Why Demographics Won’t Be Enough

Look at these demographics. ?Do you think people with these demographics share the same needs and behavior?

Do you offer the same product or service to people with the same demographics? ?Think again.

Why Demographics Won’t Be Enough?

Traditionally, demographics such as age, gender, and location have been used to categorize and target consumers. However, relying solely on demographics can be an incomplete approach.? Understanding user personas, which go beyond surface-level demographics, is crucial.?

What Is a User Persona??

A user persona is a fictional character created based on research to represent the motivations, frustrations, and aspirations of a specific user segment.???

Creating a persona will help you understand your customers’ needs, experience, behaviors, and goals.? It helps you recognize that different people have different needs and expectations.? Creating a persona can help you identify the user you are designing for.? It is based on behavioral patterns that surface from research data.?

How Are Demographics and User Persona Different??

Demographics provide a basic snapshot of who your audience is, but not customer preferences and motivations. For example, among women aged 25-35, some may prioritize sustainability, others may value efficiency.??

On the other hand, a user persona pinpoints specific needs. A user persona captures customer motivations and frustrations because it is based on real aggregated data from research such as interviews, surveys, and observation.? In our sample persona above, a 30-year-old woman who is passionate about travelling does not appreciate that she spends so much time visiting many websites to work on her booking.?

Without a user persona, you would only have basic details such as age and interests. However, by creating a user persona, you can uncover deeper insights into a customer’s frustrations and preferences. Through research, you may discover that this customer spends an excessive amount of time visiting multiple websites to book her travel arrangements, leading to inconveniences and a less-than-ideal experience.?

By incorporating this knowledge into the development process, businesses can tailor their services or products to address these pain points. For example, a new product or service can offer streamlined booking process, or multiple services into a single platform, to enhance efficiency and improve the customer experience specifically for travelers like her.?

User personas provide a human-centered approach.? It enables businesses to empathize with their target audience and design solutions that address real needs. In turn, this fosters customer satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately, business growth.?

Learning How to Uncover Insights

The power of user personas lies in their ability to uncover insights that demographics alone cannot reveal.???A user persona is just one of the tools to empathize with your target audience.?

JG Summit DTO launched internal e-learning courses to foster a culture of continuous learning and growth.???

In Design Thinking 101, the course introduces Gokongwei Group learners to the concept of design thinking and provides them with a framework to solve problems creatively and innovatively.???

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