Who The Heck Is A Millennial?
Millennial on the phone in a coffee shop by @austindistel via Unsplash.
My target audience is a millennial.
That an answer I hear most from design students when they describe their target audience. The problem with that answer is that it’s incredibly vague and unhelpful. For instance, I’m a millennial, and I’m 35 years old. I’m also a professional designer, adjunct professor, and working towards a master’s degree. More than my work, I hope to be a decent husband to my wife, pay attention to what’s spiritual, and nurture lifelong friendships. In addition to all of that, I own a house that came with a stray outdoor cat. Go ahead and compare me to a millennial who is about to graduate college. There’s no doubt that our lives are drastically different (except for the cat, maybe). Our life ambitions and every day challenges are not the same. Therefore, whatever solution you are working toward to serve a millennial is probably aiming toward way too broad of an audience. It’s time to get specific on the unique human beings who you are attempting to serve via design.
One way to do that is to develop a persona. A persona is a fictitious character who represents the people who you are trying to reach. Chances are, you will need multiple personas. However, it’s better to start with one well-developed persona than none at all.
In an ideal world, your persona would be built off of insights gained from connecting with real people, in real life, who are in your target audience. That means leaving the computer and talking to people. Surveys are okay, but they are not a silver bullet (not even close). Use them to discover the people who you need to talk to most. [1] I understand that you may not have time to do a survey and set up interviews. Okay, that’s fine. Where does your audience exist? Can you go to that place and observe them in action? Perhaps, you could strike up a conversation with the complete stranger? Don’t have time for that? Who in your family, church, or rotary club can you talk to that can give you insights or connect you to others who can? Basically, don’t be lazy. Talking to one person is better than talking to yourself because you are a terrible target audience for your project.
Now that you’ve had some proximity with your people, it’s time to write a persona. Traditionally, I’ve started with the necessary details like name, age, job, gender, relationship and kid status, income, where they get their news. Those are pretty unhelpful for the most part, although they begin to paint a picture. Next, I articulate their ambitions. What do they want from life, their job, the relationships, etc.? Then, I write down their challenges. What hurdles are in the way? What difficulties are they experiencing? Finally, what are some solutions that your lovely product, experience, or service can potentially offer? Or, at the very least, what’s the best message for that persona group?
Lately, I’ve started to go a little bit deeper into the challenges and solutions categories with the nudging of my friend/colleague Brayton Deal at Iron House Studios. Now, I ponder the internal, external, and philosophical problems. Followed by solutions that correspond to those specific areas.[2] It’s pretty amazing how far that extra level of detail will go to help you help your Millennials. Once you dive into ambitions, challenges, and solutions, the light bulbs will start to go off. Some call this empathy. It’s what happens when you step into someone else’s shoes and see the world, even a glimpse, from their perspective. In other words, and as Brayton always reminds me, begin to look at the persona as the hero. Your product, service, or experience is but a vehicle or tool for their journey.
Below is an example of the persona exercise that I use in my messaging and strategy workshop with clients.[3] I’ve filled out the worksheet so that you can have a better sense of how to answer the questions (the persona is based on me and the “service” is the MDes program at DAAP). There’s no right way to do this exactly. Try it out. See what works. I encourage you to borrow the exercise from me as I have from others. Hopefully, it’s helpful. But, remember, it will never be as beneficial as connecting with real people. Try to start there. Also? How about considering people that are a different age, race, nationality, religion, etc., while you’re at it?
References:
[1] I feel like I need to give the book Just Enough Research credit here.
[2] I’m pretty sure Brayton got his ideas from Storybrand.
[3] Many thanks to Jose Caballer for sharing his workshop tools.