Customer persona and research guides

Choose the issue you need to resolve

Each guide includes working files and an AI prompt you can use for support. Follow the instructions and add your own evidence and decisions.

• Your Personas Are Built from Internal Opinions, Not Customer Evidence

  Test internal assumptions with real customer evidence.

• Customer Interviews Keep Confirming What the Team Already Believes

  Use interviews that can challenge the team's preferred answer.

• Your Research Sample Excludes the People Most Likely to Struggle

  Include the users and contexts your research is missing.

• The Team Cannot Get Direct Access to Customers

  Use indirect evidence honestly while arranging direct customer access.

• The Survey Describes Demographics but Not Why People Act

  Ask survey questions that explain behaviour and context.

• Analytics and Customer Research Tell Different Stories

  Check whether analytics and research cover the same people and question.

• Sales, Support and Product Disagree about What Customers Need

  Resolve conflicting customer accounts without erasing real differences.

• Customers Say One Thing but Their Behaviour Suggests Another

  Investigate why stated preferences and observed choices differ.

• Research Participants Do Not Resemble the People Who Actually Buy or Use

  Recruit people with the buying role or experience your decision concerns.

• The Evidence Is Too Weak to Justify a New Persona

  Decide whether the evidence justifies creating or keeping a persona.

• Your Persona Is Too Broad to Change a Real Decision

  Keep the distinctions that can change a real decision.

• Too Many Personas Have Made Prioritisation Impossible

  Merge, retain or retire personas based on evidence and actual use.

• Personas and Customer Segments Are Being Treated as the Same Thing

  Use segments to choose populations and personas to understand people.

• Demographic Profiles Have Replaced Customer Jobs and Context

  Keep demographic attributes only where they affect the decision.

• Fictional Persona Details Are Creating False Confidence

  Remove invented details without losing useful research synthesis.

• Persona Pain Points Are Not Connected to Evidence or Decisions

  Trace each pain point to evidence and a decision it could change.

• One “Typical User” Is Hiding Important Access Needs

  Represent access needs hidden by the typical-user profile.

• Your Personas Overlap and No One Knows Which One Applies

  Decide which persona applies when profiles overlap.

• Edge Cases Are Either Distorting the Persona or Being Ignored

  Treat uncommon needs according to their consequence, not just frequency.

• The Persona Was Never Validated before Investment Began

  Test persona assumptions before committing more investment.

• The Buyer, User and Approver Are Treated as One Person

  Identify the different people who use, evaluate, fund and approve.

• An Invisible Buying Committee Is Stalling the Sale

  Find the stakeholders and criteria missing from the buying model.

• Your Champion Has Influence but Cannot Authorise the Decision

  Check what your champion can influence and who can authorise the decision.

• Procurement, Legal or Risk Appears Only after the Deal Seems Won

  Bring procurement, legal and risk requirements into the buying process earlier.

• Technical Evaluators Are Blocking a Strong Business Case

  Answer legitimate technical questions alongside the business case.

• Buying Roles Change as the Decision Progresses

  Update buying roles as people, questions and authority change.

• People in the Same Customer Account Have Conflicting Jobs

  Resolve conflicting user needs within the same customer account.

• The Economic Buyer and Operational User Value Different Outcomes

  Keep the buyer's promised value compatible with the user's work.

• Your Account Profile Is Being Mistaken for a Human Persona

  Separate account suitability from individual jobs and buying roles.

• Your Personas Explain Purchases but Not Why Buyers Do Nothing

  Learn why buyers delay, abandon or choose not to change.

• The Personas Look Polished but No Business Decision Changes

  Connect persona research to a decision someone will act on.

• Marketing, Sales and Product Use Different Personas

  Agree shared persona evidence while retaining useful team-specific views.

• Your Content Still Speaks to Everyone at Once

  Write content for a specific user question and next decision.

• Search Intent and Persona Needs Do Not Connect

  Connect search queries to the person's task and context.

• Sales Messaging Contradicts What Customer Research Found

  Test sales messages against research and buyer feedback.

• The Product Roadmap Is Not Connected to Persona Jobs

  Connect roadmap proposals to evidenced customer jobs.

• Every Customer Gets the Same Onboarding Journey

  Adapt onboarding where readiness or context requires different support.

• Service and Support Workflows Ignore Customer Context

  Use customer context to improve service and support decisions.

• The Campaign Targets a Persona but the Landing Page and Handoff Do Not

  Keep the campaign promise consistent through the landing page and response.

• Persona Work Stops at Acquisition and Never Reaches Retention

  Learn from adoption, support, renewal and exit as well as acquisition.

• No One Owns the Persona after the Research Project Ends

  Give persona evidence and its ongoing use an accountable owner.

• You Cannot Show Whether Personas Improve Decisions

  Check whether persona use changes decisions and what happens afterwards.

• Outdated Personas Still Drive Current Investment

  Challenge stale persona evidence before committing investment.

• A Market Shift Has Made the Persona Unreliable

  Refresh the assumptions affected by a material market change.

• A Persona from One Market Is Being Copied into Another

  Test whether a persona applies in another country or region.

• Persona Research Creates Unmanaged POPIA Risk

  Control the purpose, permission and handling of persona-research data.

• Sensitive Attributes Are Being Used without a Decision or Safeguard

  Check whether sensitive attributes are necessary and safely used.

• AI-Generated Personas Are Being Treated as Customer Research

  Keep AI-generated personas separate from observed customer research.

• Agency and Internal Teams Maintain Conflicting Persona Versions

  Agree which persona version and evidence teams should use.

• Old Personas Are Never Retired or Replaced Safely

  Retire obsolete personas without losing evidence that must be retained.

Put the decision in context

• Product Discovery Explained: What to Do Before You Build Software

  Establish the problem, understand users and compare possible solutions before committing time and money to software development.

• Customer Journey Mapping for South African Businesses: Where Is Growth Leaking?

  Map how customers experience the business, find where they struggle and decide which problems to address first.

If your team needs wider access, decision-making authority or an independent assessment, see how Abrasim can help.