Discover how data-backed user personas improve product adoption, streamline workflows, and solve challenges in industries like construction and banking.
If your product is struggling to gain traction, even after extensive planning and development, there’s a common factor that often goes overlooked: a lack of informed user personas. For enterprise companies, especially in industries like construction, banking, medical, and insurance, the absence of accurate, data-driven user personas can spell disaster for product adoption.
So, what exactly are user personas, and how can their absence derail even the best-designed products?
Here is an example
A data-driven persona is a detailed representation of the target users of your product, based on actual data, not assumptions.
It helps align product development with user needs, ensuring the right features are built, the right problems are solved, and the product fits into your users' daily workflows.
Established in 2007, our approach of integrating data-backed insights into products at BP3 has been perfected by experts shaping the user insights field since its inception.
When an organization is new to integrating insights into data-backed personas as a practice, products often miss the mark, leading to poor adoption rates, team inefficiencies, and costly project delays.
Let’s look at an example from a Fortune 100 telecommunications firm that faced a significant challenge. Not long ago in 2016, they invested heavily in developing a new internal project management software intended to streamline operations and reduce bottlenecks across multiple localities.
Despite the considerable effort put into the product’s design and rollout, the product was lacking key reporting features. To work around this, users across different municipalities started creating their own ways of managing data in makeshift spreadsheets.
Inconsistent data across groups, and management lacked broad visibility into on-the-ground operations.
Their team realized they had relied on assumptions about their end users—construction project managers, site supervisors, and admin personnel—rather than data-backed personas. They had developed a product that lacked complexity for site managers in the field and failed to address the daily challenges of real-time project updates.
The company engaged BP3 to design and develop a product that improved their adoption uptake. After conducting in-depth research, including informational interviews and collaborating closely with various user groups, we identified critical tracking details that had been overlooked.
With these personas in hand, the development team redesigned key features to be more accessible and granular, especially in field environments where time and usability were crucial.
Within months of relaunching with these adjustments, adoption rates climbed. Team collaboration improved, and data that used to take hours to reconcile was streamlined, leading to significant time and cost savings. Additionally, the company saw a reduction in reporting inconsistencies and an increase in overall project efficiency.
This problem isn’t limited to construction. Other industries with complex internal processes face similar obstacles:
Failing to invest in data-driven personas can lead to several costly outcomes:
For industries like construction, banking, healthcare, and insurance—where workflows are intricate and red tape abounds—the cost of underinvesting in data-backed personas is enormous. Delays, inefficiencies, and poorly adopted products can cost millions in lost productivity and missed opportunities.
If your product is experiencing adoption challenges, it might be time to rethink how well you understand your users. Here are a few questions to reflect on:
At BP3, we specialize in creating data-backed user personas that drive adoption, streamline processes, and improve overall business outcomes. Our process, refined over decades of experience in user research, ensures that your product fits seamlessly into your users' workflows, boosting both adoption and satisfaction.
Connect with us today and discover how data-backed personas can help your product thrive.
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