Recently, I had a conversation with a colleague, and we discussed the mixed reputation that user personas have in product development. Some claim they are generic or outdated, but that often depends on how they’re used.
When not done correctly, user personas can lead to surface-level insights that don’t help you understand your customers. But when used well, they become invaluable tools that guide every decision and keep you focused on solving real customer problems.
I use user personas in every project I lead. They help me empathize with my target audience and effectively communicate customer needs and project goals with other stakeholders.
In this article, I’ll walk you through the framework I use to create personas that work. Plus, I’ll show you how AI helps speed up the process, making it easier to develop personas quickly without sacrificing quality.
What Are User Personas and Why Do They Matter?
User personas are detailed profiles that represent different segments of your audience. They go beyond surface-level details like age and job title to help you understand your customers’ needs, goals, and challenges.
Why does this matter?
Because knowing who you’re building for makes every decision more focused. With user personas, you create products that solve real problems, not just assumptions.
How do I develop them?
People are complicated, and if you don’t dig deep, your personas will be as generic as the memes we see floating around.
I like to think of the process of creating user personas as prisms. Like prisms break light into different colors, my Customer PRISM Framework breaks down customer complexity into six angles.
You’re still looking at the same customer, but now you’re seeing all the important details.
Demographics: The Foundation
This first angle is where most people start and often stop.
When creating user personas. Demographics give us general information about our customers, like:
- Age range
- Location
- Occupation
- Education level
- Income level
- Marital status & family structure
While this information is helpful, it’s also pretty surface-level. If you stop here, your personas will feel shallow and not give you the insights you need. That’s why I like to go deeper.
Psychographics: What Makes Them Tick?
Psychographics can sound complex, but if we break it down, the word “Psycho” refers to the mind or soul, and “graphics” refers to representing that information.
This lens is where we go deeper, looking into the inner lives of our customers. I focus on these variables:
- Values
- Interests
- Personality traits
- Lifestyle choices
People are complicated, and this step helps us start capturing that complexity. It’s critical to avoid falling into stereotypes here because that can easily skew your data.
Behaviors: How Do They Act?
The third lens of the Customer PRISM Framework is all about understanding how your customers behave in the real world.
I like to focus on these four areas:
- Current solutions they’re using
- Online and offline habits
- Frequency of use
- Triggers and pain points from current solutions
This step helps you see what they’re already doing and where their frustrations lie, giving you insight into how they interact with your product or service.
Needs & Goals: What Drives Them?
Now that we have a sense of how customers behave and how they’re solving their problems, it’s time to dive deeper into what drives them.
This lens is crucial because it helps you understand their motivations. You learn the “why” behind their actions.
Here are the key areas I focus on:
- Functional needs – What do they want to accomplish?
- Emotional needs – Why is fulfilling this goal important to them?
- Long-term goals – What are their broader future ambitions?
These drivers can help you build solutions that meet their immediate needs and resonate with their deeper motivations.
Challenges & Pain Points: What’s Holding Them Back?
This lens lets us examine what prevents your customers from achieving their goals.
I want to know their obstacles and how they impact their daily lives. I focus on three key areas:
- Problem Statements – What’s the core issue they’re dealing with?
- Sources of Frustration – What specifically about the problem is causing friction?
- Impact on their lives – How is this challenge affecting their overall experience and quality of life?
These pain points help you ensure your solutions address what’s preventing them from fulfilling their goals, making your product more impactful and relevant.
Decision-Making Process: How Do They Choose?
In today’s world, attention is scattered, and the traditional marketing funnel no longer applies.
This final lens focuses on understanding the entire user journey beyond the awareness stage. I explore how your customers make decisions by breaking it down into three key areas:
- Information Gathering – Where are they looking for solutions? What sources do they trust?
- Evaluation Criteria – What factors do they weigh when choosing a product or service?
- Decisions and Triggers – What prompts them to take action? What pushes them to commit finally?
Now that we have all the necessary information, we analyze the data.
Analyzing and Segmenting the Data
The analysis is one of my favorite parts of the whole process. It’s like being a detective, piecing together clues to find patterns.
I follow a two-step process. First, I cluster the data based on similarities and then segment it through the six lenses, focusing on psychographics and challenges/pain points.
Analysis
For the analysis, I use the following structure to standardize the outcomes:
- Core goal – What’s the main objective they’re trying to achieve?
- Challenges – What’s standing in their way?
- Knowledge level – How much do they know about the problem?
- Information needs – What do they need to know to move forward?
- Target segment – Which group do they belong to?
Several segments usually overlap at this stage of the analysis. We will combine these segments in the next stage through a higher-level clustering exercise.
Segmentation
After the initial analysis, we focus on simplifying those segments. The idea is to consolidate similar groups into higher-order clusters.
The key is to find similarities in the data. Do they have similar goals? Are they experiencing similar challenges?
Once you cluster those segments together, I use the following variables to summarize the data before building our user personas:
- Target segment – Who is this?
- Desired outcomes – What do they want to achieve?
- Motivations – Why are they driven to solve this problem?
- Pain points – What are their specific frustrations?
- Problem statement – How can we define their core challenge?
Building the User Personas
User personas are all about storytelling. The narrative behind them brings them to life.
People are complex, but using the Customer PRISM Framework, I break down that complexity into actionable insights. These personas will help you define the problem you’re trying to solve and make it easier for others to understand.
Here’s how I like to build them:
1. Create the Narrative
First, set the scene.
Give your persona a name, age, occupation, and background story. This step breathes life into the segment, helping others connect and relate to the persona.
2. Focus on Needs, Behaviors, and the Problem Statement
At this step, we add tension. What is this persona trying to achieve, and what challenges stop them from fulfilling their goals?
Emphasize their goals, challenges, and pain points to define their problem clearly.
3. Quotes and Visuals
Quotes are a great way to capture the persona’s voice and make their problem feel real.
Visuals are even more powerful, though more time-consuming to create. When done right, they can quickly help you connect your problem with your audience.
Is This Feasible for Every Project?
You might be overwhelmed by the information and complexity this framework provides. User personas can be powerful tools, but only when done right.
Yes, it’s a lot to manage, but the good news is that today’s AI tools can significantly cut down the time and effort needed to create detailed personas.
How I’m Using AI to Simplify the Process
AI has been an excellent tool for creating user personas.
With the right context and a structured framework, I can analyze data and draft powerful persona stories in under an hour.
There are two main approaches I take:
- Data-First Approach: If I already have customer data, I feed it into the AI following the Customer PRISM Framework to generate well-rounded personas quickly.
- Hypothesis-First Approach: When starting a new project without much data, AI helps me create hypothesis-based personas that I later validate with customer feedback.
I use the hypothesis-first approach when working with clients because they often don’t have much customer data.
The personas created by AI are like a map that helps me understand and validate the problem quickly. This process has helped me reduce validation time from a month or more to one or two weeks.
Always validate with customers if you decide to follow a hypothesis-first approach.
User Personas Are Powerful
Creating user personas might seem like a lot of work, but they will save you countless hours when it comes to aligning your team and explaining your ideas to others.
When you create detailed user personas, you gain a deeper understanding of the problem you’re trying to solve.
While this article provides a comprehensive framework for creating effective personas, there’s always more to explore when it comes to tailoring this process to your specific project or industry.
If you’re looking for guidance on how to implement this framework for your product, or if you want to see how AI can simplify and accelerate the persona development process, let’s talk. I offer personalized sessions where we can work through your product strategy together, ensuring you create personas that truly resonate with your target audience.
Book a session with me today to learn more about how to leverage user personas to drive better outcomes for your product.
