Need Based Personas

A guide for your decisions 

Needs-based personas, as we use them, are the next step after researching the need-based tensions at the morphological psychology stage. Each persona gives a lively description of a person that represents (a part of) your target group, although it is completely fictional. We use them as next-level empathy builders in your organisation, because it will give a deep understanding of why customers do the things they do and what they expect from your organisation. For employees it is often easier to relate to a persona than to a list of requirements.

Creating personas

Our user research offers us qualitative and quantitative insights into our customers. Creating personas starts by looking for the similarities between people: are they wanting the same thing or are they following the same steps in doing business with you? All these parallels are used to get a deeper understanding of the driving needs your customers have.

The biggest benefit from Need Based Personas

Sometimes you go the bookstore to get you a book to relax, maybe take it on a holiday. And the next time you’re looking for a book, it has to do with your line of work, wanting to improve your professional skills. Both times it is you, but clearly with a different purpose. Yes you are buying a book, but when taking a closer look there are 2 completely different needs that you’re fulfilling: 1. relaxation and 2. acquiring information and learn.

When just looking at demographics, both times you would be a male/female of a certain age, living either in a city or rural area. With this information you can only design, for let’s say a woman of 42 living in the city, but there are so many different types of women that fit this profile. Taking a look at all different customer needs and experiences that a bookstore fulfils makes it possible to organise a bookstore to the purpose of people’s visit and using different slogans to attract those with different needs, motivations and emotions.