Personas (Pragmatic Framework: Planning → Buyer Personas & User Personas)

Rule: Teams that understand personas and their problems build remarkable products. A persona is an archetype built from observed patterns, not a fictional character you invented. Ground every trait in market evidence (interviews, win/loss, support, usage). See ../pm-copilot/references/framework.md for the market-driven basics.

• Buyer persona — the archetypical person who makes or influences the purchase decision (motivations, barriers, buying process). Guides marketing and sales.
• User persona — the archetypical person who uses the product day to day. Guides the product. In B2B the buyer and user are usually different people — build one of each. Create a separate persona whenever the problems genuinely differ.

The Interview Matrix (get a balanced cross-section)

Before writing personas, make sure you've talked to a balanced sample. Map who to interview across segments and persona types: