User persona - Is it really necessary to create for solve my design problem ?

Why creating user Personas is important and why it helps largely in design thinking process and how to exactly do. Can you give some examples for me to understand Jagdish? Many people ask this question and they also wander in youtubes and use lot of Google searches and chatgpt and all these things. But let me tell you guys, from my experience, making this particular step is very important when you move forward in your solving a problem. If you're making an art, if you're making some kind of a cool random graphic stuff, I don't think you need Persona. You can just randomly open a tool and do it. But if you want to really solve a problem, want to create an impact, then user Persona is very, very important. This particular podcast is going to help you understand why building Persona is important and how you can exactly do user Persona mapping by my three unique steps, which is very important when you're solving a problem. And I'll help you with a case study in an example shortly. How you can implement that three steps because it's learning theory is okay, but unless until you practically implement it, you won't be able to get it. And finally, my golden tip of how you can create that user Persona with a unique flavor and touch. With that being said, now let's dive deep into this particular topic. Guys, sound vibe. Welcome, welcome, welcome. This is Jagdish. Thank you for staying tuning in with me in my podcast channel which is designed for change. Thank you guys. And a lot of people have asked me, who are you? Okay. They've been listening to my podcast. Okay, so this is Jagdish, guys. I'm mechanical engineer and a product designer. I have around close to nine years of experience and I did more than 63 plus projects in my overall career. Okay, so I've been a product development engineer, started my career with that and slowly I was feeling a lot of creativity is missing in me and I wanted to really fulfill that in my career. Okay. I was having that urge to go and do something creative. I don't know whether the product design field existed until 2017 to be very honest. Okay, A lot of you might be surprised. Hey, 2017, only you know product designer. I know mechanical engineering design, but yeah. And then after that I started understanding there was institutes who formally teach it and then I shaped my career accordingly. And then I quit my job and then I took the risk of doing that full time education even at the age of 28. I was about to get married also at that time. So lot of things I really sacrificed and I moved on checking one thing in my mind that I was very passionate. And the thing is, it's not about me, it's about I'm able to help students also to get results and I'm able to help students also to shape their career in a more simplified manner. Because not all people can understand the same awareness of design in the world of design thinking and solving problem. Not all people were able to afford many big institutes or having resources to learn. So I'm able to help students and get results. There are students whom I've helped them get job in just one week, in just three days, in just 15 days, just 20 days, 30 days, 45 days. So they were able to follow my process based on their need. I help them and then I mentor them. It's not a one template format. I help them and I've helped hundreds of hundreds of students to help them reach their results. And I've given more than 100 plus webinars and I've talked to more than 12,500 students in personal guys. So even not I'm a designer or a mechanical engineer, you can respect me that I really talk to a lot of students. So how much of insights and how much of problems I would have faced and how much of empathy I would have had with the students? I've talked to aging people from 16, 17, 10 standard, 12 standard to age of 66, 0. Okay, I've talked to designers, I've talked to non designers, I've talked to graphic designers, I've talked to software developers, engineers, doctors, psychologists and then so called designers. Okay? So when you hear from me, what is user Persona, you can definitely trust that out. Okay? So just to get a short introduction about me, if you're, if you're not knowing about me, okay, because this has to be important for you, then and only you will come to know, okay? I'm getting to know this from a trustable source. Okay, so again you don't have to trust this. You can just question this also. I'm just telling you you okay, because design is all about questioning yourself. And you can cross check and you can able to come back with the your own perspective. Okay, so with that we will start this first. Why creating user Persona is important. See guys, when you're creating user Persona, it helps you target your exact market and solution properly. Okay? Rather than just building, hey, I'll solve a problem of like let's say I'll solve a problem of creativity. I'll build some creative solutions for my people to become creative. No, you have to Target a particular thing and it helps you build empathy with your users. Who is my user? What is this need? Third is it helps you prioritize your design needs accordingly. See, when you wanted to choose first, okay, I will design first my process, then I'll design solution. Okay, First I'll build interface, then I'll build a physical product. Oh, first I'll build a system, then I'll be so what? This priority will be changing when you design a proper Persona and lot of assumption will be cutting down, guys. So major important thing. Design is largely based upon assumptions. People call, but let me tell you, it has to be validated properly with your target market. So your assumptions will come down. If you do proper user Persona and then it is a check for you and your team to make sure you are solving that problem. You know, design decision is very important. When you take slightly a different decision, it will steer that project in a different way to make sure your team is aligned properly. Creating user Persona is important. Okay, so these are all the five important steps. Why when these are all the five important things, why creating user Persona is important. Targeting a particular solution, having an empathy with your user, prioritizing your design, which comes first and which comes second and third and less of assumption is coming and then checking your team for making a better decision making. Okay, so now I'll tell you the three unique steps which I follow. Okay? So you can tweak here and there, you can follow your own thing, but you can get the essence of what is happening. Okay. There are some ups and downs to it, but you can understand it. The step one is find out what kind of a geography you're trying to solve this problem. Define your target market properly. Okay? That's the step one. In that step one, you can go to different ethnographic people to understand who will be your target market. See, we cannot narrow down that at this point of time. We can narrow down when we are creating user Persona. Okay? When we know when we follow these three steps, then creating Persona will be much easier. Now worry. I'll give you an example. You can easily understand. First is talk to different, different region people. Talk to different, different cultural people. That is what is the ethnographic perspective we call, right? Let's say if you're solving creativity problem, okay, you talk to students how they are suffering. You talk to office going people how they're suffering. You talk to housewives who are suffering. You talk to business people who need creative, so creative problems. So talk about different, different culture. Talk in Hindu culture, talk in Muslim Culture talk in Christianity. Go to a different state like New Delhi, New Turmeric, Gujarat. No, go to a different place like maybe West Bengal. Go to a different place, like extreme parts of Bihar where more rural. So different ethnography, different culture, different background people is important. And that's how you may be able to finalize your population also. And make sure which is the most prominent issue, what you're going to solve with this particular creativity problem. Let's say in creativity, what are the most important aspect you wanted to solve. So all these four elements will shape your target market properly, okay? Geographical understanding, ethnographic perspective, adding population and creating the most prominent problem in your particular problem, what you wanted to solve, you wanted to solve a problem of alcohol de addiction. If you wanted to solve a problem of sexual harassment. If you want to solve a problem of anything, make sure you go prominent which is the most influencing factor in that. Because guys, if you're not able to narrow down, then finding a target market is not easy. You will go wide. You will not diverge itself. Okay? This is the first step. Second step is once your target market is good, find out which age category you want to solve. Take out their name, their profession, their hobbies, their skill sets, their behavior, their motivation, their goals, their interest, their disinterest, how they spend time, how they eat food, how which time they sleep, which time they wake up, whom the people they talk to. So understanding their entire life cycle around here, how it will help all these things. Here I am going to design something, their creativity problem. Why are you asking me to do this? Trust me guys, this will work. I'll tell you why. When you understand this entire life cycle of a people and their habitats and their entire day, you will be able to fit exactly your solution where it can solve. See guys, we are creating this particular solution, right? So we need to find out who is our exact audience and how they are really living their lifestyle is. See, you can do it in a number of ways. You can create user surveys and send it out in Google forms and digital research. You can call in a virtual call and you can talk, talk in your phone. You can visit that particular phrase, you can visit that particular place or studio or the particular field and you can collect data, take pictures, take videos, do interviews, record them. That's all fine. But unless until you find out this information, I told you, right? The age, the profession, the hobby skills, behavior, motivation, goals, disinterest, you will not be able to create your user Persona properly. This is a step two. Okay, Going into the details of the problem and the lifestyle of the people collecting all information. Third is. Which is very different. Okay. You need to check how it's going to solve their problem. If you did step one and step two properly, step three will be so easy for you. Okay. A lot of people miss out this. They put some boxes, they put some picture of a person and then they add their interest, disinterest, hobby, skill. This is my Persona. Oh my God. It's very clear that you copied from some image of Internet or you just put a keyword in dribbble or pinterest and then you created some Persona. No. Understand the intention. Guys. Guys, understand why we are creating Persona. Understand why it is important for your project. And then follow the step one, step two and then come for the step three. Okay? So address your problem. Check whether you are your. Your solution or your particular problem is going to address which amount of people. Clearly that relevance should be there. Okay? Step three is very important to check that relevancy. See, you can do it in two ways. Okay. You can create imaginary Personas. Also. You don't have to do any field research. You can just imagine in your mind. Hey, let's say like. Let's say the person name is Sanjana. Sanjana is working in. Like. Let's say she's working in tailoring industry. Okay. She's a hand. She's artist. She. She does. She loves tailoring. She stitches cloth. And her work style is every day 8 hours she works and then she comes back. She stays in a rural area village and she earns 20,000amonth. Month. Fine. Her interest are she talks to a lot of women. She talks to her neighborhood. She. She engages in healthy conversation with her neighbors and relatives and friends. She has two kids and she spends her weekend with spending with her family cooking good food, going for one movie. That could be her interest. Her biggest goal is to raise her kids and make them successful. Imaginary. Okay. How imaginary is going into reality? I'll tell you now guys. See, when you're having an imaginary perspective in mind then you have to go and validate that also. If really a person like that exists. If really that kind of a profession exists. If really this kind of a target market is watching movies in the weekend. If this really people are goal oriented towards raising their kids. What is the real goal? What is their real need? Where are they living, what they're doing? This is how you validate this information properly. See? Imaginary and validation. And how your problem is going to be solved with that relevancy. See guys, the third Step is very important. You have to touch upon who is your target market and how your problem is going to solve them. Okay, I am solving creativity for this kind of a segment. How should I solve? Okay, I can help them bring a solution of how they can become more creative in raising their kids. Yeah. You can design a book. You can design an app. You can design a product. You can design a game. I told four industries. You can pitch to four industries for your problem to solve it and get hired. Or you can solve for pitching your business ideas. If you are an entrepreneur in design, if you wanted to get a freelancing, you can pitch it in this way. See, unless until you find out their entire life cycle, lifestyle and their habitats and their goals and dreams, you cannot solve their problem. Now you should be getting clarity why we are going this much deep. Okay, just to reiterate, finding the target market, understanding a geography, ethnography, population most prominent problem and impact. And writing about them, their age, dependency, profession, hobby skills. Third is how relevant it is for your Persona. Whether it's an imaginary person or real person or. Okay, this is how the three step works. Finally, I'll give you small case study. Guys. Let's say if you're solving a creativity problem. Let's say if your research is properly done, you find out IT people or your information technology. IT people are your target market. You need to collect stats and data to substantiate it. Second, you need to find a region. Okay. In Bangalore. I'll focus on outskirts of Bangalore. Okay. Not in Bangalore. Outskirts of Bangalore. For the people who travel back from their home to office. Okay. In that particular segment, I wanted to solve the problem of job search. A lot of people wanted to do job search, right? They want to Increase their salary 2x3x. How creative ways they can increase their salary 2x3x. How they can build their entire career in that. How they can build creative resumes. How they can build communication. How they can build different different methods to increase their salary growth. If he's a marketing person salesperson, how different creative ways he can approach for different marketing agencies. If he is from a sales background, how is creatively you can use that career building process to improve his sales career and get more salary. Let's say if he's getting 50,000 in next three months with your solution, he's going to get 1 lakh. Then your Persona is perfect. Then your problem solving approach is perfect. Then your process is perfect. This is how you need to check whether your Persona is correct or not. Guys. See, I've given an example it people are working in outskirts of Bangalore, traveling back and forth. Their big aspiration, their goal is to go for big career. Okay. How you are helping them by designing app, by designing product, by designing book, by designing game, by designing anything. Guys, you can have a coaching system also to design. And then you can design a coaching system so that people can come and get their career built. And you can charge for that, right? So this is how you find a Persona and solve it. See guys, finally I'll give you one golden tip to close this podcast. You need to have a aspiration also for that. Like let's say if your Persona already designed, defined properly, you did a research, you collected all information, you did not add your flavor. Everything is based on the statistical information, user survey data, Google form recording, video interview, you did it. But the final touches, you think an aspiring visionary, you, you create a vision how these people will live their life after five years. If they go like this. How these people will live their life after five years. 10 years, 15 years, 20 years. You know guys, this entire podcast is going to impact you when you implement this point. Okay. All these things are little bit what you call before what I said. Many people know it. This particular thing you need to really reimagine and recreate the future for them. How they can really have their career after 10 years, 15 years, 20 years. And then you bring that Persona needs. Then you will see, okay, these people will be driving self driving cars. These people will be living home which is levitating in the air. Like let's say you can have that. So how do you solve that particular target Persona in your current design process? Let me tell you guys, this will add a great creativity in your process and you will stay like trendy, you will stay like futuristic. You will really solve huge problems. And your problem, your solution will be relevant for all the time current future. It's going to be a classical solution for you and how to do it exactly. Talk to a lot of people. Talk to at least 30 people. Talk to at least 60 people. Talk to at least 120 people. See guys, if you talk to more than 30 people, you'll see a pattern emerging. Less than 30 people will not give you any information. So when you're creating Personas, talk to at least 30, 60, 90 people with various background, various ethnographic understanding, various population, various age group, various profession. And then you tend to find out a very good five Personas. Five Personas, five different problem. It could be it people, it could be school going people. It could be housewives, it could be business entrepreneurs, it could be people who are. What do you call coaches and teachers and mentors who wanted to build system. Yeah, five Personas from that you narrowed down based on your client, based on your project needs, based on your timeline and budget. Because we need to be reality. Also we cannot be doing this project for years. Right? We need to understand the timeline of the customer. We need to understand the budget. Okay, only three people are there in my project. How we can do a better research with them? What is your project need? You have to solve a solution for people's creativity, right? And you need to find out who is your client properly and his understanding should be aligned with your Persona. And you have to solve the problem within the timeline and then within your budget. If you do this, guys, your user Persona will be robust and solid proof. Okay, I hope this podcast would have given you clarity on why setting Persona is important and how. How to exactly do it with the three steps and how you can apply it with the real time case study I told you and how you can validate with your clients needs and budgets and timeline properly. Okay. But thank you so much guys for staying tuning in with me in this particular podcast. I hope you would have understood what is user Persona. And you can drop me an email if you want to get to get more clarity. And if you wanted to get in touch with me for my coaching and mentoring, you can just drop in an email. I'll be happy to help you. And I don't take a lot of students. I qualify few people only because I cannot help a lot of people. I'll help you. If you wanted your design career to be built from the scratch, or if you wanted to take it from 1x level to a 3x and 4x level, I have a unique system to help you guys. And if you find this podcast useful, give me a best rating in Spotify and Apple. Thank you so much guys. Take care. Bye bye. Wait.