Executive Summary: User Personas for SaaS Product

Based on 25 interviews and 400 survey responses, we identified 4 distinct personas:

1. Strategic Sarah (18%) - Executive users focused on ROI and team-wide visibility
2. Tactical Tom (42%) - Daily users managing workflows and team coordination
3. Occasional Olivia (28%) - Periodic users with specific use cases
4. Struggling Sam (12%) - Infrequent users facing adoption barriers

Persona 1: Strategic Sarah

Profile

• Age: 38-50
• Role: Director, VP, C-suite Executive
• Company Size: 200-2000 employees
• Experience: 10+ years in leadership
• Segment Size: 18% (72 survey respondents, 4 interviews)

Goals

1. Demonstrate ROI and justify continued investment in the platform
2. Monitor team productivity and identify bottlenecks across departments
3. Make data-driven decisions about resource allocation
4. Ensure consistent adoption across multiple teams

Pain Points (Ranked)

1. Limited executive reporting - “I need board-level metrics, not task-level details” (Interview #7)
2. Poor cross-team visibility - “I manage 5 departments but can’t see who’s overloaded” (Interview #18)
3. Unclear ROI metrics - “I’m spending $50K/year but can’t quantify time savings” (Survey, repeated 16x)

Jobs-to-be-Done

1. When preparing for board meetings I want to show productivity improvements so I can justify continued investment
2. When restructuring teams I want to see workload distribution so I can allocate resources effectively

Supporting Quotes

1. “I don’t need to see every task. I need to know: Are we faster? Are we on budget? Are we meeting goals?” (Interview #7)
2. “The VP asked me last week what ROI we’re getting. I had no good answer.” (Interview #18)
3. “My teams are scattered across 3 time zones. I need one dashboard showing me who’s stuck and who’s ahead.” (Interview #21)

Product Recommendations

1. Priority 1: Executive dashboard with ROI metrics (time saved, cost per project, velocity trends)
2. Priority 2: Cross-team capacity planning and resource allocation views
3. Priority 3: Enterprise integrations (SSO, Salesforce, Tableau)

Persona 2: Tactical Tom

Profile

• Age: 28-40
• Role: Project Manager, Product Manager, Team Lead
• Experience: 3-8 years in coordination or management
• Segment Size: 42% (168 survey respondents, 11 interviews)

Goals

1. Manage day-to-day team workflows and task assignments efficiently
2. Track progress on multiple projects without constant check-ins
3. Identify blockers early and reallocate resources quickly

Pain Points (Ranked)

1. Notification overload - “I get 80+ notifications daily—important ones get buried” (Interview #3, Survey repeated 38x)
2. Limited automation - “I manually update statuses and send reminders constantly” (Interview #9)
3. Poor filtering and search - “Finding something from 2 weeks ago takes 10 minutes” (Interview #15)

Supporting Quotes

1. “This tool is open on my screen all day. It’s my command center.” (Interview #3)
2. “I spend 30 minutes every morning triaging notifications. There has to be a better way.” (Interview #9)
3. “If you added smart automation—like ‘remind assignee if task overdue by 1 day’—I’d never leave.” (Interview #5)

Product Recommendations

1. Priority 1: Smart notification filtering (digest mode, priority levels, customizable rules)
2. Priority 2: Workflow automation (auto-reminders, status transitions, escalations)
3. Priority 3: Advanced search and filtering (saved searches, full-text, date ranges)

Persona Comparison Matrix

Evidence Trail

Persona 1: Strategic Sarah

• Interviews: #7, #12, #18, #21
• Survey filter: role IN (“Director”, “VP”, “C-suite”) AND company_size >= 200

Persona 2: Tactical Tom

• Interviews: #3, #5, #9, #11, #15, #20, #22, #24
• Survey filter: usage_frequency=“daily” AND role IN (“PM”, “Team Lead”, “Manager”)

Methodology Notes

Clustering Approach: Manual pattern recognition supplemented with frequency analysis on 400 survey responses
Sample Size: 25 interviews + 400 surveys = 425 data points
Validation: Cross-referenced interview themes with survey response patterns; ensured each persona represents 10%+ of user base