[IxDA Discuss] (no subject)

[Jay Morgan]

1.  Assume the product is for everyone and they cannot be immediately
segmented:  Why will people use your product?  What goals does it help them
accomplish?  (What's the competition's feature set?)
2.  Assume the user population can be easily segmented:  Draw up some quick
segments: segment by user role; segment by demographic; segment by goal.

You want to demonstrate that different people can and will use the product
differently.  Whether it's for everyone or for someone in particular, show
the team that use cases will vary by goal, by technology
aptitude/availability, by user role, et cetera.

The suggestion to work with personas is getting close:  You can start by
breaking out segments of users according to different types (user role,
demographic, user goal, and so on).  You can then develop those into
assumption personas or data-driven personas based on your resources and
needs.

Use examples to your favor:  Look at software they're all familiar with and
show how use of that software differs significantly by user segment.

Set goals for what you want your team to learn:  This is a huge challenge.
Set discrete goals to help the team understand the impact of different user
types.  If you jump in now and tell them they have to have personas, you've
jumped a lot of steps that can help you.  Start with basic lessons:
Recognize and agree that different customer segments will use the product
differently.  Then, decide which customer segmentation model will work best
for you.  Go from there.

< I work in a company who assumes that we design for everyone and who is
afraid of customer segmentation models altogether.  We, the design teams,
still use assumption personas on many projects to solve our design
problems.  We are now developing data-driven personas to standardize the
user models across teams. >

Good luck,
Jay


On 1/24/07, Sunandini Basu <sunandinibasu at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi
> How do you counter the argument that the product you're designing is for
> everyone?
> How do I convince product teams to think through who their target users
> are?
> best,
> Soo
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> "The details are not the details. They make the design' - Charles Eames
>
> ****************************************************************************
> Sunandini Basu
> Interaction Designer
>
> ****************************************************************************
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-- 
Jay Morgan
Applied cognitive scientist practicing information architecture, interaction
design, and corporate culture manipulation