Question 1

What is the difference between an archetype and a buyer persona?

Accepted Answer

An archetype groups behavioral patterns and motivations observed in research, without giving them a face or biography; it describes ways of acting. A buyer persona is a more concrete and narrative representation of a typical customer, oriented towards the purchase decision and widely used in marketing and sales. You can delve deeper into customer archetypes and buyer personas.

Question 2

How many personas or archetypes should a product have?

Accepted Answer

Between three and five. Fewer than three usually means that the analysis did not distinguish relevant behaviors; more than five makes the tool unmanageable and the team stops using it. If many profiles appear, it is advisable to define a primary one for which the design is optimized and treat the rest as secondary.

Question 3

What is a customer journey map and what should it include?

Accepted Answer

It is the visual representation of a person's journey to achieve an objective with your brand, stage by stage. It should include: the phases of the journey, specific actions, channels and touchpoints, what the person thinks and feels, pain points, and prioritized opportunities for improvement. We detail this in the complete customer journey guide.

Question 4

Can personas be built without conducting research?

Accepted Answer

They can, but they are called provisional personas or proto-personas and should be treated as hypotheses, not as evidence. They serve to align assumptions at the beginning of a project and are then validated or corrected with interviews and usage data. Publishing them as truth is the most common mistake and ends up directing the product towards a customer who does not exist.

Question 5

What data do I need to build a solid buyer persona?

Accepted Answer

A combination of qualitative and quantitative sources: interviews with real customers, conversations with sales and support teams, site analytics, CRM data, surveys, and analysis of social media conversations. The essential thing is that every statement about the persona can be traced back to data, not to a team's assumption.

Question 6

How often should archetypes and journey maps be updated?

Accepted Answer

At least once a year, and whenever something relevant changes: a new channel, a major redesign, a price change, or a market shift. An outdated map is worse than no map at all, because the team continues to make decisions based on a picture that no longer corresponds to reality.

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