Is that correct?” she asked.

“That’s where I live,” I agreed.  “Stella has a small apartment out back.” I admit it. At that point, I was just messing with her.

“Huh?” the woman said.

“Her doghouse….” 

The woman quickly thanked me for my time.  I thanked her for calling.  When I finished laughing, I joined Stella on the front porch.  She wasn't interested in the story, but she rolled onto her back and let me rub her belly.

Read "the Power of the Persona" in September

Last month in Why a Blog on Personas?, I mentioned a case study I wrote called "The Power of the Persona" to be published in the Pragmatic Marketer, anticipated for August '07.  The current info is that subscribers should be receiving the magazine at the begining of September.

If you are not a current subscriber to the Pragmatic Marketer, you should be. As a Product Manager, I learn something new, thoughtful and/or applicable from each edition. My developer friends seem to appeciate the magazine too. (btw, it's free.)

If Personas Are So Great, Why Haven’t I Heard Of Them?

As I talk with more and more people about personas, I find very few who have heard of them. I find this interesting as my social and business spheres are mostly populated with people who build, market or sell software for a living. Of the people I have recently spoken with, some product managers, a few marketing people, and none of the developers (except those I’ve provided personas to) are familiar with the concept of personas. At a recent BPMA meeting, I quickly asked the group how many of them were familiar with personas. Roughly ¼ of the attendees raised their hands. As a persona evangelist I clearly have my work cut out for me.

Here are my top 5 reasons why everyone isn’t yet using personas:

    #5. ‘The Inmates Are Running the Asylum’ was published in 1998, and good news travels slowly.

    #4. Some companies have a respected internal person who advises the developers and marketers on the user and buyer needs, skills and goals.

     This is akin to the ‘feed a fish vs. learn to fish’ metaphor, because while not a substitute for personas, a strong user and buyer advocate will eliminate the screaming need for personas within the development organization.

    #3. You’ve seen cardboard personas and decided personas are just more paperwork.

     IMHO, this is a mistake similar to deciding that OO programming wasn’t useful just because you started working with early version of the MFC.

   #2. The companies using personas realize they have a competitive advantage, and are keeping quiet.

     Not to make you paranoid, but might this include one of your competitors? Have they just put out a great new release? Are they about to?

   #1. Programmers just want to program.

     Personas are the cure for analysis paralysis! If you want to do more programming and less of everything that isn’t programming, tell your management you want a set of rock-solid personas.

While there are probably more reasons than this list of why you may not have heard of or not be using personas, I’m confident it’s just a matter of time before all good developers realize they need a set of personas to go with their requirements.

Why A Blog On Personas?

Several years ago, I received some fantastic Product Management training from Steve Johnson of Pragmatic Marketing. In addition to Steve’s insightful personal anecdotes about working in and guiding product development and marketing, the training included the advice that “Personas” – or carefully chosen example users – should be used to guide the product requirements, development and marketing.

Something about the concept of personas resonated with me, so I did a good bit of research on personas, including reading “The Inmates are Running the Asylum” a very persuasive book by Alan Cooper in which he first introduces the concept of personas for product development. After several months of research, my sense that personas could be a very valuable tool for influencing the overall goodness of the product under development was stronger than when I’d started.

Let me interrupt this recollection to tell you something about myself. I’ve been in software design and development for 20 years. Over the course of my career, I have sometimes found myself in the frustrating situation of knowing the product I was working on was being mis-built. That is, that the developers and management were making technical and implementation decisions that simply wouldn’t work for the intended user base. Maybe it was my years in technical support, maybe the fact that I am the child of business owners – I don’t know, but somehow, on these occasions I knew that our values and judgments were off. Sometimes I knew better choices. More often I just knew that we didn’t know enough.

This mis-building of product is never intentional, as everyone always wants their product to succeed. Just getting a project approved takes a tremendous amount of work. First, there is the market research, executive presentations, evangelizing, and board meetings. Then there is the research and writing of lengthy requirements, followed by the writing and debating of lengthy specification documents. Until, finally, we get the chance to actually build the product. In the end, it is the developers and their management who really decide what gets built, how and when. Yet, we developers are usually the ones with the least exposure to the user and the market.

Companies try various means to expose us developers to the needs of the user including corporate trips to user sites, user visits to headquarters, highly detailed requirements, lengthy specifications, use-cases, scenarios, etc. However, none of these accomplish what the persona promises to do.

The persona promises us:

• A realistic description of “the right” user and his needs, skills and desires.
• An awareness of the environment in which our product will be used
• The ability to empathize with the user

Thus guiding a team of developers to make good, consistent, long term and common decisions while implementing the product.

I finally got the opportunity to give personas a try. You can read about my experience in detail in the August '07 issue of the Pragmatic Marketer.  Until that’s available, I’ll summarize the experience here by saying: personas brought a sea change at every level. Product decision making improved immediately throughout the organization.

In particular:

• Developers felt empowered.
• Product Management and Development were finally on the same page.
• Product Managers were required to do far less internal evangelizing.
• Developers documented less and coded more.
• First-pass implementations met the users’ needs while matching their skills.
• Marketing improved their customer and prospect communications

It’s now been a few years since I was first introduced to the concept of personas and I remain very impressed with the immediate and long-term impact of good personas.

Since the concept of personas, their value and their impact is not yet widely established, I have started this blog to help get the word out.