Choosing who a product roadmap is for, across six countries

The question

The more the team looked at that segment, the bigger the opportunity seemed.

A roadmap is hard to turn once it moves. So before it did, the team wanted to know whether the cluster in its data stood for real people the business could design for, and whether it could find them again in other markets.

Our approach

We started with the numbers: an attitudinal segmentation built on survey data across regions, checked market by market.

Alongside it we built a typing tool, a short set of questions that places a person in a segment, so the target could be found again in any new data that asks those questions.

Then we met people from the target segments in their homes. Seeing where technology fits into their days, what they buy and what it says about who they are trying to be turned the statistical segments into working personas.

Each persona came with a journey from first hearing about a product to recommending it, and the personas were set against each other on the dimensions that matter for design. A team debating a feature can see which people it would serve.

What the team came away with

The company had one picture of who its roadmap was for, grounded in the data and recognizable as people.

Alongside the segmentation and its typing tool came personas with consumer journeys and shopper profiles, written for the people designing, marketing and selling the products.