Have you ever wondered what your customers are thinking? At SMHeuristics, we don’t just wonder. We know.
By conducting a persona study (at any level), it becomes easier to imagine what your customers are thinking, what their purchasing decisions looks like, and what their pain points are.
During the Southwestern Idaho Manufacturing Alliance’s (SWIMA’s) quarterly meeting this August, SMHeuristics co-founder Nic Kawaguchi illustrated how important this process can be for boosting sales.
In his presentation, Nic helped audience members discover ways to better understand how their customers and clients make decisions. He talked about the importance of persona research, how to engage customers when creating a persona study, and how to create your own persona theory. This information is invaluable to businesses in the manufacturing industry.
At SWIMA’s lunch and learn event the following week, Nic spoke more in depth about the persona study development process — even demonstrating to business owners how to create their own.
Here are some highlights:
One of the most important first steps in creating a persona is making sure you ask the right questions in your interview(s).
During the event, Nic suggested: “Every time we help our customers write out questions, we always go back and assess — is this going to achieve goals or is this out of focus?” Making sure your questions align with the goals of your persona study (without them being leading questions) is a bit tricky but a vital part of the process.
After you’ve aligned the questions with your goals, it is important to always be on the lookout for patterns when developing a persona. As you complete the interviews and compile the data, patterns will begin to emerge, and these will be your little gold nuggets when constructing the full persona.
Outlining every detail on how to conduct a persona study would essentially be a scientific paper that few would be willing to read, Nic offered this piece of advice on tackling your persona positioning data: “Don’t get analysis paralysis. Stay focused, remember your goals, and just power through it.”
Of course, it wouldn’t be a lunch and learn if we didn’t mention the delicious spread we got to share with fellow SWIMA members — Nic ordered Hawaiian food from Rillz Manapua, which has become a favorite at the SMH office.
We’d also like to thank SWIMA for hosting SMHeuristics at these two educational events. We have enjoyed contributing to and learning from this organization as they advocate for manufacturers in our community.
If you’d like to know more about how SMHeuristics can help your business with market research and persona development, contact us.