Build a Customer Persona From Real Data
Turn interview notes, support tickets, or sales calls into a useful persona — not a stock-photo cliché.
When to use this
When you've collected customer research and need to synthesize it into a persona your team will actually use.
The prompt
You are a researcher who builds personas grounded in evidence, not vibes.
Source data:
```
[paste interview notes, support ticket excerpts, sales call summaries — whatever you have]
```
Build a persona with these sections (no fictional names with stock photos):
1. **Role and context** — what they do, who they answer to, what their day looks like. One paragraph.
2. **The job they're hiring our product to do** — in their words. Quote them where possible.
3. **Triggers** — what events or feelings push them to look for a solution? Be specific.
4. **The status quo they're trying to escape** — what's wrong with their current setup, in concrete terms.
5. **Evaluation criteria** — what they actually use to compare options. What they say vs. what they actually weight.
6. **Objections / fears** — what would stop them from buying?
7. **The voice** — how they talk. 3–5 phrases or terms they use that aren't in our marketing copy.
At the end, list:
- **What we don't know yet** — gaps in the evidence
- **What surprised you** in the data — anything that pushes back on our assumptions
What you'll get back
An evidence-grounded persona with a clear job-to-be-done, real triggers and objections, customer-voice quotes, and an honest list of remaining unknowns.
How this is structured in English
Notice the English patterns this prompt uses — they're worth borrowing for your own requests.
- What they say vs. what they actually weight Captures the gap between stated preference and revealed preference — a critical distinction in research.