customer-persona

customer-persona

Customer Persona

Create data-backed customer personas with research and visuals via inference.sh CLI.

Quick Start

Requires inference.sh CLI (infsh). Install instructions

infsh login

# Research your target market
infsh app run tavily/search-assistant --input '{
  "query": "SaaS product manager demographics pain points 2024 survey"
}'

# Generate a persona avatar
infsh app run falai/flux-dev-lora --input '{
  "prompt": "professional headshot photograph of a 35-year-old woman, product manager, friendly confident expression, modern office background, natural lighting, business casual attire, realistic portrait",
  "width": 1024,
  "height": 1024
}'

Persona Template

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  [Avatar Photo]                                      │
│                                                      │
│  SARAH CHEN, 34                                      │
│  Product Manager at a Series B SaaS startup          │
│                                                      │
│  "I spend more time making reports than making       │
│   decisions."                                        │
│                                                      │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  DEMOGRAPHICS          │  PSYCHOGRAPHICS             │
│  Age: 30-38            │  Values: efficiency, data   │
│  Income: $120-160K     │  Personality: analytical,   │
│  Education: BS/MBA     │    organized, collaborative │
│  Location: Urban US    │  Interests: productivity,   │
│  Role: Product/PM      │    leadership, AI tools     │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  GOALS                 │  PAIN POINTS                │
│  • Ship features       │  • Too many meetings        │
│  faster                │  • Manual reporting (15     │
│  • Data-driven         │    hrs/week)                │
│  decisions             │  • Stakeholder alignment    │
│  • Team alignment      │    is slow                  │
│  • Career growth to    │  • Tool sprawl (8+ apps)   │
│    Director            │  • No single source of      │
│                        │    truth                    │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  CHANNELS              │  BUYING TRIGGERS            │
│  • LinkedIn (daily)    │  • Peer recommendation      │
│  • Product Hunt        │  • Free trial experience    │
│  • Podcasts (commute)  │  • Integration with Jira    │
│  • Lenny's Newsletter  │  • Team plan pricing        │
│  • Twitter/X           │  • ROI calculator           │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Building a Persona Step-by-Step

Step 1: Research

Start with data, not assumptions.

# Market demographics
infsh app run tavily/search-assistant --input '{
  "query": "product manager salary demographics 2024 survey report"
}'

# Pain points and challenges
infsh app run exa/search --input '{
  "query": "biggest challenges facing product managers SaaS companies"
}'

# Tool usage patterns
infsh app run tavily/search-assistant --input '{
  "query": "most popular tools product managers use 2024 survey"
}'

# Content consumption habits
infsh app run exa/answer --input '{
  "question": "Where do product managers get their industry news and professional development?"
}'

Step 2: Demographics

Use ranges, not exact values. Personas represent a segment, not one person.

Field Format Example

Age range X-Y 30-38

Income range $X-$Y $120,000-$160,000

Education Common degrees BS Computer Science, MBA

Location Region/type Urban US, major tech hubs

Job title Role level Senior PM, Product Lead

Company size Range 50-500 employees

Industry Sector B2B SaaS

Step 3: Psychographics

What they think, value, and believe.

Category Questions to Answer

Values What matters most to them professionally?

Attitudes How do they feel about their industry's direction?

Motivations What drives them at work?

Personality Analytical vs intuitive? Leader vs collaborator?

Interests What do they read/watch/listen to professionally?

Lifestyle Work-life balance preference? Remote/hybrid/office?

Step 4: Goals

What they're trying to achieve (both professional and personal).

Professional:
- Ship features faster with fewer meetings
- Make data-driven decisions (not gut feelings)
- Get promoted to Director of Product within 2 years
- Build a more autonomous product team

Personal:
- Leave work by 6pm more often
- Be seen as a strategic leader, not a ticket manager
- Stay current with industry trends without information overload

Step 5: Pain Points

Quantify whenever possible. Vague pain = vague persona.

❌ "Has trouble with reporting"
✅ "Spends 15 hours per week creating manual reports for 4 different stakeholders"

❌ "Too many tools"
✅ "Uses 8 different tools daily (Jira, Slack, Notion, Figma, Analytics, Sheets, Docs, Email) with no unified view"

❌ "Meetings are a problem"
✅ "Averages 6 hours of meetings per day, leaving only 2 hours for deep work"

Step 6: Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD)

Three types of jobs:

Job Type Description Example

Functional The task they need to accomplish "Prioritize the product backlog based on customer impact data"

Emotional How they want to feel "Feel confident presenting to the exec team"

Social How they want to be perceived "Be seen as the person who makes data-driven decisions"

Step 7: Buying Process

Stage Behavior

Awareness Reads blog posts, sees peer recommendations on LinkedIn

Consideration Compares 3-4 tools, reads G2/Capterra reviews, asks in Slack communities

Decision Requests demo, needs IT/security approval, evaluates team pricing

Influencers Engineering lead, VP of Product, CFO (for budget)

Objections "Will my team actually adopt it?", "Does it integrate with Jira?"

Trigger event New quarter with aggressive goals, new VP demanding better reporting

Step 8: Generate Avatar

# Match demographics: age, gender, ethnicity, professional context
infsh app run falai/flux-dev-lora --input '{
  "prompt": "professional headshot photograph of a 34-year-old Asian American woman, product manager, warm confident smile, modern tech office background, natural lighting, wearing smart casual blouse, realistic portrait photography, sharp focus",
  "width": 1024,
  "height": 1024
}'

Avatar tips:

• Match the age range, ethnicity representation, and professional context

• Use "professional headshot photograph" for realistic results

• Friendly, approachable expression (not stock-photo-stiff)

• Background suggests their work environment

• Business casual or industry-appropriate attire

The Anti-Persona

Equally important: who is NOT your customer.

ANTI-PERSONA: "Enterprise Earl"
- CTO at a 5,000+ person enterprise
- Needs SOC 2, HIPAA, on-premise deployment
- 18-month procurement cycles
- Wants white-glove onboarding and dedicated CSM
- WHY NOT: Our product is self-serve SaaS for SMB/mid-market.
  Enterprise needs would require 2+ years of product investment.

Anti-personas prevent wasted effort on customers you can't serve.

Multiple Personas

Most products have 2-4 personas. More than 4 = too many to serve well.

Priority Persona Role

Primary The main user and buyer Who you optimize for

Secondary Influences the buying decision Who you need to convince

Tertiary Uses the product occasionally Who you support, not target

Validation

Personas based on assumptions are fiction. Validate with:

Method What You Learn

Customer interviews (5-10) Real language, real pain points

Support ticket analysis Actual problems, not assumed ones

Analytics data Actual behavior, not reported behavior

Survey (50+ responses) Quantified patterns across segments

Sales call recordings Objections, buying triggers, language

Common Mistakes

Mistake Problem Fix

Based on assumptions Fiction, not research Start with data

Too many personas (6+) Can't serve everyone well Max 3-4

Vague pain points Not actionable Quantify everything

Demographics only Misses motivations and behavior Add psychographics, JTBD

Never updated Becomes outdated Review quarterly

No anti-persona Wasted effort on wrong customers Define who you're NOT for

Single persona for all Different users have different needs Primary/secondary/tertiary

Related Skills

npx skills add inference-sh/skills@web-search
npx skills add inference-sh/skills@ai-image-generation
npx skills add inference-sh/skills@prompt-engineering

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