Empathizing with data

Building something useful will come much easier if you’re doing it for someone you care about, even if that’s just yourself. Try to do it for a faceless, nameless crowd, that you only know through a bulleted list of generalizations, and that you can only refer to as “them” and you’ll end up with something nobody needs, wants, or understands.

It doesn’t really matter how accurate your demographics and psychographics are, we won’t empathize with data. Show us a picture, and tell us a good story. What’s most important is that we’re always reminded that there’s someone out there that we care about, and that whatever we’re doing, we’re doing it for them.

A customer persona poster, part of a larger collection designed by Jason Travis for Mailchimp.