If your user is "anyone who has this problem," you have no user. Building for everyone is how you build for no one. Pick one person. Real name. Real life. Real job-to-be-done.
The sharper your user, the clearer your product. Every feature decision, every line of copy, every ad gets easier when you can ask "would Maya care?" instead of "would the market care?"
Cap it at one page. If it spills over, you're hiding behind detail instead of committing.
Hit these six fields:
- Name and snapshot — "Maya, 34, freelance designer in Lisbon."
- Role and context — what they do, who they do it for, what tools they already use.
- Behaviors — invoices 8 clients a month, lives in Notion, skips spreadsheets.
- Job-to-be-done — not "use invoicing software." It's "get paid on time so I can stop worrying about rent." Functional plus emotional.
- Trigger moment — what happens right before the pain hits? Friday night, bank app open, two unpaid invoices.
- Hangouts — one or two specific places. r/freelance, a Designer Slack, IndieHackers.
Pull the language straight from your conversations in waypoint 2. Their words become your filter.
Vague personas let you say yes to everything. That's the trap.
Soft: "Small business owners who need better tools."
Sharp: "Maya, 34, freelance designer, 8 clients a month, hates accounting, hangs in r/freelance every morning."
Soft: "Wants to grow her business."
Sharp: "Wants to stop chasing late invoices on Sunday nights."
Read the sharp version out loud. You can picture her. You know what app is open on her phone right now. That is the standard.
- Stretching the persona to cover "maybe this person too." Cut.
- Demographics with no behaviors. Age and city alone tell you nothing.
- A job-to-be-done that's the product itself. The job lives outside your tool.
- Five personas in a trench coat. One. Just one. You can add more after you ship.
Open Notion. Write the one-page persona. Give them a name and a Friday night.
A single-page persona doc with name, role, behaviors, job-to-be-done, trigger moment, and one or two hangouts. Specific enough that a stranger could spot this person in a crowd.
If your user is "anyone who has this problem," you have no user. Building for everyone is how you build for no one. Pick one person. Real name. Real life. Real job-to-be-done.
The sharper your user, the clearer your product. Every feature decision, every line of copy, every ad gets easier when you can ask "would Maya care?" instead of "would the market care?"
Cap it at one page. If it spills over, you're hiding behind detail instead of committing.
Hit these six fields:
- Name and snapshot — "Maya, 34, freelance designer in Lisbon."
- Role and context — what they do, who they do it for, what tools they already use.
- Behaviors — invoices 8 clients a month, lives in Notion, skips spreadsheets.
- Job-to-be-done — not "use invoicing software." It's "get paid on time so I can stop worrying about rent." Functional plus emotional.
- Trigger moment — what happens right before the pain hits? Friday night, bank app open, two unpaid invoices.
- Hangouts — one or two specific places. r/freelance, a Designer Slack, IndieHackers.
Pull the language straight from your conversations in waypoint 2. Their words become your filter.
Vague personas let you say yes to everything. That's the trap.
Soft: "Small business owners who need better tools."
Sharp: "Maya, 34, freelance designer, 8 clients a month, hates accounting, hangs in r/freelance every morning."
Soft: "Wants to grow her business."
Sharp: "Wants to stop chasing late invoices on Sunday nights."
Read the sharp version out loud. You can picture her. You know what app is open on her phone right now. That is the standard.
- Stretching the persona to cover "maybe this person too." Cut.
- Demographics with no behaviors. Age and city alone tell you nothing.
- A job-to-be-done that's the product itself. The job lives outside your tool.
- Five personas in a trench coat. One. Just one. You can add more after you ship.
Open Notion. Write the one-page persona. Give them a name and a Friday night.
A single-page persona doc with name, role, behaviors, job-to-be-done, trigger moment, and one or two hangouts. Specific enough that a stranger could spot this person in a crowd.