User Personas in Product Management - Why They're Necessary

Why a PM should care about the particularities of the users? Well, that is the irrelevant part of a product development, as you should know what the users demand. 

There’re numerous users' persona templates to find the answers on the questions to influence your product development and, of course, to boost your brainstorming on the product release. The data includes all the general information you would like to know about your product users. However, the main trick is concealed: every persona template represents the personalities of quite different buyers.

The managers, end-users, administrators – they all may purchase your product and it’s obvious they all have various aims to use it. That is why the persona’s template goal is not generalizing the user group, but taking the most out of the diversity of the users. None of the developers/designers/ testers team would make the right call on the product, unless they see the direct issue presented by the customer. 

The marketing persona templates help in addressing the problems, which only someone outside the team is able to see. There is a common pitfall for all the development teams: they tend to confuse their experience to that of their customers. That is the big mistake to avoid which you should ask the relevant questions in the persona templates. The agile product management presumes the usage of persona templates to test the approaches the company has. The template itself may be very simple and consist just of a few blocks, but the information should address the very core of your product. 

A user-centered approach is not the way the software development companies used to do business. It’s important to understand the advantages and disadvantages of the product due to the rising rivalry in the market. That is why personas are the way out for the Product Managers of the future. The most valuable information the persona template will provide you with is the goal of the user: why does he need your product? If the answer is clear, you should keep on with what you do. Otherwise, that is the alarm to improve the product.

There should be a division of ‘users’ and that of ‘customers’. To confuse the two means to generalize your product and that is the way to nowhere, as product development techniques teach finding the right niche for what you have. ‘Users’ are concerned about the usability of your soft, including the design, the simplicity, and the features. ‘Customers’ value fair price policy and the maintenance cost.

Definitely, a thing not to forget. Of course, you should concentrate on the focus-group for your product. Notwithstanding all the diversity of the users and customers in your persona templates, you can’t meet the requirements of all of them. Pick one primary persona you develop your product for and do your best to succeed with the needs and goals there in his persona profile. 

It’s unnecessary to aim at the success over all the competitors in the market and the persona approach is a vivid example of it. The concentration on your niche and the constant improvement to become the best in that niche – that is the only possible success story.