The use of personas in sales and marketing has long been a standard practice, though it probably first entered mainstream awareness years ago when Best Buy’s sales profiles of its typical customers were leaked.In sales and marketing, the use of these typical customer archetypes helps to refine and target messaging to these specific customer types (so that the pitch to the soccer mom is different from the pitch to the gadget geek).

But what about the value of personas in the world of technology? By using personas of typical users of a technology, can businesses find out how to best leverage and gain from these different user personas?

This is the idea behind the Analytical Mind Map, from Aberdeen’s Analytics and Business Intelligence practice. With this Mind Map, Aberdeen’s analysts have put together a set of personas representing classic users of business intelligence and analytics tools and have then used these personas to offer recommendations on how organizations can get the most out of these different analytics personas.

To create the Mind Map, VP and Principal Analyst Michael Lock and Research Analyst Peter Krensky surveyed and profiled analytics users about their tendencies and practices. Lock said, “We’ve created personas that map to how people think and act when it comes to making decisions and using analytics.”

Did they tend to go with their gut instincts in analysis or do detailed investigations? Were they collaborative team players or experienced BI gurus? By working through the responses and the practices and strategies of BI users, they were able to come up with four distinct personas for BI and analytics users.

“We think that when it comes to decision making and operating in an analytical environment, there are things that play into how people make decisions. There are practical things, like your job role and level of expertise, but there are also emotional things, like how data driven are you versus gut driven, are you more likely to be collaborative in nature or more likely to be a lone wolf. We decided to meld these two worlds of the practical and the emotional and come up with personas that we think describe the user world” said Lock.

So the four personas that Lock, Krensky and the analytics practice found by digging through the 700 plus responses to their survey were Gunslingers, Detectives, Professors and Evangelists. Gunslingers are quick to the draw with decisions based on gut instincts. Detectives dig deep and do detailed data analysis to find the truth. Professors are highly experienced teachers who know all the ins and outs of analysis. AndEvangelists are collaborative sharers who look to spread the value of analytics and get many other users and groups involved.

By looking at the research coming from the Analytical Mind Map, businesses can not only gain understanding of the different types of analytics users, they can also find out how to get the most out of these personas, either through ideal pairing or improved practices.

According to Lock and Krensky, the initial set of existing research based on the Mind Map is just the beginning. They plan to dig deeper, looking into, for example, how different personas operate in different industries or technology practices.

Source: www.business2community.com