Leading With Personas

@Quarry @gdrummond #mpb2b

Leading with personas3 real-life innovation stories (and 1

glorious failure)

14.10.10

Glen Drummond, Chief Innovation Officer

@QUARRY @GDRUMMOND #MPB2B

Why were personas relevant in change leadership?


What factors made the personas useful?


How was the insight activated?


www.quarry.com/lwp

SanjayA story about product redesign

IsabellaA story of new product innovation

JunoA strategic-marketing turnaround story

SusanA cross-channel experience-design story


A story about product redesign


STORY 1

A requirements nightmare

Appeal to current customers

Wow investors Leapfrog competitors

Achieve fast time-to-market

Ensure fast product adoption

Reverse and forward compatibility

With deadlines looming, “I didn’t even have consensus about what the product was.”


How Sanjay led with personas in product redesignFrom product features to customer-experience design

Re-frame from“product design” to“experience design”

Refresh the view of the customer

Build go-to-market scenarios

Choose the persona and scenario

1

3

2

4

Prototype, test and preview

5

Ship the product, deliver the experience

6


How Sanjay led with personas in product redesignFrom product features to customer-experience design

Refresh the view of the customer

Build go-to- market scenarios

Choose the persona and scenario

1

3

2

4

Prototype, test and preview

5

Ship the product, deliver the experience

6


Re-frame from“product design” to“experience design”

Differences in “stance”

Timothy Justin Raj

Motivation 2

Motivatio

n 3

Motivation 2

Motivatio

n 3

Moti

vati

on

1

Motivation 2

Motivatio

n 3

Moti

vati

on

1

Moti

vati

on

1


Sanjay’s breakthrough: scenario building


Justin

Timothy

Projected adoption scenariosR

equir

ed p

erf

orm

ance

&

pro

ven

ben

efit

deliv

ere

d

Implementation time & duration

Raj


A new experience design target

Timothy Justin Raj


Motivation 2

Motivatio

n 3

Motivation 2

Motivatio

n 3

Moti

vati

on

1

Motivation 2

Motivatio

n 3

Moti

vati

on

1

Moti

vati

on

1

A new experience concept

Fire tower network Remote sensor network


A leap-frog design

Before After


Key takeaway for savvy marketers

1. New product initiatives call for critical thinking about business model assumptions: For whom? Why? When?

2. In product innovation, targeting choice can be an output of—not just an input to—the design process

3. Scenario-building fosters collaboration, strengthens creativity, and sharpens design focus


A cross-channel experience-design story


STORY 2

“The sales organization had a huge influence over senior management…and that influence extended to every aspect of marketing, including the website.”

• The prevailing wisdom was that the product was sold, not bought.

• But what if experience is a bigger differentiator than product?

• And, what if the experience of “being sold” was a problem?


Frame the problem

Gather the relevant data

Develop empathy with customers

Innovate1

32

4

How Susan led cross-channel experience design with personas


Susan’s insight: competing motivations

Motivation 1 Motivation 2


Susan’s breakthrough: role-playing


Susan’s innovation

New customer submits data

Sales consultant assigned

Old process – Customer is assigned a sales consultant

New process – Customer selects sales consultant


New customer reviews and selects sales consultant


1. In the experience economy, tactical initiatives have strategic potential

2. Innovation follows from attention to unarticulated customer needs

3. Role-playing as the personas surfaces uncomfortable truths to pave the way for innovation


A story of new product innovation


STORY 3

• Faced with the threat of disruption, an industry incumbent attempts to defend with sustaining innovation

• A cautionary tale about barriers to experience-driven innovation

“Our competitors’ technology is disruptive; they’re cherry-picking our highest value customers.”


Re-think “customer jobs”

Identify the right target

Pair personas with metaphors

Set design priorities

1

3

2 4

Prototype and test

5Assess market

demand

6

How Isabella led with personas in product innovation


Isabella’s breakthrough: tagging the default target

as the anti-persona


Isabella’s glorious failure:dropping the baton between

product and marketing


Formula for innovation failure

Product

Functional needs

Marketing

Audiences

Salesand service

Business value

Functional group

Segmentation focus


Differences in motivation relevant to this field of experience

Required for experience innovation

Product

Functional needs

Marketing

Audiences

Salesand service

Business value

Functional group

Segmentation focus

Strategic segmentation

framework



1. Great design personas can help product-innovation teams design product breakthroughs

2. But product teams require other groups to understand and execute on their innovation

3. If product innovation and marketing reference different customer models, great ideas can die in the gap


A strategic-marketing turnaround story


STORY 4

“We have to stop conceding ground before this becomes a threat to our enterprise business too.”• A market leader experiencing share erosion in an

underserved corner of its business

• Years of tweaks to marketing mix factors had not produced results

• Time for a more fundamental re-think


Frame theproblem

Challenge old assumptions

Bridge the old with the new

Make the theory practical

1

3

2

4

Share successstories

5

How Juno led with personas in a strategic-marketing turnaround


Juno’s breakthrough: “The differences that

make a difference”


Bridging new insight with familiar models

ClassificationOrganizational and economic attributes(e.g., revenue, location, operating model)

OrientationPatterns in customers’ conscious choices and behaviors; answers the question “how do customers behave relative to their environment?”

StanceDifferences in customers’ attitudes and motivations; answers the question “whydoes a customer behave this way/makethese decisions?”

Classification

Orientation

Stance


Sharing strategic insight in tactical tools

Finance focused Purchase focused Product focused

Persona and additional addenda



1. Existing views of the customer, whatever their merits, exist because of the task-goals they serve

2. To make way for new insight, savvy marketers build bridgesbetween old and new views

3. Embedding the new insight into tools that serve task-goalsbetter helps on-board new perspectives


Common themes

Sanjay Isabella JunoSusan


Why are personas relevant in change leadership?

• They make complexity manageable

• They displace prior biases and assumptions

• They shift “empathy” from an individual to a collective aptitude


THEY FEEL “REAL”

THEY ARE PURPOSE-

BUILT

THEY SHAKE UP

CATEGORIES

ACTIONABILITY

What factors make the personas useful?


How is insight activated?

• Integrate it with other creative problem-solving tools

• Integrate it in collaborative activities


Back to the future...marketing for what comes nextwww.quarry.com/lwp


Thank you!@Quarry @gdrummond #mpb2b

Leading With Personas

Business

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