Week 3 · learning day 4
User personas
Market Structure Analysis and Opportunity Identification · 45–60 minutes
Today’s outcomes
- Explain user personas in the context of market structure analysis and opportunity identification.
- Design a product decision using the source outcome rather than intuition alone.
- Produce a reusable section of a market and journey map.
Source trace
W03-O04Define and illustrate the customer journey.
Core lesson
Make the choice inspectable
User personas matters when it changes a real allocation of attention, money, time, or delivery capacity. A market definition is useful only when it changes whom you serve and how.
Start by naming the decision and the uncertainty around it. Separate evidence from assumptions, compare at least one alternative, and state what would make you revise the choice.
The source outcome for today is: Define and illustrate the customer journey.
What decision will user personas improve, what evidence is sufficient for that decision, and what is the cost of being wrong?
Worked example
User personas in practice
For a discovery experience for regional craft sellers, the product manager must design a choice about user personas. The team records the target user and outcome, the evidence currently available, the strongest alternative, and the next reversible test. The recommendation is written as a choice with a reason—not as a list of features.
Do the work · 20 minutes
Turn the idea into a decision
- Choose a product you know and write the specific decision that user personas should support.
- List two pieces of evidence, two assumptions, and one credible alternative.
- Make a recommendation in three sentences and add one condition that would change it.
Save to your portfolio
A market and journey map — section: User personas
Knowledge check
Answer before opening
What is the decision at the centre of user personas?
A good answer names an accountable choice, not merely an activity or output.
How should evidence and assumptions be separated?
Label observed facts, interpretations, and untested beliefs explicitly so the next learning step is visible.
What makes the recommendation revisable?
It includes a trigger, threshold, or new evidence that would justify changing course.
What should the portfolio artefact communicate?
The context, considered alternatives, chosen direction, rationale, evidence, and remaining risk.
Spaced review
Reconnect the learning
Reflection