This article was adapted from Igor’s brilliant talk at Product Marketing MisUnderstood. PMA members can watch the complete recording here. Head to your membership dashboard to check out even more awesome OnDemand content.
Hello, everyone! I’m Igor Kranjčec, the Head of Marketing at Determ, and today I’m excited to talk about the importance of bringing personas to life to gain internal buy-in from key stakeholders.
As one of the foundational pillars of product marketing, personas hold a special place in my heart. They’re essential for any company looking to understand its customers better and drive growth, especially in the B2B SaaS sector.
The problem with personas
Here’s a mind-blowing statistic for you: 90% of product marketers say they can’t make other departments use the personas they’ve worked so hard to build.
Full disclosure: that 90% is based on the PMMs I’ve met – it’s not an official statistic, but it’s telling nonetheless. As for the other 10%, I’m pretty sure they’re lying!
This challenge was a hot topic at the Product Marketing Summit last year in Amsterdam. Between sessions, the conversation often circled back to the critical question: How do we get stakeholders to own and use these personas, especially when they’re designed to make their jobs easier?
Here are some sentiments I’ve heard from other PMMs:
“I poured so much effort into these personas, and it’s the sales team’s fault they don’t use them.”
“I worked tirelessly on these personas, and sales doesn’t even know they exist.”
Cry me a river.
That may sound harsh, but my point is that as PMMs, given the cross-functional nature of our role, we must ensure our work has the desired impact on other departments. It’s not just about crafting the personas; it’s about making them stick. We need to be proactive, ensuring every department recognizes the value of the tools we create.
