Product personas
Creating core product personas.
Persona Purpose
Direction
Help with product decision making.
Scheduling
Help editorial teams with decisions around timing of content.
User Reference
Persona as a reference point and reminder of the users being designed for.
Understanding Behaviours
Understanding user behaviours and what features may benefit them.
Audience Strategic Segmentation
By looking at the marketing audience strategic segmentation, I was able to to identify age brackets and lifestyle criteria that would enable me to correctly ensure that the pool of users recruited to be interviewed correctly represented every type of ITV user. A screener was used to match users to each of the main ITVX genre categories of Drama, Reality, Sports, Soaps & Documentary.
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A blank template was constructed to capture all of the relevant information for each user interview.
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Age
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Name
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Life and living situation
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Description of life, job, trends followed, social schedule
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Favourite genres
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Services and apps used
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User goals
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Problems/challenges/limitations
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Hour by hour schedule for an average weekday
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Hour by hour schedule for an average Saturday
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Hour by hour schedule for an average Sunday
Alongside the basic information, the interviewees were asked:
How do you gauge what's coming up on TV/Streaming platform that you want to watch?
Do you watch trailers?
When a series has released a new episode -
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Do you need to watch the episode as soon as it's released?
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If you miss the episode, will you endeavour to catch up at the first opportunity so as to avoid spoilers?
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Would you download an episode on your phone to watch?
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If you do download episodes, which streaming platforms do you use?
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Are you conscious of spoilers?
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Will you wait until a few episodes have dropped in order to be able to watch in one sitting?
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Would you prefer to watch episodes on a TV rather than a phone or tablet?
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When looking for a new show to watch, do you rely on word of mouth, social media or another way?
Personalisation algorithms -
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Do you take part in training the algorithm by inputting a thumbs up/thumbs down on the platform?
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Do you watch trailers on YouTube or promos on Live TV?
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Do you trust recommendation rails?
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Would you be inclined to watch something if it indicated its subgenre?
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How far ahead would you be aware of a new programme you want to watch?
KEY: Green - TV, Blue - Phone/Tablet.
Initial Observations
Each interview profile was carefully studied and key behavioural observations were attributed and tagged. The tags were then listed separately and grouped by user profile, in order to be able to categorise them more clearly.
Affinity Mapping
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The tags were synthesised into groups of aligned behaviours, and then, by cross referencing the behaviour with the interview profiles they were attributed to, I was able to write insights as to what was responsible for a particular key behaviour.
Persona Brainstorm
Next the insights were synthesised into what turned out to be four main behaviourial characteristics-
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The time restricted watcher
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The background watcher
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The experience watcher
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The weekend binge watcher
From cross referencing them with the tagged personas that had contributed to the key behaviour, I was able to ascertain top level details about who these people were, their living situation,what their motivations and blockers were, and what their average week to week content interaction schedule looked like, both TV exposure and mobile phone.
Final Behavioural Personas
The Time Restricted Watcher
The Background Watcher
The Weekend Binge Watcher
The Time Restricted Watcher
Implementation - User Journey Mapping
The Time Restricted Watcher
User Needs:
I'm busy so I like to plan my TV watching around my busy schedule. I don't like to waste too much time deciding what to watch, so I research shows beforehand, and rely on word of mouth a lot. I don't like spoilers, so try to watch programmes as soon as they are out
Scenario:
She has finished work for the evening and put the kids to bed, so has a couple of hours of downtime watching TV before she needs to go to bed.
A new crime drama is starting this evening and she doesn't want to miss tonight's episode. She wants to watch it on the main TV, however there is a show on tonight that her partner also wants to watch.
How Might We...
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Create a prominent location for upcoming shows that users will frequently visit
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Expose an upcoming programme to a user on the service
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Show more relevant metadata on the homepage tile to aid in quicker decision making
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Create an easy way for user to add programme to My List from the player
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Make a user aware of the release date of a programme
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Ensure a user adds the programme to their list ready for the launch of the programme
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Give users a clear impression of what is upcoming on the service and when
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Alert users when the show is available on the platform
Opportunities
The Background Watcher
User Needs:
I like to have the TV on for most of the day when I am going about my day, for background noise/company. I want the programme to be something easy going where I can half pay attention without feeling as though I am missing any info/plot.
Scenario:
She is working from home and wants something easygoing and familiar on in the background whilst she is working. She doesn't want to have to keep getting up and changing the channel to find something suitable. She puts on a reality series.
How Might We...
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Make daytime shows more prominent during the daytime
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Create a place on the homepage for 'background boxsets' with mixed content for daytime use
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Have similar daytime shows surfaced on each shows programme page
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Create a way user can watch from beginning on the live show
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Create a way that users can curate their own viewing schedule
Opportunities
Watches for the Experience
User Needs:
I don't have a lot of free time but am very dedicated to the programmes that I like. I lives with flatmates, so doesn't always get control of the TV and therefore sometimes watches on my phone or laptop in my bedroom. I don't want to miss the programme I want to watch and hate spoilers, so will make sure that I find a way to watch it quickly and not miss out.
Scenario:
A new series of I'm a Celebrity started yesterday, and he doesn't want to miss out on watching the launch show, so he's not behind. He's been working later than expected in the office and is his commute home is taking a while. He's on social media reading all the gossip about it on his phone on the bus.
How Might We...
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Alert an interested user that programme is about start
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Surface info about show before it launches so user can add to My List in advance
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Allow seamless transition between devices without having to watch ads again
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Have a way to watch from beginning on live show if viewer is late
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Allow user to register interest of show before launch, so that show is most prominent on homepage once live
Opportunities
The Weekend Binge-Watcher
User Needs:
I'm a keen watcher of series and films but don't have a lot of time during the week to watch TV.
I like to unwind at some point during the weekend by binge-watching a series or films and getting fully immersed in it. I'm picky about what to watch, and I don't want to waste my time watching something I don't enjoy or something that doesn't spark my imagination, so I research what to watch beforehand.
Scenario:
She's been out all Saturday and has just got home and wants to relax in front of the TV and watch a gritty crime drama series she can fully immerse herself in.
She has watched a few ITV crime dramas before, and has heard about a new one from a friend that she thinks she would enjoy, but is open to trying something else.
How Might We...
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Make it easier for minimal weekday users to find suitable series for an evening or plan ahead for the weekend.
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Introduce trailers to the page to give users a feel for the series before committing to it
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Make popularity of the series more obvious(Is it in top ten, Trending )
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Bring ratings closer to BBFC which users are more familiar with
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Promote similar series on the page (ie Other crime dramas)
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Introduce trusted ratings such as IMDB, Match score or some form of ITV user rating
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Introduce more detailed metadata around a series to help boost SEO
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Bring in Cast/ Crew information about the series
Opportunities
Insights and Learnings
These Personas were designed to be built upon. With more time, I would have liked to match the personas with Amplitude data that matched each cohort. This would develop the personas into a fully qual and quant user research initiative, and would therefore be even more accurate with regards to scheduling, and device split.