Portfolio strategy and product management

Due to our client confidentiality agreement, we cannot disclose the details of this project.

The cheery legends of innovation - the Walkman, the minivan, the Post-it Note - are widely known. But even more important to business may be the sorry tales of innovation opportunities overlooked for too long: Xerox and the GUI, Ampex and the VCR, Link-Belt and the hydraulic excavator, Polaroid and digital photography. In these cautionary tales, innovative ideas could not compete inside the organization for attention and resources, and so legendary opportunities were wasted.

These contrasting sets of stories draw our attention to a central dilemma of new product innovation - competitive advantage follows from a timely response to latent consumer needs. But such needs, by definition, have neither been recognized by an industry nor named by consumers themselves. If you don't want to follow in the footprints of Xerox, Polaroid and Ampex, the practical question follows: When you uncover such a need, how do you give it the status it deserves to compete for attention and resources before you have adequate quantitative evidence to support the investment?

The ethnographic research methods that are invaluable for developing personas happen to fit very well with the challenge of picking up on latent customer needs. And we've found personas communicate these latent needs brilliantly. Precisely because the argument is encoded in a story that rings true, it is insulated (for a time) from the pressure to support the argument (especially a new one) with quantitative data. If you are the project champion in the early days of an innovation effort, you may be well advised to target early project investments in persona development before the case for action can be argued with numbers. Doing so may mean the difference between life and death of an innovative idea.

Want to know more?

For more information on our persona services, contact Glen Drummond by email or give him a call at 519.570.2020 or toll-free in North America at 888.570.2020.

Product design and development

"These have certainly shattered a few myths about our users!" exclaimed Herb Verma after the introduction of these personas. Herb was VP of Software Development at RealSuite, a client for whom Quarry created personas.

RealSuite is a subsidiary of BLJC, Canada's leading outsourced provider of commercial Real Estate services. Quarry redesigned the user interface for a RealSuite software module used by project managers to coordinate work such as office renovations, moves and relocations, building repairs and construction.

RealSuite offers a Web-hosted enterprise software product used by experts in leasing, facilities management and occupancy planning.

This project followed Quarry's Design Builder^® process, a framework for designing digital products that build brand through the user experience. A key step in the first phase of Design Builder is the creation of personas following contextual field research with current and potential users. For this project, the field research was conducted by a team of three people: two designers from Quarry, plus a General Manager from BLJC.

The research involved 31 participants across Canada, in cities such as Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver. Visits were 1 to 2 hours in duration and included a mix of interview, observation and demonstrations of tools and processes. Sessions were audiotaped for later reference.

A careful analysis of the research findings resulted in a total of five personas, three of which are presented in the PDF available for download. Please note that these examples have been modified from the originals to protect confidential or competitively sensitive information.

The personas increased our understanding of what's important to end users. The project's executive stakeholders and the development team rallied around a new shared vision of their customers.

The personas confirmed RealSuite's product strategy and provided clarity around where to focus resources. The personas reaffirmed RealSuite's commitment to designing for the user experience, as the resulting benefits to their customers - and to their business - were clearly illustrated by the personas. The personas also helped RealSuite to reach agreement about which aspects of the redesigned project management module deserved priority attention.

The personas helped RealSuite develop a Web application that customers are excited about using. The personas captured a host of insights that helped the designers create a tool that reflects the realities of a project manager's job. For instance, an ability to set aside documents lets Genevieve Boutroux (the primary persona) recover smoothly from the many interruptions she faces every day, and a new dashboard provides a strategic view that helps her to anticipate issues, instead of simply reacting to them as she did previously.

Like to see full-size, high-resolution personas? Click here to download a 7.5 MB PDF document.

Want to know more?

For more information on our persona services, contact Glen Drummond by email or give him a call at 519.570.2020 or toll-free in North America at 888.570.2020.

Marketing

Quarry developed a set of personas to assist BASF Agricultural Products in identifying and engaging retailer partners in selling BASF crop protection products to Canadian farmers. These personas focused on helping BASF develop marketing programs that would enhance channel strategies so that appropriate selling tools could be implemented.

This persona project built on Quarry's substantial existing knowledge of the agricultural input industry and our long-standing relationship with BASF and its customers. Our goals were to determine whether retailers' needs and selling strategies differed by region or by the type of organization (integrated farm supplier vs. independent). We went into the field to validate that the roles and personas existed, the decision-making process was the same and the key business challenges that technology helped them solve were similar.

For this project, a team of three insight experts from Quarry conducted our research. Visits ranged from 1 to 4 hours and included a mix of interviews and observations with multiple people from each organization.

The research involved 32 participants across Canada. A careful analysis of the research findings resulted in a total of five personas.

The personas illustrate the nature and extent of the relationship desired, as well as specific approaches that prove most profitable. For example, the personas showed us that the relationship of different retailers to their customers and their definition of what they are risking in their roles has a strong impact on the nature of support they require from a manufacturer representative. The personas also provide detailed information regarding the preferred marketing strategies, which we divided into three categories: agronomic/product superiority approach, business/financial approach and social approach.

Personas continue to play an important role at BASF. BASF uses the personas as a key ingredient in both the communications ideation stage and as an acid test for relevancy. In addition, as sales reps come and go, BASF continues to train its reps using the personas to identify the type of retailer to whom they are selling. The personas provide users with a keen understanding of the different stakeholders involved in purchase decisions, their hot buttons, what they expect from a salesperson and different objectives they tend to have for their purchases.

Want to know more?

For more information on our persona services, contact Glen Drummond by email or give him a call at 519.570.2020 or toll-free in North America at 888.570.2020.

Sales

"Personas are an invaluable tool. By giving our sales reps as well as channel partners a deep understanding of the players at each stage of the selling process and their expectations, we have built sales tools that increase the effectiveness of our all sales team members - even the most experienced." (Net Payne, Vice President, North America Enterprise Marketing, Nortel)

Nortel is a global leader in telecommunications and networking equipment and services. Quarry developed an interactive sales tool for Nortel to engage and assist channel partners in selling Nortel solutions to SMB consumers. This sales tool focuses on solving business challenges, not on selling technology. A key first stage in this tool was the development of personas.

This persona project built on Quarry's already substantial understanding of the general behavior and process by which decisions to purchase technology are made within medium to large scale businesses. Our goal was to reconfirm that those behaviors and process were evident in the SMB market. Quarry went into the field to validate that the roles and personas existed, the decision-making process was the same and the key business challenges that technology helped them solve were similar.

For this project, our research was conducted by a team of two insight experts from Quarry. Visits ranged from 1 to 2 hours and included a mix of interviews and observations with multiple people from each organization. Sessions were audio-taped for later reference.

The cumulative research involved 40 participants across Canada and the United States with organizations in a broad set of sectors. A careful analysis of the research findings resulted in a total of five personas.

The personas mapped analogous roles in enterprise level firms to those in small and medium-sized firms. For example, the personas showed us that the roles and decisions a CIO or director of IT would make in larger firms, a GM or business owner-operator would assume in a SMB.

The personas continue to play a key role in updates to the Nortel sales effectiveness tool. As future iterations of the interactive sales tool are rolled out, Nortel and Quarry continue to use these personas to guide product development. The personas provide users with a keen understanding of the different stakeholders involved in purchase decisions, their hot buttons, what they expect from a sales person and different objectives they tend to have for their investment. Also, the information sales reps get from the persona pages changes as the persona's role in the buying cycle changes. The outcome sales teams can more effectively prepare, approach prospects, identify the right solution and close the sale.

Want to know more?

For more information on our persona services, contact Glen Drummond by email or give him a call at 519.570.2020 or toll-free in North America at 888.570.2020.

Customer service

Due to our client confidentiality agreement, we cannot disclose the details of this project.

While generalizations always engender exceptions, the current era in corporate Web strategy can be broadly characterized as an era of evolution in the purpose of corporate sites. Sites that were once designed primarily to help marketing managers get their stories across are being retooled to help customers help themselves get things done. This trend is driven from inside and out. Inside, corporations need to reduce operational costs by migrating customer service interactions from high-cost to lower-cost channels. Outside, consumers' expectations are being conditioned by e-commerce leaders who make it easy for customers to ship a package, find a book, buy a song - do whatever they want to do.

The convergence of these forces means most corporations need to automate customer service processes through the Web. Personas can play a very important role in getting this right. Here are two reasons why:

1. The existence of Web site personas will help displace the default and likely erroneous assumption that the cohort visiting your Web site today - let's call that group (A) - is composed identically to either (B) your target market or (C) your customer base. Yes, there will be members of (B) and (C) who visit your site - but the composition of these populations (A, B, C) measured in terms of demographics, psychographics and digital media habits is likely to differ. Using personas to clarify how the population of site visitors compares with the target or customer base helps focus priorities in both Web strategy and Web design.

2. If you have ever been frustrated by the "you can't get there from here" experience of an interactive voice-response (IVR) system or a Web application, you have discovered first-hand what we in the usability profession call the "mental-model-mismatch" problem. We'll expand on this issue here because it plays a role in digital customer experience that is analogous to the one attributed to drunk drivers on our highways - a leading cause of mayhem.

Mental-model-mismatch occurs when the meaning or the flow of a digital interaction is structured differently than the way your site visitor had conceived it. The greater the tension between these two structures, the greater the likelihood of a wreck. At the first sign of such a collision looming, the visitor to your low-cost digital channel may shift gears to re-engage your higher-cost service channel. If that person is successful in getting through, they do so in a mental state that is less resourceful and less forgiving than when they began. Heroic acts of attentiveness, skill and kindness at the call center or retail point can recover many of these situations - albeit at a cost. But should it happen that the first experience on the Web is replicated in an IVR experience, the damage to that visitor's brand relationship tends to pile up. This process is, in fact, a hallmark of brands that people love to hate.

So how do personas help you avoid this situation? Getting mental models to match up requires a fairly sensitive grasp of who is coming to your site, what tasks may be on their mind, how they conceive of those tasks and how they imagine those tasks unfolding. Personas provide a goal-centered view of who is coming to the site. They also provide a touchstone for recruiting and screening the usability participants who can review your Web interactions before they go live. That's how you screen out the wrecks at the prototype stage.

Variations on this methodology are standard practice among the e-commerce leaders who have set the bar for Web customer experience. Since visitors to corporate sites will benchmark their experience there against their experience on sites of these e-commerce leaders, leveraging this same methodology in the design of your site visitor's experience makes a lot of sense.

Want to know more?

For more information on our persona services, contact Glen Drummond by email or give him a call at 519.570.2020 or toll-free in North America at 888.570.2020.