Understand The Personas Of Users And Of Buyers

By Christian Dahlen & Oana Olteanu

To build a minimum viable product (MVP), it is critical to identify the end users and the person who benefits economically. In the SaaS world, the users are absolutely vital for adoption and retention, and user personas and buyer personas are often synonymous. In large and complex corporate sales, the end user may often have little influence in the sales process.

Key stakeholders in the buying decision - the decision maker or their key influencer -  should be sought out to become the executive sponsors. These sponsors should be developed into a buyer persona describe the ideal customer to help the product owner make decisions about the right marketing and sales processes.

The executive sponsors nominate the user whose job will be made easier by the product.  A deep understanding of the users needs and motivations is vital to define the MVP. A release can only be for a single persona at a time, and therefore it is just as important to decide who a release is for, and who it is not.   

Read next: The mechanics of engaging with the different customer personas.

Photo credits: timigustafson.com