/persona-generator

name: persona-generator
description: "Create research-backed buyer personas that drive real marketing and product decisions. Combine Buyer Personas methodology with Jobs-to-be-Done to build profiles based on actual behavior, not demographics fiction. Use when: **Starting customer discovery** to define who you're validating with; **Marketing campaign planning** to target the right messages to right people; **Content strategy** to create content that resonates with specific audiences; **Product roadmap prioritization** to build fea..."
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: ClawFu
  version: 1.0.0
  mcp-server: "@clawfu/mcp-skills"

Persona Generator

> Create research-backed buyer personas that drive real marketing and product decisions. Combine Buyer Personas methodology with Jobs-to-be-Done to build profiles based on actual behavior, not demographics fiction.

When to Use This Skill

• **Starting customer discovery** to define who you're validating with
• **Marketing campaign planning** to target the right messages to right people
• **Content strategy** to create content that resonates with specific audiences
• **Product roadmap prioritization** to build features for real users
• **Sales enablement** to help sales understand who they're talking to
• **Team alignment** to get everyone speaking the same customer language

Methodology Foundation

| Aspect | Details | |--------|---------| | **Source** | Adele Revella - "Buyer Personas" (2015) + Clayton Christensen - Jobs-to-be-Done | | **Core Principle** | "Buyer personas built on real research reveal the thinking behind buying decisions—not just demographics, but motivations, anxieties, and decision criteria." | | **Why This Matters** | Most personas are demographic fiction ("Marketing Mary, 35, likes yoga"). Useful personas explain WHY someone buys—their anxieties, trigger events, and decision process. |

What Claude Does vs What You Decide

| Claude Does | You Decide | |-------------|------------| | Structures production workflow | Final creative direction | | Suggests technical approaches | Equipment and tool choices | | Creates templates and checklists | Quality standards | | Identifies best practices | Brand/voice decisions | | Generates script outlines | Final script approval |

What This Skill Does

1. **Generates research-based personas** - Built on behavior, not demographics 2. **Identifies buying triggers** - What events cause someone to seek a solution 3. **Maps decision criteria** - What factors drive the purchase decision 4. **Surfaces anxieties and barriers** - What stops them from buying 5. **Documents the buyer's journey** - How they research and decide 6. **Creates actionable segments** - Personas that drive real decisions

How to Use

Generate Personas from Customer Interviews

I've completed [X] customer interviews. Here are my notes: [summary]
Generate buyer personas using the Buyer Personas + JTBD methodology.
Focus on buying triggers, decision criteria, and anxieties.

Create Hypothesis Personas (Pre-Research)

I'm building [product] for [market].
Generate hypothesis personas I should validate through customer discovery.
Include questions to ask to validate each persona.

Analyze and Improve Existing Personas

Here are our current personas: [paste personas]
Analyze them against best practices.
What's missing? What questions should we research to make them useful?

Instructions

When generating personas, follow this evidence-based methodology:

Step 1: Understand What Makes Personas Useful

## The Persona Problem

### BAD Personas (Demographic Fiction)
"Marketing Mary"
- Age: 35
- Income: $80K
- Lives in suburbs
- Likes yoga and organic food
- Uses Instagram

**Why this fails:**
- Describes demographics, not motivations
- Doesn't explain why she would buy
- Can't drive marketing/product decisions
- Could describe millions of people

### GOOD Personas (Behavioral/JTBD-Based)
"The Overwhelmed First-Timer"
- **Trigger:** Just got promoted to manager, now responsible for [task]
- **Job-to-be-Done:** Make me look competent to my boss
- **Current Behavior:** Using spreadsheets, asking colleagues, stressed
- **Decision Criteria:** Easy to learn, makes me look good, won't fail publicly
- **Anxiety:** "What if I choose wrong and look incompetent?"

**Why this works:**
- Explains what triggered the search
- Reveals what they're really hiring the product to do
- Shows how they decide
- Surfaces what might stop them
- Drives specific marketing and product decisions

---

Step 2: The Five Rings of Buying Insight

## Adele Revella's Five Rings

### Ring 1: PRIORITY INITIATIVE
**What event triggered their search?**

Questions to research:
- What was the trigger event?
- Why now vs. 6 months ago?
- What finally made this urgent?
- What was the breaking point?

Example insight:
"They start looking when they get a new boss who asks 'why don't we have...' or when a competitor does something that makes them look behind."

---

### Ring 2: SUCCESS FACTORS
**What outcome are they trying to achieve?**

Questions to research:
- What does success look like?
- How will they measure results?
- What would make them a hero internally?
- What would make them regret the decision?

Example insight:
"They don't actually want [product feature]. They want to be seen as innovative by their CEO while not risking a high-profile failure."

---

### Ring 3: PERCEIVED BARRIERS
**What could stop them from buying?**

Questions to research:
- What concerns came up during evaluation?
- What almost made them walk away?
- What would cause them to delay?
- What do they fear will go wrong?

Example insight:
"Their biggest fear isn't that it won't work—it's that their team won't use it and they'll have wasted budget on something that sits unused."

---

### Ring 4: DECISION CRITERIA
**How do they evaluate options?**

Questions to research:
- What features/capabilities are must-haves?
- How do