Customer profiles need to be deeply accurate
A persona filled with decorative information but lacking purchasing motivation is merely for display, not for use.
A persona is useful when it focuses on the pain points, motivations, and decision-making criteria of the customer, not when it lists extensive demographics and personal preferences. The necessary depth is enough for you to write a piece of content and make a sales pitch immediately. If after reading the persona you still don’t know what to write, it is missing the most important part.
- startups and small businesses need guidance on content and sales
- need to coordinate multiple teams, channels, and people in the team
- demographics should only be added when truly used for targeting ads
- fabricated persona in the meeting room, not derived from real interviews
- create too many personas, making the team forget and not use them
A persona doesn’t need to be extensive. A persona needs to be relevant. The question Sinh Vũ uses to measure whether a persona is deep enough is simple: after reading it, can you write a piece of content and make a sales pitch immediately? If not, it is missing the most important part.
Parts of the persona that are truly usable
Most personas that Sinh Vũ encounters when working with clients share the same mistake: they are thick in the non-essential areas and thin in the core areas. They know the client's name, what they like to drink, and which social media they use, but they do not know what the client is trying to accomplish and what they fear the most.
Three components a persona must have to be usable:
- The job the customer is trying to accomplish: customers do not buy products; they hire products to complete a task in their life or work. Understanding that job is understanding the reason behind the demand. (Christensen, Jobs to be Done)
- Pain points and desires: Where are customers feeling discomfort, what are they worried about, and what results do they want to achieve? This is the content of the Value Proposition Canvas (Osterwalder): the jobs customers are doing, their pain points, and desires must align with what you offer.
- Criteria and decision-making language: Customers compare options based on which criteria, who has a voice in the decision, and what language they use to describe their issues. The customer's language is the raw material for writing content.
When to keep it concise, when to go deeper.
One-page persona, focusing on motivations: suitable for startups and small businesses. Records enough customer jobs, main pain points, decision criteria, and a few common phrases from customers. Enough to guide content and sales immediately.
In-depth persona with empathy map and customer journey: necessary when multiple teams serve one customer, many channels need coordination, or when the team is large enough that information gets fragmented between departments. The empathy map helps the entire team view the customer from the same perspective, not just the marketing department.
Demographic information such as age, income, and region should only be added when that information is truly used for targeting ads or selecting distribution channels. Don't stuff it in just to make the persona seem complete.
Common errors when creating personas
- Fabricating in meetings: Personas drawn from internal speculation often reflect the views of the creators, not the reality of the customers. Personas are only reliable when derived from real customer interviews.
- Piling on decorative information: Names, profile pictures, music preferences, and pets do not help create compelling content or close sales. They make personas seem lively but strategically hollow.
- Create too many personas: When there are five, six, or seven personas, the team cannot remember them and does not use any. Keep a maximum of three most important customer groups.
- Finishing and then storing it away: A beautiful persona on a slide that is not incorporated into content, advertising, or sales pitches is a wasted persona. It needs to live in the daily work of the team.
- No updates: When the market changes or new interviews show that customer motivations have shifted, the old persona becomes a trap. It makes you think you understand the customer while actually understanding an outdated version of them.
Customers do not buy products. They hire products to accomplish a task in their lives. Understanding the job and the true motivations behind it is more important than any demographic information.
Clayton Christensen, Jobs to be Done (Harvard Business Review)
The viewpoint of Sinh Vũ
When Sinh Vũ creates personas for clients, we provide an accompanying empathy map and limit it to the three most important customer groups. The number of personas is not the goal. The goal is for the team to be able to take that persona sheet and write a piece of content or prepare for a sales meeting immediately.
Sinh Vũ measures the depth of a persona by asking the user to do just that: write a sample sales pitch for that customer group. If they hesitate because they are unsure what this group is struggling with, the persona is not deep enough in terms of pain points. If they can write it immediately, the persona has fulfilled its purpose.
A practical principle: personas derived from interviews are always better than imagined personas, even if the interview-based personas seem much simpler. Simple but real information leads to better decisions than complex but guesswork information.
Decision checklist
Topic: How detailed should customer personas be before they can be used. Sinh Vũ guide, sinhvu.com
Select each item you find appropriate, then print or save as PDF to take with you.
If you have marked most of the signs above, this is the time to discuss in more detail. Sinh Vũ can help you review and propose a direction.
References
Clayton Christensen, Jobs to be Done (Harvard Business Review). Alexander Osterwalder, Value Proposition Canvas. Sinh Vũ S1: internal process perspective, practical experience.
Frequently asked questions
How many people need to be interviewed for a persona to be sufficient?
Sinh Vũ typically conducts 5 to 10 interviews with actual target clients, not relying on internal assumptions. The number is not fixed, but when stories start to repeat, the data has saturated, and you can begin to synthesize. More important than quantity is quality: interviews should be deep enough to uncover real pain points and motivations, not just surface-level preferences.
How many personas should a business have?
Sinh Vũ recommends keeping a maximum of three key customer groups. More than three can overwhelm the team, making it hard to remember or utilize any of them. If you feel the need for five or seven personas, it often indicates that you haven't clearly defined the segments you serve, rather than a need to create additional personas.
Is demographic information such as age, occupation, and income necessary?
Necessary, but only to the extent of targeting ads or selecting distribution channels. Demographics do not explain why customers buy or do not buy. Two people of the same age, income, and industry can have completely different buying motives. Collect demographics after understanding motives, not before.