OK. A quick show of hands. Who uses the word “persona” regularly during conversations or presentations? You can’t see it from where you’re sitting, but my hand is up. And I’m wincing a little. Leave it to us word mashers on the marketing mountaintop to take out all of the innate humanness of people by labeling them as personas, and then gang-tackling those personas with a litany of adjectives, adverbs, and reported job duties — all to illustrate that we really understand our customers’ true needs. Fret not. We’re going to put the “person” back in persona by walking through some really practical ways to understand exactly what your customer wants to consume. Continue reading