Creating Global Personas
In-depth User Interviews • Thematic Analysis • Modeling Survey • Cross-Tabulation
Introduction
In Q4 of 2024, the bank initiated a strategic shift in focus from everyday banking and a travel proposition to wealth management and serving mass affluent and affluent customers. This necessitated new user personas to align with the new proposition.
As the lead wealth researcher, I suggested starting with a broad scope, creating global personas, before iterating the business-area-specific user personas. This is done to deliver the personas as early as possible without compromising accuracy and to include all business area stakeholders in developing their specific personas in later iterations.
Defining the Scope
The Personas are created with a broad scope in mind; this is done to ensure that further data and insights enrich these personas rather than completely change them.
These personas are also designed to be further segmented based on the product needs.
User Interviews
Participant Recruitment
We recruited 15 non-customers to evaluate the new proposition—the selection process aimed to ensure diverse perspectives and insights that accurately reflect potential user preferences and behaviors.
Each participant was chosen to match specific demographic and psychographic criteria representative of the target market. This approach allowed us to gather unbiased feedback on the new proposition.
Interview Approach
Since the interviews were exploratory in nature, they were structured loosely around questions we wanted answers to rather than following a strict discussion guide.
Two pilot interviews were conducted, and the results were shared with the stakeholders to confirm whether all their questions were addressed or if a revision was necessary.
📓 Interview flow
Demographic Information → Financial Behavior → Goals and Aspirations → The Three Parameters (spending, saving, investing) → Financial Advice & Support → Sharia Compliance Views.
Data Analysis: Interview Coding
Exploring the Attributes for Each Item
Dimensionality Reduction
Coding Categories
Creating Initial Personas ✨
Note on Data Analysis
I could have skipped the data analysis by uploading the interview board to ChatGPT and asking it to replicate the steps I took to create the personas. However, doing this would prevent us from expanding our understanding of personas as new insights emerge. We can still use ChatGPT to validate our findings after white-labeling the information, doing so is the difference between using it as an autopilot and a co-pilot.
Survey
Survey Design
The survey is designed to address each dimension with multiple questions to triangulate and reduce error. Some of the survey questions are designed to collect data for future investigations (e.g., saving and spending habits)
Sampling Strategy
The survey was distributed in Arabic and English to 200 targeted participants across our geographical operational areas, focusing on the target segments by creating screening criteria. A pilot was deployed to 10% of the participants before the full release in order to reduce possible errors.
Data Analysis
Done by the Data Team
The data was cross-tabulated and used to validate the initial persona findings. This data was also used to broadly fill in the demographic information (e.g., age group, family status, employment status) without getting too specific.
Findings & Impact
Information redacted.
Qualitative and quantitative data integration revealed distinct customer segments, instrumental in crafting personas that accurately reflect our target market.
The developed personas have become central to the institution's strategy, informing:
Product Development: Designing wealth management services that cater to specific customer needs and preferences.
Marketing Strategies: Creating targeted campaigns that resonate with distinct customer segments.
User Experience Design: Enhancing digital platforms to align with the behaviors and expectations of different personas.