A customer persona template that has to show its evidence.
Most persona templates ask for a stock photo, an age and a hobby. This one asks for what changes decisions: the job, the trigger, the objections, and a real quote behind every line.
A persona is only useful if someone on the team would decide differently because of it. That rules out most of what generic templates ask for. Knowing that a buyer is 34 and enjoys hiking rarely changes a roadmap or a headline.
This template keeps the fields that do change decisions, and adds two that most leave out: the evidence behind each line, and what you still don't know. A line with no quote behind it is a guess, and the template asks you to mark it as one.
How to use it
- 01Gather real conversations for one group
Pull 8 to 12 calls, tickets, interviews or survey answers from customers who share a situation. One persona per group; don't blend everyone together.
- 02Fill each field from what they said
Write the line, then paste the quote and where it came from underneath. If two customers said it, note both.
- 03Mark the guesses
Anything without a quote goes in 'Lines that are still guesses', with a question that would settle it.
- 04Date it and revisit it
Put a date on the persona and look again each month. A persona that hasn't changed in a year is probably describing last year's customer.
Customer persona
Who they are
- Name for this group
Describe the situation, not an invented person. For example: ops leads at 20 to 200 person freight forwarders. - Role and team
- Company size and type
- How many of your customers look like this
A count or a share, and where the number comes from.
The job
- What they are trying to get done
One sentence, in their words. - What triggers them to look for help
The event that started the search. - What they use today instead of you
Include spreadsheets, people and doing nothing.
Problems
- Top three problems, ranked
Each with a quote and its source. - What the problems cost them
Time, money, risk or stress. Use their numbers if they gave any.
Decisions
- Who else is involved in buying
- What makes them say yes
- Objections they raise
The exact words they use. - What would make them leave
Language
- Words they use for the problem
- Words they never use
Your jargon that they don't share.
Evidence and gaps
- Sources this persona is built from
Number of calls, tickets and interviews, and the date range. - Lines that are still guesses
- Questions to answer next
Each with how you will find out. - Last updated
Filled in: ops leads at mid-size freight forwarders (Quayline, a fictional company)
The job
Get a delayed shipment re-booked before the customer notices.
Trigger: a carrier cancels at short notice and the team finds out from an angry email. "We heard from the client before we heard from the carrier." (Sales call, March)
Problems
1. Status lives in four tools, so nobody trusts any of them. "I check the portal, then I phone them anyway." (Support ticket #412)
2. Re-booking takes most of a morning. "Half my Tuesday goes on one container." (Interview, April)
Objections
"We tried a dashboard before. It was out of date by lunchtime." (Demo call, May)
Still a guess
That finance signs off on tools over £500 a month. Nobody has said so yet. Ask in the next two sales calls.
Tips and common mistakes
Describe a situation, not a character
"Ops leads at mid-size freight forwarders" tells you who to talk to and what to build. "Busy Barbara, 42" tells you neither, and the made-up details start to feel true.
Every line needs a source
If you can't point to who said it, it's an assumption. Assumptions are fine as long as they are labelled; it's unlabelled ones that steer roadmaps.
Fewer, sharper personas
Two or three personas that each rule something out are worth more than eight that describe everyone. If a persona would agree with every idea, it isn't doing any work.
Keep the quotes in
The quote is what convinces a sceptical colleague. A summary loses the words customers actually use, which is the part marketing and sales need most.
Or let Corha fill this in from your own data
Corha reads your calls, tickets, CRM notes and Slack, builds a cohort for each group of customers, and links every line to the quote behind it. Lines it can't back are marked as guesses, with the question that would settle each one, and it updates as new conversations come in.
Questions about the customer persona template
- What should a customer persona include?
- The fields that change decisions: who the group is and how many customers it covers, the job they are trying to get done, what triggers them to look for help, their top problems, who is involved in buying, their objections, and the words they use. Add the evidence behind each line and a list of what you still don't know.
- How many personas do I need?
- Usually two or three. Make a new one only when a group of customers would make you decide differently, for example by needing a different feature, message or price. If two personas would always agree, merge them.
- What is the difference between a persona and a segment?
- A segment is a group defined by attributes you can count, like company size or plan. A persona describes what a group is trying to do and why, so the team can predict how they would react to a decision. Good personas usually sit on top of a clear segment.
- How often should personas be updated?
- Look at them monthly and change them when the evidence changes. Date every version, so the team knows how current the picture is.
- Can AI build customer personas?
- A general chat model will invent a plausible person, which is the problem personas already have. AI is useful when it builds personas only from your own customer conversations and shows the quote behind each line, so you can check it. That is how Corha works.
A 30-minute interview script that asks about what customers did, not what they might do
Six questions, about two minutes, built to tell you what to fix
Job statement, job stories and the four forces, on one page
A one-page research plan that starts from the decision, not the method
Skip the blank page.
Start with your website and Corha drafts a first picture of your customers in about a minute. Connect your calls and tickets when you want it backed by real quotes.
Try it with your own website, no account. We read the public page and keep nothing.