Week-2 Masterclass - Market Opportunity - Saurabh Chaubey - Customer Persona

Summary

The transcript emphasizes the importance of creating a detailed customer persona for startups, especially in the IT industry, to visualize their target market effectively. It uses the example of a rescaling startup to illustrate how to identify a customer's age, work experience, goals, pain points, and purchasing decisions. The speaker advises startups to engage in customer discovery and execution rather than solely focusing on the idea, as the latter only plays a small part in the success of a business.

Takeaways

• 📄 **Importance of Market Segmentation**: Understanding your market segment is crucial, especially for startups to visualize who they will sell their product to.
• 👤 **Creating a Persona**: A detailed customer persona helps in visualizing the exact target customer, similar to personal ads or job postings that specify ideal candidates.
• 💡 **Visualization in Business**: Just like in personal ads or job requirements, businesses need to visualize their ideal customer to tailor their offerings effectively.
• 🌐 **IT Industry Example**: The IT industry, especially during the pandemic, has seen a surge in companies offering reskilling solutions, emphasizing the need for continuous learning.
• 🔍 **Identifying Customer Qualities**: When creating a customer persona, it's important to identify qualities like age, experience, and educational background that align with the product's target audience.
• 🚀 **Career Growth and Satisfaction**: The target customer, often an IT professional, seeks career growth and job satisfaction, which drives their interest in reskilling.
• 📈 **Understanding Pain Points**: Knowing the customer's pain points, such as financial constraints or lack of time, is essential for product design and marketing strategies.
• 📅 **Scheduling Considerations**: Scheduling classes or offerings around the customer's availability, like weekends or late nights, is crucial for customer engagement.
• 💼 **Purchasing Decisions**: Understanding how the target customer makes purchasing decisions, including their willingness to pay and preferred payment methods, is key for product pricing and sales strategies.
• 🗣️ **Word-of-Mouth and Social Media**: Leveraging recommendations and social media presence can help in reaching the first wave of customers and expanding the customer base.
• 📊 **Customer Discovery**: Engaging in customer discovery through discussions and identifying a perfect fit for the product is a critical step in refining the business strategy.

Q & A

Why is creating a customer persona important for a startup?

Creating a customer persona is crucial for startups as it helps visualize the ideal customer, enabling the business to tailor its product and marketing strategies effectively.

What is the purpose of visualizing a customer in terms of a persona?

Visualizing a customer as a persona helps businesses to understand and focus on the specific needs, preferences, and behaviors of their target market, which is essential for product development and sales.

How does the example of a matrimonial ad relate to creating a customer persona?

The matrimonial ad example illustrates the concept of defining specific criteria for a target individual, similar to how a business defines the characteristics of its ideal customer through a customer persona.

What is the significance of identifying customer goals and pain points in a persona?

Identifying customer goals and pain points is significant as it allows businesses to address specific needs and challenges, thereby creating a product or service that resonates with the customer's desires and solves their problems.

Why is it beneficial for a startup to understand the purchasing decisions of its customers?

Understanding purchasing decisions helps startups to price their products appropriately, choose the right marketing channels, and develop strategies that align with how their customers make choices.

How does the IT industry's shift towards continuous learning impact customer personas for reskilling startups?

The IT industry's shift towards continuous learning means that customer personas for reskilling startups must reflect the need for up-to-date skills and the desire for career growth, which influences the type of courses and learning formats offered.

What is the role of customer feedback in shaping a customer persona?

Customer feedback plays a vital role in shaping a customer persona by providing insights into real-life experiences, preferences, and expectations, which can be used to refine and validate the persona.

Why is it important for a startup to know if their target customers can pay for their product in a single term or prefer EMIs?

Knowing the payment preferences of target customers is important for startups to structure their pricing and payment plans, ensuring that they are accessible and appealing to the intended audience.

How can a startup use social media to reach its target customers based on their customer persona?

A startup can use social media platforms where its target customers are active to advertise and promote its products, leveraging the persona's identified preferences and habits to tailor the content and reach effectively.

What advice does the speaker give regarding discussing startup ideas with others?

The speaker advises not to worry about idea theft and to discuss startup ideas openly with others, as execution is more critical to success than the idea itself, and feedback can help refine the product and strategy.

What is the significance of customer discovery in the context of building a customer persona?

Customer discovery is significant as it involves researching and identifying the target market's characteristics, which are then used to create an accurate and detailed customer persona that guides business strategy.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Identifying Your Customer Persona

The paragraph emphasizes the importance of creating a detailed customer persona for businesses, particularly startups. It compares this process to matchmaking ads or job descriptions that specify ideal candidate characteristics. The speaker uses the IT industry as an example, highlighting how startups offering reskilling solutions can identify their target customer. A persona named Mr. Assis Kumar is created to represent a 26-year-old IT professional with five years of experience, seeking career growth and job satisfaction. The speaker advises startups to understand their customers' goals, pain points, and preferences to tailor their products and services effectively.

05:02

📈 Crafting a Product Based on Customer Insights

This paragraph delves into the practical aspects of using customer personas to design products. It discusses the need to understand the customer's availability, decision-making process, and willingness to pay. The speaker suggests that product offerings should align with the customer's schedule, such as offering classes on weekends or late nights. Additionally, it's important to consider how customers make purchasing decisions, whether through recommendations or social media influence. The speaker stresses the importance of price points and payment options that match the customer's budget and preferences. The paragraph concludes with advice on discussing ideas openly to gain insights into customer needs and to perform customer discovery to identify the target market effectively.

Keywords

💡Market Segment

A market segment refers to a specific group of customers who share similar needs and characteristics, and are therefore likely to be interested in certain types of products or services. In the video, the speaker emphasizes the importance of identifying one's market segment to visualize the target customer base for a product or service. The script mentions creating a 'Persona' to represent the ideal customer, which is a common practice in market segmentation.

💡Persona

A Persona is a detailed representation of a target customer, including their demographics, behaviors, motivations, and goals. It helps businesses to better understand and connect with their ideal customers. The video script uses the example of a 27-year-old NBA female to illustrate how a persona is created, and how it can be applied to a startup's customer base to sell products effectively.

💡Startup

A startup is a new business venture that aims to develop, launch, and scale a product or service. The video script mentions startups as entities that particularly need to understand their customer personas because they often have limited resources and need to focus their efforts on the right target audience to succeed.

💡IT Industry

The IT industry encompasses all businesses and organizations that deal with computers, software, and other information technology services. The script discusses the IT industry as a significant employer in India and how it has evolved, necessitating continuous learning and reskilling for professionals to stay competitive.

💡Reskilling

Reskilling is the process of acquiring new skills to adapt to changes in the job market or to advance one's career. The video highlights the need for reskilling in the IT industry due to the rapid emergence of new technologies. It uses the example of a 26-year-old IT professional who has been in the industry for five years and is looking to reskill to grow his career.

💡Career Growth

Career growth refers to the advancement of an individual's professional status and responsibilities within a career path. The script mentions that the target customer, Mr. Assis Kumar, seeks career growth and is willing to learn new skills to achieve this. His desire for career growth is a key driver for his interest in reskilling courses.

💡Pain Points

Pain points are the challenges or difficulties that a customer faces, which a product or service aims to solve. In the video, the speaker identifies the pain points of the target customer, such as financial constraints, family responsibilities, and lack of time due to a full-time job, which prevent him from pursuing further education or training.

💡Purchasing Decisions

Purchasing decisions refer to the process by which customers choose to buy a product or service. The video script discusses analyzing the purchasing decisions of the target customer, such as their willingness to pay a certain amount for reskilling, their preference for payment terms, and their reliance on recommendations from colleagues.

💡Customer Discovery

Customer discovery is the process of researching and understanding the needs, wants, and preferences of a target customer base. The video emphasizes the importance of customer discovery in identifying the right fit for a product. It suggests that创业者 should discuss their ideas with potential customers to understand their goals, pain points, and purchasing decisions.

💡Execution

Execution in the context of the video refers to the practical implementation of a business plan or strategy. The speaker advises that while having a good idea is important, the success of a startup largely depends on its execution. This involves creating a product that meets the needs of the identified customer persona and effectively marketing it to the target audience.

Highlights

Importance of creating a customer persona for startups to visualize their target market segment.

Comparison of customer persona to personal ads and job postings for clarity on target demographics.

The IT industry's role as a significant employer and the rise of reskilling solutions during the pandemic.

The shift from traditional programming languages to continuous learning for career growth in IT.

Identifying the target customer for reskilling startups through a detailed customer persona example.

The profile of 'Mr. Assis Kumar', a 26-year-old IT professional with five years of experience, as a customer persona.

Reasoning behind choosing a customer with five years of experience and a bachelor's degree in engineering.

Understanding the career growth stagnation and salary dissatisfaction as key pain points for IT professionals.

The need for reskilling to enhance salary and job opportunities identified as a primary goal for the customer persona.

Challenges faced by IT professionals in pursuing higher education due to financial constraints and job commitments.

Strategies for product design based on customer's time availability and preferences for weekend or late-night classes.

The influence of colleagues' recommendations on purchasing decisions for new courses.

Importance of identifying early adopters and using them to attract subsequent customers through social media.

The significance of understanding customer's willingness to pay and preferred payment methods for product pricing.

Advice on discussing startup ideas openly to gain insights into customer goals, pain points, and purchasing decisions.

Emphasis on execution over the idea itself, highlighting that idea is only 5% of a startup's success.

The process of customer discovery to identify the target market and validate the product offering.

Transcripts

[Music]

now the another important thing come up

it's not only uh enough to just have on

paper what is my market segment I need

to create a Persona what whom exactly

I'm looking at and this is very

important for somebody who's just

starting a business who's just starting

in a startup because you need to

visualize whom you are going to sell

your product and this is just same like

you might have you must have seen this

kind of Metrion ad in newspapers right

and you can see that somebody uh who's a

27 year old NBA female working in MNC

she is looking for 28 to 32 year old guy

well qualified leaving in a nuclear

family willing to relocate right and C

doesn't want interference of the Y so C

is giving a picture whom see wants to

meet that's what you that's what you

need to visualize who will be your

customer and the similarly way you can

see also job openings also when company

give a requirement for CEO a post

position like that they give exact

qualification experience level age

limits basically to visualize who is

going to be the the candidate for that

similar way you need to identify your

customer Persona who is going to be your

customer so now here I have taken

example for

example lot of this is during this

pandemic uh the IT industry is of course

one of the India's largest employment

giving industry but uh with all of them

now there's a train there's new company

great learning um unacademy uh udmi and

know many and more are coming up those

who are providing rescaling Solutions so

basically nowadays like when we were

doing engineering C C++ Java was like

something was more than enough to learn

uh to have a good career great career

but nowaday every know every two or

three months new technologies are coming

up and you have to learn you have dat to

get the job switch so the these are the

startups who are cing to this rescaling

environment now for all those it

reskilling uh

startups how they have to do the

customer Persona so what is an example

what how they actually I did the

Consulting with one of such startup and

I helped them to identify their customer

so when you are launching such rescaling

company who you are going to Target it

right and with every quality you have to

identify why it's that so like for

example uh I identified for this

rescaling startup I identifi that Mr

assis Kumar he is my

customer and what is his age 26 he's

working for five years in IT industry he

only has a bachelor in engineering now

why I have chosen this qualities because

uh when a fresher starts in an industry

for first two three years of his uh

carrier he's already busy learning the

new things he even not through the

basics of ID industry so the first two

three years he is you know just trying

to cope up with the the industry what

he's offering basically but then there

comes a point in his career after five

years where he feels that he's now stuck

he's not growing his salary is not

growing at a speed at which he wants so

then what he needs he needs to Res skill

he has to learn new skills to increase

his salary to get better opportunities

and you need to identify what is the the

basic basically what this customer is

saying so you have to talk to some of

them you have to know what they want in

their life about your product so like uh

the this kind of it employee what they

want they he's saying that I want to

fast grow my career and I want to do

some exciting this is the two things uh

of course this generation want uh quick

money want to progress high in the

career and also they want the work to be

satisfying so initially for the skills

which you start with can notot be the

skills which will give you satisfaction

for your whole career so that's how you

have to this now this guy what his I

need to identify what are his goal and

what are his pain points also so his

goals is he want to highrise in salary

he wants more satisfying work but what

is the pain point he's having he do he's

not able to go for a full-time MBA or

mte maybe May many reasons Financial

constraints he needs to support support

his family he can't leave job so he

can't go for a PG and then also on a

week days he can't get time he can't get

the time because he's already busy with

the job so now everything every

information will play a role when I will

design a product for my customers

because I know that he's not able to get

time on weekdays I will keep my classes

on weekends or maybe on late night if

they are I get a enough customer on that

thing also

now also I need to analyze what are the

purchasing decision uh what how he makes

the decisions right so the people who

like to do try new courses based on

their colleagues recommendation so that

they they will be the first wave of my

customers I would love I would like to

get some set of customer on board maybe

op directly to them and then I would

through them I want to get my next set

of customer

I want people who are active on social

media if he's uh spending time on social

media I can give advertisement on

Facebook insta and all and I can get him

aware about my product offering and he

is willing to pay certain sum of money

and I I need to know how much he wants

to pay accordingly I can create if if he

if most of my customer wants to only pay

40,000 a year on rescaling and I'm

giving them a product like two lakh uh

it's going to be it's going to to fail

so I have to you know and then I need to

know that how they are going to pay can

they pay in a sing in a single term or

they would prefer to use emis these are

the all the purchasing decision and

that's how I create a customer personal

so that I can visualize who is my

customer and in fact what my practical

advice would be uh whenever you have

your you know idea in your mind talk to

people don't worry about that the idea

will be anyone will steal the idea

that's the idea is only 5% of plays role

of success of an startup 95% of success

comes from your

execution so discuss the idea with

people and try to understand that what

are their goals what are their paino

what are their purchasing decisions who

will be the right fit for your product

then out of those discussion maybe 20 or

30 or 50 people you will discuss you

will find a person who is a perfect fit

for your product who is exactly fits

into your price range your product

offering your values then now find out

how many of them are there like him or

her that is the customer Discovery

that's what we do the customer Discovery

out of the many lot of

[Music]

people