Personas and Customer Journeys
Personas and journey maps are only useful when they change what gets built and published. I research who your customers are and how they decide, then document it in a form that content, design and campaign teams will use.
A persona is a decision tool, not a profile with a stock photo. It records who a customer is, what they are trying to get done, what they need to know before they act, and where they go to find it. A customer journey map lays that out in sequence: the stages a person moves through, the questions they ask at each one, the channels they use and the moments where they stall. Together they tell your team which content to make, for whom, and in what order.
I start with evidence rather than a workshop. Analytics shows which paths people take and where they leave. CRM records show which leads close and which stall. Support tickets and sales calls show the questions marketing never answered. Customer interviews fill in the reasoning behind the behavior. I treat a persona as a hypothesis rather than an opinion. KPIs are set at the start and A/B tests check whether each persona's assumptions hold.
The output is built for the people on your team who will use it. Writers get the questions each persona asks at each stage. Designers get the tasks a page has to support. Campaign managers get the triggers and channels for each stage. I review drafts with sales, support and product teams before anything is final, because they hear from customers directly and will spot a persona that does not ring true. Then I help your team put the personas into briefs, so they shape work instead of sitting in a shared drive.
What persona and journey work includes
Research Findings Report
A written synthesis of stakeholder interviews, customer interviews, analytics paths, CRM data and support themes. Each finding is tagged to its evidence, so the team can see what is observed and what is inferred.
Persona Profiles
One page per persona covering role, goals, buying triggers, the questions they ask, their objections, the channels they trust and the content formats they prefer. Each point is tied back to the research.
Customer Journey Maps
A stage-by-stage map for each persona showing tasks, questions, emotions, channels and touchpoints, the content they meet at each step, and the points where they stall or drop out.
Question and Content Matrix
A grid of personas against journey stages listing the questions that need answering, which existing page or asset answers each one, and where no answer exists yet. It becomes the brief for new content.
Measurement Plan
KPIs for each journey stage, the analytics segments and events needed to track persona behavior, and the A/B tests that will confirm or correct the assumptions built into each persona.
Team Briefing Kit
A short briefing deck plus printable persona cards and a brief template, so writers, designers and campaign managers can name the persona and stage before work starts.
How I build personas and journeys
Collect what you already know
I interview stakeholders in marketing, sales, support and product, then pull analytics paths, CRM records and search data. The result is a list of assumptions and the evidence for each.
Fill the gaps with customers
Where the internal picture is thin or contradictory, I run customer interviews or short surveys. Notes are coded by theme so patterns come from the data rather than from memory.
Draft and pressure-test
I draft the personas and journey maps, then review them with the people who talk to customers daily. Anything that does not change a decision is cut or merged.
Put them to work
I brief the team, wire the measurement plan into analytics and write the first content briefs against the matrix. Personas get revisited as test results and new data come in.
Where this comes from
In my consulting practice I define and execute persona-based web and omnichannel content strategies, setting KPIs and running A/B tests to lift engagement, discoverability and lead generation. At Polaris I aligned website initiatives with product launches alongside product, creative and marketing teams. At UnitedHealth Group I owned the website roadmap and defined the KPIs reported through Google and Adobe Analytics. Earlier, at TN Marketing, I ran subscription web communities for photography enthusiasts and for a personal defense and firearms audience, and led acquisition and retention through multichannel and direct-mail campaigns.
See my experienceBrittany is a detailed, organized, well-rounded worker. She takes the word specific to a new level. She compiles research after research to make decisions that will best benefit clients.
Procurement and Strategic Sourcing
Worked on different teams
Frequently asked
How many personas do we need?
Only as many as lead to different decisions about content, pages or campaigns. If separate groups ask the same questions in the same order and respond to the same messages, they are one persona for marketing purposes. I would rather hand you a small set the team uses than a large set that gets ignored.
Do you interview customers, or work from data we already have?
Both, and the balance depends on what you have. Analytics, CRM records, search queries and support tickets cover most of the ground, and they are free of recall bias. Interviews explain the why behind the patterns and surface the language customers use.
We already have personas. Can you work with them?
Yes, and I start by testing them against your data rather than replacing them. Existing personas often hold up on who the customer is but say little about the questions they ask or the order they ask them in. I keep what the evidence supports, add the journey layer and retire anything the team has stopped believing.
How do journey maps change what the team publishes?
They turn the content plan into a list of customer questions with owners and priorities. Each stage of the map names what a person needs to know before moving on, so the matrix shows which questions have a good answer and which have none. New briefs start from the gaps, and existing pages get assigned to the stage they serve.
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