Property seeker personas
In late 2018, I led a discovery research initiative to replace market segments that weren't fit for purpose, with behavioural personas. I packaged the three resulting personas, the Pragmatist, the Entrepreneur, and the Dreamer, into a physical kit for product teams to use. Years after the original work, the personas were still in use and being iterated on.
Before
Domain is a property listing portal, primarily built for property seekers. At the time, the product team was still using market segments to drive decisions, without a clear understanding of who those property seekers actually were.
The research
I kicked off research to identify property seekers' goals and motivations. What emerged were three personas: the Pragmatist, the Entrepreneur, and the Dreamer, each with a distinct set of goals, mindsets, strategies, and pain points.
I packaged them into a card deck so teams could use them to drive discussion, generate hypotheses, and build products that better supported the people using them.
Impact
Years after I left the company, teams were still referencing the personas, and the kit went through further iterations. The work had become part of how the company thought about its users.
Reflections
The strongest signal here isn't the original research. It's that the personas kept being used and iterated on long after the project ended, with no one left to advocate for them.
